Powerline G.hn vs AV2 discussions

[Rhialto]

Now that my both my sons have a computer but no ethernet cable in the walls and WiFi is not optimal in their room, I was looking at poweline adapters. It's at that moment I've leanred about the new G.hn specification which seems to be an improvement over AV2 but strangely enough this specification is not totally new (in fact it's even old but I never heard of it before looking for a powerline adapter) and popular companies like D-Link, TRENDnet, TP-Link, Netgear still don't offer G.hn adapters. Companies that offer G.hn are Zyxel, Comtrend and sister company Nexuslink.

No wonder it's hard to find a comparison between AV2 and G.hn powerline adapters. If anyone tested both I'd like to get your opinion. Even SNB don't have recent reviews about this. Is it because AV2 is cheaper and dominate the market?

 

[Tucu]

Look for reviews of the Devolo Magic (a family G.hn adapters from a German company). You wil find several comparisons with AV2 adapters. Probably still to expensive compared to their somehow slower AV2 cousins.

 

[Rhialto]

Look for reviews of the Devolo Magic (a family G.hn adapters from a German company). You wil find several comparisons with AV2 adapters. Probably still to expensive compared to their somehow slower AV2 cousins.

I remember seeing those but could not find over here in Canada.

 

[thiggins]

Powerline technology never really caught on in the US as a consumer networking product. It took too long to converge on one standard and the low-speed first generation version was too slow for too long.

G.hn was a late-comer to powerline networking and had an even smaller adoption.

Powerline and G.hn are mostly used in hospitality/campus applications, not consumer. They are niche technologies, like MoCA.

 

[Rhialto]

Powerline technology never really caught on in the US as a consumer networking product. It took too long to converge on one standard and the low-speed first generation version was too slow for too long.

G.hn was a late-comer to powerline networking and had an even smaller adoption.

Powerline and G.hn are mostly used in hospitality/campus applications, not consumer. They are niche technologies, like MoCA.

Sad because of this there is hardly any comparison to find online.

I was tired of reading reviews here and there about all the current AV2 offers and decided yesterday to buy 4 different packs and test them all and will only keep the best performer. I only wish I had a G.hn available too but hard to find here in Canada.

 

[thiggins]

Good luck with your tests. You can find the last AV2 reviews I did here.

Rankers - SmallNetBuilder

www.smallnetbuilder.com

 

[Rhialto]

A quick update on this topic of mine, my test have me kept the D-Link AV2 2000 from the picture above, the one which gave me the best results.

Today I was able to get my hands on G.hn devices (which may be hard to get in Canada) and as a bonus, which I was also looking for with AV2 but couldn't find, it also offers WiFi.

After some testing the best results came from the G.hn setup. To give you some numbers, the download went from roughly 50 Mbps to over 60 only but the upload from below 20 to over 50 which is the max we can get anyway from our ISP.

Then I disconnected the Ethernet cable and switched to 5GHz Wifi instead and to my surprise the download went from over 60 to over 90! So now that I wasn't tied to a power socket in my son's room anymore, I moved the module in the hallway and now I was getting 110 Mbps! Pretty impressive results. Always remember that it's a good idea to try different power sockets, sometime the line is shorter or more straight and it can make a great difference. The WiFi module also fixed a huge problem of having Wifi from our ASUS router in the basement reaches my son's room for his Macbook without Ethernet, he was complaining a lot and had to do his homework anywhere else than his room but now all is fine with a strong signal and great speeds.

Hope this help anyone looking for using such devices.

 

[Ramz]

Hello I bought the Nexuslink GPL G.hn powerline plugs and when I did a speed test I got lower speeds than my old TP-link 2000 Mbps ones. I was getting 200 mbps with TP-Link, and now with the new ones I only get 70mbps. I thought the new ones would've been a big improvement over the TP-link .

 

[Rhialto]

Hello I bought the Nexuslink GPL G.hn powerline plugs and when I did a speed test I got lower speeds than my old TP-link 2000 Mbps ones. I was getting 200 mbps with TP-Link, and now with the new ones I only get 70mbps. I thought the new ones would've been a big improvement over the TP-link .

Hi,

I guess it all depends on setup behind the walls. I would do some more testing and keep the best one. I've been told that G.hn was more popular in hospitals and some corporate while AV2 in homes.

 

[sfx2000]

G.hn was a late-comer to powerline networking and had an even smaller adoption.

Still seeing GH.n out there and somewhat active, mostly in vertical installs - cable operators, large sites, etc...

DishNetwork, for example, is moving away from MOCA, and more towards GH.n in their installs these days...

Customer devices - One can buy the adapters off the shelf - Commtrend, Develo, Zyxel, Arris...

GH.n, if I recall, is still somewhat active in development, in that new chipsets come online from time to time (Maxlinear most recently), whereas HomePlug AV, both on spec development as well as chipsets, is a bit of a dead-end.

Also note that GH.n isn't just over powerline - it can be over twisted-pair phone lines, coax, optical fiber, etc... which is likely the reason why we see this in the operator space..

 

[RangerZ]

I've been looking at these too, and disappointed to here these numbers.

FWIW, I have 2 sets of TP-Link Powerline adapters, the PA7017 and PA9020s. On the the same circuit I get 150Mbps with the 7017 and 250Mbps with the 9020. On opposite sides of the panel I get about 50 and 70 respectively.