hi guys I am trying to stream from PC in my upstairs bedroom to PS3 downstairs in lounge. I am using homeplugs but PS3 is taking around 15 seconds to buffer a MP3 & another 15 secs between tracks To test, I have brought PC downstairs & set up next to PS3 & connected up homeplugs opposite sides of the lounge - result was PS3 taking around 4 seconds to buffer...not instant like I hoped (I can get near enough instant if I connect both PS3 & PC via ethernet direct to router) but something I can live with. Next connected up PC in room across hall way next to lounge (around 6 mtrs away from PS3)...results again back up 15 seconds I have unplugged cordless phones - no difference. I live in a house around 20 years old so would hope wiring is OK. What else can I do to improve this performance ?

check to make sure you have no continuity between the common and ground wires. You can buy a plug tester. It has the three prongs and lights that show if wired correctly. BTW I believe the home plugs are 10mb at best. Also note from your test I would suspect better performance on the same ciruit instead of seperate circuits. Different is the same ground wire in a circuit vs ground going to circuit panel/breaker box and then to the other circuits ground wire.

Test it in the same room. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10

He did test in the same room so your suggestion is unclear.

I've never seen a power line adapter better than 6mbps. This should still be fast enough, but is one of the pieces of equipment in an addition that was built onto the house later? The only problem I ever ran into with powerline adapters was in a house where one end was in an added addition and it actually had a separate breaker box. I don't know how you'd get around that. But wireless access points acting as bridges might give you better performance. I'd suggest N for the best performance and speed. N may not be ratified yet, but it's close enough that I'd think at this point for full ratification compliance it wouldn't take anything more than a firmware update. Assume that I already did an Internet search.

Sorry, I missed that. Test it maybe with two computers. The adapters come with software that helps setup and show quality of service and speeds better. It may offer a clue. See also taskman for link speeds. It may be that other data is taking up too much headroom. Also the packet size might be too small. Might have to view with wireshark or get detailed link information another way. As above, the speeds tend to be slower than rated. Some are as low as 6M but up to 200M or so. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10

Cheers for your guys. i am thinking the only way around is is take a 30 mtr ethernet cable up thru loft & down to lounge. Will i see any less performance with a cable of that length ??