Powerline Ethernet Adapters - can they be used like repeaters?

Question

I'm helping a colleague with their home network. They want to be able to use a couple of wireless laptops anywhere in the house. The wireless router from BT covers the study and the lounge, and a wireless access point plugged into a powerline ethernet adapter covers the kitchen and another room. However, the wireless is only barely available either upstairs or in their games room.

They have a very (very) large house, and while they have previously purchased a pair or powerline ethernet adapters to take the connection from the study to the kitchen (which works fine), trying to move the second powerline adapter further round the house, or upstairs, results in an increasingly intermittent connection the further away it gets. I tried it by keeping a constant ping going to google.com (on a laptop connected to the powerline adapter), and plugging the adapter in to different power sockets round the house. I could almost trace the path their mains power took round the house by taking note of how weak the connection was (how many packets were lost) as I went.

They don't want to get the house fitted with wired ethernet, so instead of setting up a number of wireless repeaters, is it possible to just space out some more powerline ethernet adapters around the house to increase the strength of the connection by the time it gets upstairs? Does it work in that way?

Answer 1

might be a question for dlink or linksys or who ever the vendor of the units is; but my understanding of powerline is that for optimum use the units would need to be on the same physical circuit. so if different parts of the house are on a different circuit breaker that may be where the loss is occuring.