[Gaming] Powerline adapters vs WiFi Extender?

[DavidDesu]

I've used powerline adapters for my gaming connection for years now, same device even, and had zero issues. Obviously the wiring probably shouldn't be early 1900s era. I've used it in an older tenement flat in the UK and it tripped the electricity circuit once or twice but then worked fine for ages. Now in my 60s/70s built high rise block of flats I've used it without issue.

In Rocket League, the only game I really play online I get ping around the 33 to 40ms mark on my fibre broadband connection. Best ping I've gotten doing speedtests using my iPad or phone in my flat has been maybe 20ms just for reference. 33ms is absolutely fine for my gaming needs.

Edit: I like the reliability of the connection and knowing the mass of WiFi devices in my home won't interfere, which definitely seems to be a thing when my girlfriend is streaming TV and downloading apps in the other room, for the brief periods I've tried playing my PS4 over wifi.

Edit 2: I use TP link adapters, the ones with the plug socket on the outside so you're not losing a socket. Must be literally 5/6 years and still going strong. Streaming 4K60 YouTube etc no problem, mines are 200Mbps ones.

 

[LiK]

Powerline Adapters for sure. Used them for years. I don't use wifi for MP games.

 

[Lunatic]

I used Powerline. It was fantastic.

However once we moved into a new place we found it out didn't work upstairs if the router/modem was connected downstairs, something about the two floors being on seperate power circuits.

 

[Zafir]

Powerline adapters are better if they work. As others have said they're very dependant on your house is wired though. You also may need to test a few sockets in your house to see which works best.

I've also found some of them to be kind of tempramental. The TP-Link ones were just useless to me, they'd basically drop connection if there wasn't much activity on the network. In my case it'd happen while I was playing a single player game but was on voice chat or if I was browsing pages without many big images etc. Some kind of power saving i figure but only seems to trigger on certain wiring. It was a common issue for a lot of people, and it was on quite a number of their models, and a few from other manufacturers too. That was a few years back though, I dunno if they've finally fixed that issue. I hope they have, it makes looking for powerline adapters a nightmare since I basically had to try and figure out which ones had that faulty chip in them to avoid them.

 

[Ohri-Jin]

I use a TP Powerline kit and it is totally worth it. Works mostly like a charm.

 

[Youngfossil]

MoCa or get a better router. Trust me a really good router (literally) goes a long way

 

[Gabbo]

I use a TP Powerline kit and it is totally worth it. Works mostly like a charm.

Click to shrink...

Yep, I have the TP-Link Powerline Adapter AV2000 for my apartment due to some weird placements for outlets/cabling and it works wonders. Much better than wifi even here in this small place

 

[MikeE21286]

powerline adapters are always the better route of those two

I would recommend that you look into mesh wifi instead of either of those.

 

[Rolodzeo]

I've been using a powerline setup at home for years now and I couldn't be happier. Zero hassle, instant connection, neglibible performance impact... good stuff.

 

[Mesoian]

You really gotta check your wiring before you commit to powerline. I tried a powerline set up in my apartment and it ended up tripping the breakers after about 15 minutes. It puts a lot of noise on the line that some breaker boxes can't handle.

If you can get one at local retail to try and return it if it doesn't work, it's worth a shot.

 

[Nostremitus]

My powerline works best if the two outlets are on the same breaker. Otherwise, I get better results from WiFi.

 

[Ohri-Jin]

powerline adapters are always the better route of those two

I would recommend that you look into mesh wifi instead of either of those.

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Mesh is hella expensive though. My Powerline set was only 40 bucks. :P

Yep, I have the TP-Link Powerline Adapter AV2000 for my apartment due to some weird placements for outlets/cabling and it works wonders. Much better than wifi even here in this small place

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It is honestly one of my best purchases ever. Only 40 bucks as well. I also recommended it to my friend and it is miles better than wifi repeaters. Wifi repeaters are pure headaches and fluctuations are just insane.

Fun fact: I found out about Powerline adapters because of an online forum and someone commented about it. I never knew it even existed before that. Thank God for the internet!

 

[Deleted member 7148]

I was thinking about this very topic the other day. My wife and I have another baby on the way and I'm going to have to give up my office room for the baby. I plan on turning a spot in our dining room into a little computer desk area for my gaming PC but there's no way I can run ethernet cables in there unless I run them through the attic, which sounds like a massive pain in the ass.

I was thinking either go Google WiFi and hardwire my PC to one of the pucks (which isn't a total fix but better than a crappy wifi card picking up the signal) or trying powerline adapters. I think I'll probably end up going the cables through the attic route though since it's cheaper and more reliable -- just a lot more work.

 

[riotous]

Any chance you have coax cable in both rooms? If so, MoCA adapters might be an option, but you'd want to put a filter upstream from those two rooms. If all of the rooms in the building feed into a main wiring closet, MoCA may not be an option.

Click to shrink...

Huh.. I'm about to cancel my cable service... does that mean I can replace my powerline adapters and get better wired through my house with these MoCA adapters?

 

[AaronMT]

I use power line to get ethernet to my desktop from a modem and router on a separate floor on the other side of the house. It's faster than WiFi but not as fast as direct connection to the modem obviously. I use D-Link AV2 Gigabit something. Downside is losing two power sockets in your house as you can not use these on power-strips.

 

[nihilence]

I would like to research this more.

 

[Kotze282]

I've happily used Powerline for years with great results, then our landlord had some work done on the fuse box which fucked it all up. :(

 

[cyress8]

Powerline has worked great for me. Four around the house and work perfectly.

 

[exodus]

Powerline depends heavily on the wiring. I'd guess it would be absolutely horrible in my house since the majority of the upstairs goes through a single breaker.

That being said, Wi-Fi extenders are absolutely terrible and half your Wi-Fi speeds and essentially double your latency. I'd avoid them at all cost. There are good mesh solutions out there, but they're out of your budget.

Try powerline first, it's the only thing that has a chance at working within your budget outside of wiring directly.

 

[exodus]

Thanks for all the suggestion everyone, I would honestly love to get mesh, but my budget is $45 due to the fact that this is a temporary housing situation that is honestly just a few more months, but I have taken the replies into consideration when I move out.


I'm using 5Ghz and I use PC, I do have a PS4/XBox One but I don't then to use them that much

Click to shrink...

You should try on the 2.4GHz band first. It has far longer ranger than 5GHz. It's not great for jitter, but that would likely mostly be noticeable if you ever did any game streaming (i.e. Steamlink). For general online play, you might still be fine.

 

[Arrakis]

Same boat computer at the 2nd floor , ps4 media room in the basement , tried a wifi extender , still ended up with a weak signal , powerline adapter crushed it and I haven't had a weak signal since

 

[TheLoCoRaven]

I got Eero Pro wifi mesh system. Has 3 router/access points and they each have 2 ethernet ports. If you do wifi you'll want a mesh system like that for a dedicated backplane and what not. I have a 3 story house and a big yard. I easily get a strong signal everywhere.

 

[Accoun]

Here's an example product: https://smile.amazon.com/Actiontec-Bonded-Ethernet-Adapter-ECB6200K02/dp/B013J7O3X0
Scanning ebay, there are some pre-owned/open box MoCA adapters that would fit into your price range, but feasibility would depend on how the coax cabling is configured in your building.

Click to shrink...

Not them, but interesting. Are there Euro-compatible equivalents, or is the wiring standard different (or whatever would make it impossible).

 

[megashock5]

I got a set of powerline adaptor a few years ago and they worked great at first, then terribly a few months later. Called the company, we did some troubleshooting and they determined they were defective and sent replacements. Those worked for a while and then the same results. I gave up and moved my router closer.

 

[mistur niceguy]

Huh.. I'm about to cancel my cable service... does that mean I can replace my powerline adapters and get better wired through my house with these MoCA adapters?

Click to shrink...

You can actually run them now, assuming you have cable TV service and not satellite. MoCA runs Ethernet signals at a frequency outside of the range used by cable TV and DOCSIS internet service, so it can share the same cabling (satellite TV will often use frequencies that MoCA uses, causing conflicts). If you have a DOCSIS gateway supplied by your ISP, it could already have MoCA capabilities built-in. Take a look at the coax input port on the gateway and see if it has a MoCA label. If so, you should only need one MoCA adapter to run Ethernet to another room that shares the same coax wiring. If you look at most MoCA Ethernet adapters, they'll have a splitter built into them, but DOCSIS gateways with MoCA support often use the same coax port for both DOCSIS signaling and MoCA. A typical cabling layout using MoCA adapters would look like this:

Wall --> MoCA Adapter --> Cable Modem or Cable TV Set Top Box

You'll just want to make sure that any splitters you have in between the MoCA adapters support MoCA frequencies (Amazon has them for a good price), and that you put a Point of Entry MoCA filter on the coax coming into your house. That will block MoCA signals from leaving your home, as well as prevent MoCA signals from other homes that didn't put a filter on from interfering with your adapters.

I'm a big fan of MoCA Ethernet adapters. Many homes that don't have Cat5/6 cabling installed will often have coax cabling available in many rooms, especially in the living room next to the TV and any gaming consoles. It's a great option for a high quality wired connection for gaming. Powerline is a good option for some as well, but a key difference between the technologies is that Powerline relies on cabling that's capable of carrying a communications signal, versus MoCA leveraging cabling that's designed to carry a communications signal.

 

[Ragnorok64]

Just run a long Ethernet cable. Screw your roommates.

 

[mistur niceguy]

I'm using 5Ghz and I use PC, I do have a PS4/XBox One but I don't then to use them that much

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If you do end up going the route of purchasing a different router in the future, I'd recommend looking at models that support DFS channels for 5GHz. You might be able to catch a good holiday deal this year on a Netgear R7800, which supports DFS. Assuming that you're living in a dorm or apartment environment, there's going to be a lot over overlap between wireless networks, even for 5GHz. That's where DFS makes a big difference.

DFS support on a wireless router allows it to operate in channels that are prioritized for non-WiFi communications, typically weather radar. So as long as you aren't near an airport/airfield, there will be a large chunk of wireless spectrum in 5GHz that is often wide open for DFS-certified devices to operate in. Do note that not all wireless clients support connecting to 5GHz DFS channels, so you would want to see if you can find information on the wireless chipset in your PC to confirm it supports connecting to DFS channels.

 

[mistur niceguy]

This sounds interesting but how do I use that when my uplink is also cable? The ports are already used in one room for the modem.

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That's the beauty of MoCA: it's designed to share the same coax cable with cable TV and DOCIS internet service. MoCA Ethernet signaling operates in a frequency range outside of DOCSIS and cable TV (but some satellite TV overlaps, preventing you from sharing coax with MoCA and some satellite TV service). There's even some DOCSIS gateways that use a single coax port for both DOCSIS internet service and MoCA signaling.

So a typical cabling layout in your living room would be:

Wall --> MoCA adapter --> Cable TV set top box

And at your cable modem (assuming it's not a gateway that already has MoCA support):

Wall --> MoCA adapter --> DOCSIS modem

 

[Deleted member 20297]

That's the beauty of MoCA: it's designed to share the same coax cable with cable TV and DOCIS internet service. MoCA Ethernet signaling operates in a frequency range outside of DOCSIS and cable TV (but some satellite TV overlaps, preventing you from sharing coax with MoCA and some satellite TV service). There's even some DOCSIS gateways that use a single coax port for both DOCSIS internet service and MoCA signaling.

So a typical cabling layout in your living room would be:

Wall --> MoCA adapter --> Cable TV set top box

And at your cable modem (assuming it's not a gateway that already has MoCA support):

Wall --> MoCA adapter --> DOCSIS modem

Click to shrink...

Thanks, I already read about it a little bit more. It's going to be complicated in Germany though because MoCa uses frequencies we usually filter in Germany, thus the ports in the wall might not be compatible, let alone our modems. But the tech is definitely interesting.
Which data rates can be achieved by this typically?

 

[OrangeNova]

Powerline is incredible for me, and I live in an apartment.

 

[cakely]

I have never had any success with a Wi-fi extender, so I can't recommend that.

There's no way for you to run an ethernet cable?

 

[DJ_Lae]

Powerline adapters were great for me until they weren't - and I even initially thought they went bad and got a second pair.

Still have no idea what we added or changed to the circuit to cause a problem, but it went from being flawless for years to ~5kbps and constant drops.

Google Wifi solved it since. People complain about wireless latency, but I haven't had a problem there for ages. If you introduce a wireless extender, however, that will cause problems as you'll be piggybacking off a second network connected to your first. I had one of those but gave up on it and it was relegated to making a wired printer wireless.

 

[mistur niceguy]

Thanks, I already read about it a little bit more. It's going to be complicated in Germany though because MoCa uses frequencies we usually filter in Germany, thus the ports in the wall might not be compatible, let alone our modems. But the tech is definitely interesting.
Which data rates can be achieved by this typically?

Click to shrink...

It's not uncommon to hit ~500-850Mbps.

 

[Sprat]

Hey Era,

I have an issue, I recently had to switch rooms and noticed my connection is just awful. Getting D/ced a lot especially when I'm gaming.
I live in student housing so I can replace the modem, nor can I really move it.

I want to avoid using a large ethernet cable just because my room mates are not okay with that.
What options are good for me? I've been looking at powerline adapters, specifically the TP Link AV600 but should I consider something else like a wifi extender or a used router? I'd say $40 is my max limit, $35 if possible

Click to shrink...

Get the 1200 and use cat5e cables if your connection speed is above 70mb

I had the 600 and could only get 60mb max moved to the 1200 and i get the full 200

 

[Ryuun]

I use a powerline adapter for my switch, and it works pretty well. Only get like 20Mb down, though, vs 50 from my Xbox using ethernet into the router. Part of that may be the usb adapter for switch, though.

I've tried the wifi extenders and have never had good luck with them.

 

[Malajax]

Just moved into a new place and roommate is looking for a solution. We have 500 mb/s down and wifi gets about 100 of that. Tried a powerline adapter in the house and got around 50 mb/s. Solid connection, but nowhere near advertised speeds.

Still looking for a solution.

 

[h0mebas3]

Fuck, why I've never thought about this

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As a network guy, I concur about MoCA adapters. Before I ran fiber in my house, I used them and saw 850Mbps in an iperf test sustained throughput with 900Mbps being the maximum observed.