Are wireless AC connection faster then Powerline adapters?

ultim

ultim

ultim

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Im currently using powerline adapters to connect to my main PC upstairs. I get roughly 100Mbps, but not consistently.

Im thinking about upgrading my router to AC capable and put a AC wireless adapter in my PC.

Would i likely to get better speeds? Its about 30meters and 2 walls between the router and PC.
 
Tried both on my virgin 200mb connection. Due to poor wiring the powerlines were useless, wireless n or ac only gave me a max of 160mb due to thick walls etc.

Im currently sorting out running a cable direct. This gives me a steady 211mb . Just got to route the cable through the living room wall, outside, around the house and into the study at the back.
 
You won't get 100Mbps from 5GHz Wi-Fi through two walls and 30 metres.

Are you sure your house is 30 metres wide?
 
Just done a test. No idea how many meters but through 2 walls and up a level i got 109Mbps transferring from my server. In the same room as my wireless router transfering the same file i got 412 Mbps. Thats on a Dell XPS i7 laptop with wireless AC and a Asus RT-ac87U router. over my lan this goes upto 760Mbps peak and average of 720Mbps. and that is a fairly long lump of cable as it going up the house into the loft then back down again. So to answer your question. Unlikely you will get a speed increase.

Also to be fair the Mrs was streaming a HD film from the Server at the same time but that was the case with all 3 tests and would not affect the wireless speed.
 
Best option does not always equal feasible though.

Wireless AC is better than Powerlines in my house also, at least the 500Mbps Zyxel ones I used to use before I got an AC router.
 
No one talked about feasibility :) Running the correct cable is better than wifi or powerline. IF you can't run a cable THEN you look at the next best option.
 
I agree cable is best option. Personally it was a big job to fit cables as it involved taking kitchen cupboards off the wall, lifting floor boards and drilling to the outside of the house even crawling into the corner of the loft space. Took me about 10 hours but without doubt the only way to go imo. If you have NAS storage then 100% cable it.
 
Randall8686 said:
I agree cable is best option. Personally it was a big job to fit cables as it involved taking kitchen cupboards off the wall, lifting floor boards and drilling to the outside of the house even crawling into the corner of the loft space. Took me about 10 hours but without doubt the only way to go imo. If you have NAS storage then 100% cable it.
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Exactly.

Wireless works well, but as soon as you have multiple clients, bandwidth drops. If you're watching networked media, cabled ethernet is the only viable option.
 
Likewise, I've been having a mare running cables round the house :( Still got one wifi link to eradicate and no idea how to do it at present, but it just streams to the bedroom and is a reasonably reliable 200mbps so not in too much of a rush.
 
wireless is great for phones/tablets or web browsing. but when it comes to gaming or transferring files unless your in the same room or only have a stud wall in the way its performance drops very quickly.

Trust me when i say the effort of running a cable is worth it. Unless of course you have a reason you simply cant such as you dont own the house then i would say buy the absolute best powerline adapters you can. I installed some gigabit ones for a Neighbour and they got a little tab over 200mbps. Clearly nothing close to the 1000 they claim but it does what they need (stream films and look a photos on a nas)
 
Gigabit said:
Seriously. Every. Single. Thread.
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Would you rather he didn't suggest the obvious and best solution? Wifi can be awful and Powerline equally so depending on the cable condition/age/same ring main etc.

For the OP it's case of trying, 5GHz has less penetration through walls etc. than 2.4Ghz, we can't answer your question because we don't know what the signal/router position is like in your house relative to what you want to connect or if you are on the same ring main as your router etc.
 
I think people just need to be a bit pragmatic. Yes, cabling everything that can be cabled is the solution that will give you the highest throughput, best reliability, and greatest chance of being ready for future developments in technology. However it may require a time investment that people don't have, a skill level that people don't have time to get up to or cannot afford to buy in from an external source, or other restrictions such as not being able to drill holes in a rented property and not wanting cables run along surfaces.

Sometimes cabling just isn't an option, so when faced with the question of "powerline or Wi-Fi" it's not a valid answer.
 
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