Powerline ethernet

[albionmoonlight]

My son got a new PC in his room. His room is a dead zone for our wifi.

I got a wifi extender, and we still get a weak/intermittent signal in there.

I did some research and learned about powerline ethernet.

Any experience with them? Work? Don't work?

He'd like to do gaming on the computer, so it would have to be a connection equivalent to good wifi.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I used a couple in my old house and it worked great. I don't recall what speeds I got, but it was definitely enough to watch Netflix and the like. Very easy to set up and use. This was many years ago now, so they might even be better.

[QuikSand]

came here to ban you

[Icy]

Works quite well if your home electric installation is good and not too old. I used to play shooters online with a PS4 plugged that way and it was better than wifi between different floors.

[Eaglesfan27]

I used one about 8 or 9 years ago and even back then they worked very well. I've since got a new home and a better wifi system so I don't use it anymore, but I was very happy with my purchase back in the day.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

came here to ban you

I don't get it.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

I don't get it.

My thread title sounded a lot like a bot trying to sell something.

[Atocep]

I've been using them for years. With a good brand and model they're excellent but very susceptible to burning out with power surges. It's not going to be as good as a LAN connection but they work for everything except competitive online gaming type stuff. They occasionally stop working and require a resink, but that takes maybe 30 seconds at most.

Overall they were a godsend as my son started to migrate over to PC gaming on his desktop and I've used them on the PS4 since the wireless card in them sucks.

[sterlingice]

Ok, I'd barely heard about this stuff and didn't realize it was feasible.

So does this work like a WiFi extender? We're getting awful reception in a couple of our rooms and could really use a boost. Would this help with that?

SI

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Ok, I'd barely heard about this stuff and didn't realize it was feasible.

So does this work like a WiFi extender? We're getting awful reception in a couple of our rooms and could really use a boost. Would this help with that?

SI

They're far better than wifi extenders if you're talking about something in a fixed place such as a PC, Xbox, TV, ect.

[stevew]

What better powerline or mesh

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Atocep

They're far better than wifi extenders if you're talking about something in a fixed place such as a PC, Xbox, TV, ect.

Both my office and, especially, my wife's office are a ways away from the router so the signal is less than ideal for working sometimes. Would love something to boost the internet in these two rooms/computers. This sounds like it would be perfect for that, no?

SI

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Both my office and, especially, my wife's office are a ways away from the router so the signal is less than ideal for working sometimes. Would love something to boost the internet in these two rooms/computers. This sounds like it would be perfect for that, no?

SI

So the way these work is they're paired. You have one box in an outlet with a wired ethernet connection from your router into it on one end and one plugged into an outlet where you need the connection. You then have an ethernet cable running from the 2nd box to the device (PC, TV, Xbox). Most have a pairing button you'll press on the first box and then the 2nd to establish a connection. Once that's established you effectively have a wired connection that can be anywhere from 75% to 90% as strong as a regular wired connection based on my experiences. They very occasionally (maybe once a month?) lose pairing and just require a re-pairing.

They're not supposed to be used with surge protectors although some will with less bandwidth. This is what makes them susceptible to burning out during power surges.

I've lived in apartments and townhomes where we can't make any structural changes to extend a wired connection to other parts of the house and these were an amazing find. We still have one for the TV downstairs, but I've been using them for 5+ plus years for different things as wifi isn't the best in apartments.

FYI I have had some success with a single device plugged in near the router and multiple paired to it throughout the house. It's worked best when everything is the same brand, but overall it's a mixed bag whether it works or not.

[sterlingice]

I'm going to give the TP-Link AV1000 a go for my wife's office. If it works well, I'll try one for mine.

SI

[Icy]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I'm going to give the TP-Link AV1000 a go for my wife's office. If it works well, I'll try one for mine.

SI

I have an older version of that one and it worked fine.

[Autumn]

Just another voice saying they work well for what they are. Not as good speed as ethernet, better than Wi-Fi. Underrated method.

[albionmoonlight]

We got the TP-Link AV2000 Powerline Adapter brand.

Works better than wi-fi.

Pretty good for a technology that I didn't even know existed 2 week ago.