Hey yall, I’ve moved into a new house where a physical ethernet connection to my main gaming PC (floor above the router) might not be an option. Running a cable is not feasible as there is only hardwood flooring throughout the house, and I’m nowhere near handy enough to install an RJ45 outlet through the wall. I’ve considered paying a contractor or handyman, but I’m not sure of that cost versus just buying a Powerline Adapter and winging it.
I’m looking into Powerline Adapters and want to make sure I get the best one possible that can carry my gigabit connection. (Well, realistically 800-ish mpbs, not like you always get gigabit with FiOS)
Any recommendations on a good adapter? I used an old Netgear adapter two apartments ago (back in early 2010’s) and it was…eh. Not sure if that was because of the apartment’s wiring or if it was just a shitty adapter.
Also, curious of any downsides to powerline networking. Should I expect an increase in lag/ping? What are the downsides versus just using a long ethernet cable.
As PowerLine uses household AC as a carrier signal, that means you can’t send signals through a UPS — they just get filtered out. Also, any voltage spikes on your electrical system can now route past any protective devices you may have (e.g. surge protector, UPS) and make it to your motherboard via the Ethernet port — undermining those defences.
If you don’t run any servers, and don’t have any valuable data on your attached computers, and don’t have expensive computer hardware, PowerLine is fine.
PS: Switching power supplies (present in many, many electrical/electronic devices, like mobile phone chargers, light dimmer switches and televisions) also generate electrical noise that interferes — sometimes drastically — with PowerLine signals, resulting in lower performance and more network instability.
The speed you get with a powerline adapter is going to greatly depend on the electrical system in your house. I use a ZyXEL Pass-Thru Ethernet Adapter AV2000 Powerline adapter in my bedroom for my Andriod TV box. They are rated for gigabit speed but I have only gotten about 300 Mbps on any of the file transfer tests I ran with my laptop plugged in.
I cannot really add a lot of value to decide what brand to use.
But add a note from ham radio friends: By using the powerline cable as a transport layer, you might generate interference on multiple radio frequencies, depending on the cable and used hardware.
If you do know a ham radio operator or have a club in town, try reach out to him/them and have your setup tested/talked through. If it does interfere, I guess they are more than happy to help with providing a cost efficient solution to get the “noise” go away.