Powerline adapters for gaming
- Thread starter Soulja
- Start date
Soldato
I've been gaming for the last 3 years over WiFi and have had no issues. I'm a causal gamer to be fair but do play online FPS.
I just got a decent router and adapter for my PC and keep the 5Ghz channel to myself.
I just got a decent router and adapter for my PC and keep the 5Ghz channel to myself.
OK, this should be repetition of what you already know, but here goes:
Powerline 101:
All powerline adapters quote symmetrical bandwidth, so gigabit wired connections would be 2Gbit. Anything other than gigabit class adapters come with 100Mbit ports.
With powerline you avoid surge suppression, so plug it directly into a mains socket, not a spur socket, also your sockets need to be on the same circuit ideally. They don’t handle circuit jumps well - sometimes they will be OK, but it’s a crap shoot (look at your fuse box, if upstairs and downstairs sockets are on a different breaker, then expect problems).
Update firmware - it’ll be the same tool usually that you used to change the default encryption key, but it will also give you insight into the reported sync speed between devices.
Ultimately, powerline isn’t something you use if you have any other option, even if it’s a PITA to run cable, it’s still the default answer.
Powerline 101:
All powerline adapters quote symmetrical bandwidth, so gigabit wired connections would be 2Gbit. Anything other than gigabit class adapters come with 100Mbit ports.
With powerline you avoid surge suppression, so plug it directly into a mains socket, not a spur socket, also your sockets need to be on the same circuit ideally. They don’t handle circuit jumps well - sometimes they will be OK, but it’s a crap shoot (look at your fuse box, if upstairs and downstairs sockets are on a different breaker, then expect problems).
Update firmware - it’ll be the same tool usually that you used to change the default encryption key, but it will also give you insight into the reported sync speed between devices.
Ultimately, powerline isn’t something you use if you have any other option, even if it’s a PITA to run cable, it’s still the default answer.
Soldato
Thanks for the replies. Is the difference compared to wi fi only slight then? I wish I could run a cable but it's not practical
Slight, and prone to it's own interference. You are ultimately running RF over a cable that was never designed to take it so whilst some people have good experiences, you will always find those who don't.
Try to minimise the potential problems such as what @Avalon wrote about above if you are going to go down the powerline route but it is worth mentioning that an external cable run can be made with relative ease, vastly more cost effective than powerlines and the doesn't have to be an eyesore as a lot of houses have multiple cables externally and if run considerately are barely noticeable if at all.
For a TV, as long as the speed you get is decent it'll be fine.
Which Sky Hub do you have?
It was a new install a couple of months ago with Sky Q. I got told the Sky Q box itself was a WIFI repeater - not feeling that's the case though!?
EDIT: Removed the word "mate". Made me look like a chav.
it certainly should be, but if the Q Hub and Q box are very close to each other then Engineer would have likely turned off the Wi-Fi functions on the main Q box and cabled them together. Quite a few problems having two powerful signals so close to each other.
They're about 20ft away as the crow flies. Would they still show as the same Wifi? I often have to reconnect the hub to the qbox when it goes down. Does it sound like a fault?
It does sound like the signal between the two isn't great. Call Sky and ask them to take you through a Network Scan.