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The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => Other D-Link Products => DHP-500AV => Topic started by: hdkeyser on December 07, 2011, 04:30:50 PM

Title: Problems connecting rooms from main electrical panel to subpanel
Post by: hdkeyser on December 07, 2011, 04:30:50 PM
Hi, I bought the DHP-501 starter kit and I can get connectivity to a few rooms and non at all to others.  I was told these devices would work across a main panel and a sub panel.  Is this true as my testing has not confirmed this?

Thanks...Kent
Title: Re: Problems connecting rooms from main electrical panel to subpanel
Post by: psproule on January 08, 2012, 08:55:19 AM
Hi, I bought the DHP-501 starter kit and I can get connectivity to a few rooms and non at all to others.  I was told these devices would work across a main panel and a sub panel.  Is this true as my testing has not confirmed this?

Thanks...Kent

We are having similar problems. We bought this system to try alleviate some of the load on our Apple Airport Extreme. We have 4 Apple TV's, 3 iPhones, 2 iPads, and 5 computers all accessing the wireless network. We were finding that often the Apple TV could not buffer enough information to continue playing and would timeout its connection, so thought the DHP-500AV may be a good solution to "hardwire" the network connection. 

Our house is about 6000 square feet and contains a main electrical panel and a sub panel.  The Apple TVs we are having the most problems with are in the basement and on the sub panel. The DSL connection comes in on the main level and power outlets are on the main panel.  Although there is ethernet wiring through the main floor, there is little in the basement. 

I was able to get connectivity in all rooms, although the connection speeds varied greatly.  I did some testing. I found if I connected both the main incoming network unit and the link on the same circuit, the connection was very fast. If I connected the incoming network unit and the link on different breakers but on the same panel, it was fast ("green") to average ("green" or "amber"), depending on the distance of power wires. For example, one outlet was about 100' from the incoming network unit and was amber while another was about 70' and was green.

As soon as I crossed panels, the connection speed degraded quickly. The incoming network unit was on the main panel and the link on the sub panel and speed dropped to "red".  I used my laptop and speedtest.net to check the variations in speeds.

I'm surmising that as soon as you cross between the main and sub panels you get a significant speed reduction.  I played with different power outlets on various circuits and (luckily) was able to find one in the "amber" or average speed to connect one Apple TV. It seemed that circuits closer to the main panel (less wiring) were faster.  Unfortunately, this doesn't help us much because we can't easily change the electrical circuitry or add ethernet cabling, so it makes this system difficult to deal with.

RCA manufacturers a similar system. We're considering trying it to see if there is any difference in the signal quality and speeds.

Good luck!