setting up cable router to work with homeplugs

[carbandit]

hello guys not sure about this so need your help here ...im on virgin cable and have a wireless network set-up but i have a workshop in my rear garden and my wireless connection drops and loses strength . so i bought a pair of zyxel homeplugs but cannot get them to work ...ive tried using them without my router and there great {brilliant speeds and no loss of connection }.my question is . there any way to use a wireless router and homeplugs at the same time ??? thanks in advance guys

lynksys router...

zyxel homeplugs

[cactikid]

home plugs will only work on the same ring,if your on a different one no connection,so 1 in workshop and if you can find the same ring in house plug into that,you will need it connected from router to plug to go through the house wiring and every other gizmo you connect to other mains hopefully gets a connection.sometimes you need a number of home plugs to join 2 different rings.

[Egren71]

I have set a member of my family up on virgin with a router and homeplugs, although all different models to you, and it worked fine.
When you say it works fine without your router are you trying to connect from near your router to your workshop to test them or are you trying to connect between plug sockets near each other, say in the same or adjacent rooms.
What i would do is check and see if it works router included, say all on the same floor or even in the same room, without your trying to get to your workshop. Just to prove it is set up correctly.
Once you have it working in one room or on one floor then plug it in to your workshop.
As cactikid says homeplugs only work if all the devices are one one phase of your mains, which usually if you are in a domestic dwelling you would be. But they can also be affected by anything they pass through such as extension cables that have smoothing circuitry. The only thing i can think of that might be different and have an effect in a workshop would be possibly if your workshop is connected through an RCD (Residual Current Device) to your mains.
It might be worth checking to see if your workshop is on a different fusebox to where your router is plugged in as this might mean it is on a different phase.
I have done a quick search on the internet and it appears that RCD's do affect homeplugs some people claim that they can't get a signal across them and some say it has an effect but does not stop them working. Maybe your system is more fussy or maybe you have more than just an RCD in you workshop wiring.
Regardless the first thing i would do is make sure the system works when all devices are close to each other and then move them further apart.

[carbandit]

got it going guys thanks ...ps on a side note im getting 100 mbps and the homeplugs are capable of 200 mbps is there any way i can acheive these speeds or is it down to my pc /cable modem etc ??

[Egren71]

Probably not down to your cable modem as the speed of your internet connection is probably only 10 or 20 Meg or whatever speed you pay for.
What would set your speed would be your router and your network cards in the devices you connect to the homeplugs. Wired network devices normally come in 10/100 and 1000 (Gigabit) speeds. So you would only get anything faster within you house anyway. And probably you router is only a 100Meg device although if your computers are newish they might have Gigabit cards. The overall speed is set by the slowest device in the chain.