wifi or powerline for gaming?
- Thread starter BUDFORCE
- Start date
Unless you're living in some extreme full of wireless stuff environment, I would expect those over powerline thingies to be even worse in consistency.
Power wiring was never designed for any data signaling and even less for higher speed such.
Power wiring was never designed for any data signaling and even less for higher speed such.
Soldato
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In my house POE was much better than WiFi for gaming but everyone's experience will be different as there are to many variables
Soldato
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Powerline can work well enough so long as you have reasonable expectations. They aren't a direct replacement for hardwired connections any more than wireless is.
Unfortunately, there's no way to know whether you'll be better off with Powerline or wireless without trying both options.
Anecdotally, pings on Powerline do seem to be more stable which can matter for somethings.
Unfortunately, there's no way to know whether you'll be better off with Powerline or wireless without trying both options.
Anecdotally, pings on Powerline do seem to be more stable which can matter for somethings.
Caporegime
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Wired for gaming.
Just drill some holes run one long wire to a switch then run everything off the switch.
I have 3 cheap £15 switches one downstairs, one upstairs and one in the attic.
Covers every floor.
Just drill some holes run one long wire to a switch then run everything off the switch.
I have 3 cheap £15 switches one downstairs, one upstairs and one in the attic.
Covers every floor.
With the levels of QAM on decent current model HomePlug kit, speeds are pretty reasonable even on older or interference-prone wiring. The advances (including borrowing MIMO techniques for inhibiting crosstalk and increasing raw physical speeds) are certainly advantageous if you have the cash to buy higher-end units. I certainly have no hesitation in recommending powerline ethernet solutions instead of WiFi. I usually have a couple of basic plugs knocking about for temporarily extending ethernet to somewhere. TP-Link make great units if you don't fancy paying double for Devolo.
That said, Devolo, Zyxel, Actiontec, Comtrend and others also make G.Hn Wave-2 compatible units which have greatly increased speeds, up to 1 gigabit/sec real world achievable on the fastest units. I think that's pretty impressive.
Radio hams loathe powerline adapters, and I can understand why... The current frequency bands some of the units can work at are now breaking into the FM band
As WiFi standards are developed, the frequencies increase and thus some of the advantages of higher throughput and channel congestion management are outweighed by increased propagation loss characteristics and unpredictable range. Even with 4x4 MIMO speeds can be disappointingly low. I can't get as fast as some AV600 homeplugs to my ISP's WiFi router when I'm LOS about 15 feet away.
I think you need to have pre-1950s wiring to really be better off with WiFi. Powerline will not give you record-setting headline speeds in most cases, unless you splash the cash, but their speeds will be more consistent and more stable latency (and packet loss-wise) than WiFi. Add to that the improved physical security, transceiver unit encryption, and it's arguably more secure than broadcasting your bits OTA. PLC isn't perfect (e.g. this 2019 Synacktiv presentation) but for your average home setup, it's as safe as WiFi. Only running Cat5/6 everywhere is going to be better.
And if you fancy a laugh, check out https://en.geovital.com/ethernet-over-power-line-eop-powerline-powerlan-and-health-effects/
That said, Devolo, Zyxel, Actiontec, Comtrend and others also make G.Hn Wave-2 compatible units which have greatly increased speeds, up to 1 gigabit/sec real world achievable on the fastest units. I think that's pretty impressive.
Radio hams loathe powerline adapters, and I can understand why... The current frequency bands some of the units can work at are now breaking into the FM band
As WiFi standards are developed, the frequencies increase and thus some of the advantages of higher throughput and channel congestion management are outweighed by increased propagation loss characteristics and unpredictable range. Even with 4x4 MIMO speeds can be disappointingly low. I can't get as fast as some AV600 homeplugs to my ISP's WiFi router when I'm LOS about 15 feet away.
I think you need to have pre-1950s wiring to really be better off with WiFi. Powerline will not give you record-setting headline speeds in most cases, unless you splash the cash, but their speeds will be more consistent and more stable latency (and packet loss-wise) than WiFi. Add to that the improved physical security, transceiver unit encryption, and it's arguably more secure than broadcasting your bits OTA. PLC isn't perfect (e.g. this 2019 Synacktiv presentation) but for your average home setup, it's as safe as WiFi. Only running Cat5/6 everywhere is going to be better.
And if you fancy a laugh, check out https://en.geovital.com/ethernet-over-power-line-eop-powerline-powerlan-and-health-effects/
PoE doesn't mean power line.
If you're gaming, then direct ethernet connection is the only way tbh.
Soldato
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- 18 May 2010
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I meant EOP, my deepest apologies
I have a direct ethernet connection, but when I didn't, for me, EOP was better than WiFi
Soldato
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Now that’s a usage I hope doesn’t catch on.
Ah, memories of the etherkiller