Powerline adapter + bigfoot card?

Madals

Madals

Madals

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Joined
2 Aug 2010
Posts
141
Location
Sussex
Right, just want to check a few things before the Christmas list is updated :D

Currently using wireless network to my gaming PC as the only place the router can go means running a wire would be extremely impractical. Therefore, I am looking to improve the connection stability as gaming on wifi is annoying!

The network itself isn't great, I live in the country side and running a speedtest I get a ping of: 45ms D/L: 2.45 U/L: 0.38. Its better than some, but obviously not perfect!

I am looking at getting: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-032-TP&tool=3
and
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-048-BF&groupid=46&catid=1597&subcat=

Now,
1) The TP-link is the 200mbps model - am I right in assuming there will be no benefit to moving to the 500mbps model with my slow speed (will not be used for file transfer across the network)? any other suggestions for powerline adapters?

2) Do powerline adapters need to be on the same circuit or will it work as long as it all goes through the same fuse box? I have read mixed reports online about this.

3) Will the bigfoot network card show performance upgrades over the on-board card?

Thanks,
Madals
 
Madals said:
Could you please explain WHY you think this? If it has an improvement over the stock card, then I do not consider it a waste of money as any little improvement to my internet helps.
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Nothing will increase your ping or internet speed except a change of ISP.
Wireless might add a few ms to your pings but nothing major unless the router is slow.

The homeplugs will eliminate the unstable wireless connection and give you pings as if you were directly connected to the modem but the bigfoot card is all mumbo jumbo imo. I was going to buy into it (£150 at the time) and I'm really glad I didn't. Just a few funky features and buzzwords with some nice looking software and I suppose the ability for it to download torrents or something while the PC is off but apart from that it's all hype.

Where did you get this 45ms ping? What server.
 
moogle said:
Nothing will increase your ping or internet speed except a change of ISP.
Where did you get this 45ms ping? What server.
Click to expand...
The 45ms ping was just to the closest server, it has about 10ms jitter whereas when I have run it wired the result is about 30-35ms with 2-3ms jitter. Unfortunately not even a change of ISP will improve my internet, it is more to do with miles of old copper wire to an old exchange that is causing the problem :p

I understand not getting the bigfoot card for £150, but £60 is a hell of a lot more reasonable - from what I have read online it appears to get 1-5ms faster ping speeds, which again is tiny but every little helps would you not agree?
 
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Madals said:
Could you please explain WHY you think this? If it has an improvement over the stock card, then I do not consider it a waste of money as any little improvement to my internet helps.
Click to expand...

You won't notice an improvement.

Madals said:
The 45ms ping was just to the closest server, it has about 10ms jitter whereas when I have run it wired the result is about 30-35ms with 2-3ms jitter. Unfortunately not even a change of ISP will improve my internet, it is more to do with miles of old copper wire to an old exchange that is causing the problem :p
Click to expand...

Where do you live? Exchange? ISP? Fast path or interleaved?
 
Madals said:
I understand not getting the bigfoot card for £150, but £60 is a hell of a lot more reasonable - from what I have read online it appears to get 1-5ms faster ping speeds, which again is tiny but every little helps would you not agree?
Click to expand...

So you'd spend £60 for 5ms less ping. Madness, you wouldn't even notice it, but you would notice the extra £60 in your wallet.
 
Madals said:
The 45ms ping was just to the closest server, it has about 10ms jitter whereas when I have run it wired the result is about 30-35ms with 2-3ms jitter. Unfortunately not even a change of ISP will improve my internet, it is more to do with miles of old copper wire to an old exchange that is causing the problem :p

I understand not getting the bigfoot card for £150, but £60 is a hell of a lot more reasonable - from what I have read online it appears to get 1-5ms faster ping speeds, which again is tiny but every little helps would you not agree?
Click to expand...

30ms is pretty decent, some ISP's allow you to turn off interleaving and if you have a stable connection it can increase the speed a little and lower your pings.

I'm guessing there's no other better alternative in your area and that does suck, but 1-5ms more for £60? I wouldn't, and I really doubt it'd improve more than 1ms. The onboard ones are pretty fast and good these days.

Maybe I'd punt it if it was a tenner. That £60 could go towards your next upgrade on your gaming PC when that time comes :)

However if you do decide to buy it, then do some ping tests in cmd like

"ping -n 10 www.bbc.co.uk"

and report back on your wireless, the homeplug and then in your bigfoot card.
I'd really like to see if it makes a difference.
 
So you'd spend £60 for 5ms less ping. Madness, you wouldn't even notice it, but you would notice the extra £60 in your wallet.
Click to expand...
Maybe I wouldn't notice it, but considering I get a lot of enjoyment out of online gaming and how incredibly frustrating lag(spikes) can be I personally do not think £60 is madness for a potential 11% increase in speed. I am more curious if people HAVE used the bigfoot card and if they have seen an increase in speed rather than your opinion on what is a waste of my money.....

30ms is pretty decent, some ISP's allow you to turn off interleaving and if you have a stable connection it can increase the speed a little and lower your pings.
Click to expand...
I am with orange and I have not looked into interleaving or turning it off - would love to hear more about how I could go about that and any negative effects of it :) Thanks for the input! If I do get the bigfoot card I will be happy to post up any improvements I notice!
 
Madals said:
I am with orange and I have not looked into interleaving or turning it off - would love to hear more about how I could go about that and any negative effects of it :) Thanks for the input! If I do get the bigfoot card I will be happy to post up any improvements I notice!
Click to expand...

That could be your problem. My sister was looking for an ISP and I just rushed and suggested Orange. Then when I read more into what is best I found out that Orange is oversubscribed, which is why it's cheap and that's why it's slow and you get lag spikes.

I suggested she go with Sky instead and they're a better choice.

I'm with Bethere and they allow interleaving to be turned off. I get 19ms pings in speedtest, however I'm on the £22 package which might be quite a bit but they provide a good service.

So in short the homeplugs may solve your lag spikes if your wireless is the problem. If it doesn't then it is your internet and no matter what card you buy it won't fix it. It might lower your ping by the "estimated" few ms but lower ping doesn't eliminate lag spikes, that's network congestion and a bad ISP/service.

When I used to play CoD4 in matches my friend on Virgin Media (known for oversubscribing and generally poor internet, I left them straight after they started because of the throttling and crappy pings) he kept lagging about the map because of his poor internet quality.

Think of it like this:

Imagine there's a water pipe (your internet), putting a larger diameter pipe (bigfoot network card) won't increase the flow of the water, it can only ever be as fast as the slowest part of your link to the internet.
 
PING 192.168.1.254 (192.168.1.254) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_req=1 ttl=64 time=0.332 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_req=2 ttl=64 time=0.295 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_req=3 ttl=64 time=0.280 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_req=4 ttl=64 time=0.274 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_req=5 ttl=64 time=0.282 ms
Click to expand...

PING bbc.co.uk (212.58.241.131) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from virtual-vip-231.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.241.131): icmp_req=1 ttl=250 time=9.24 ms
64 bytes from virtual-vip-231.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.241.131): icmp_req=2 ttl=250 time=9.49 ms
64 bytes from virtual-vip-231.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.241.131): icmp_req=3 ttl=250 time=9.80 ms
64 bytes from virtual-vip-231.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.241.131): icmp_req=4 ttl=250 time=9.39 ms
Click to expand...

All on-board goodness. You do have a pretty poor ISP. Let us know your exchange. http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search
 
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/SDHNFLD
Thats my exchange.

I appreciate that onboard cards are good and that the bigfoot card may only make a fraction of a difference - but I still think its worth a try unless someone has the card and HAS done a comparison and found there to be NO difference.

The lag spikes are completely to do with the wireless, when I have used the pc wired there was no spikes at all (or at least noticeable). If the bigfoot card even knocked 2-3ms off my ping that is still 6% improvement, for me that is a worthwhile improvement.
 
here's a test for you: ping your router with your onboard network card. it will be less than 1ms. how is this super duper network card going to affect what goes on beyond that? :/
 
Madals said:
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/SDHNFLD
Thats my exchange.

I appreciate that onboard cards are good and that the bigfoot card may only make a fraction of a difference - but I still think its worth a try unless someone has the card and HAS done a comparison and found there to be NO difference.

The lag spikes are completely to do with the wireless, when I have used the pc wired there was no spikes at all (or at least noticeable). If the bigfoot card even knocked 2-3ms off my ping that is still 6% improvement, for me that is a worthwhile improvement.
Click to expand...

Pretty limited unfortunately, the best one on there would be Sky.

As for the card being worth a try, I think you're going about it the wrong way. When I buy something I don't get it because there hasn't been a comparison where it makes no difference, I buy it on the basis that there has been a comparison which shows it does make a difference.

As marc2003 pointed out, find the ping to your router. The onboard card will only improve that and nothing beyond it. I and everyone else is telling you that you cannot improve your network connection quality (apart from wireless -> homeplug) by getting some device for your PC.

If a direct connection stops the lag spikes then just get the homeplug.

Everyone is giving you good advice here and trying to help you not waste money :)
 
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