[SOLVED] Looking for an alternative to Ethernet.

[bandolero]

I am looking to purchase some form of tech that'll bring my internet speeds up to par, as to present me with good latency and no packet loss.

The Situation

1. I am in a household with 4 other people who use the WiFi for many things from gaming to video streaming, so my WiFi connection is already being strained for that reason.
2. My PC is on the first floor and the distance away from the router downstairs must be around 6-8m through the floor.
3. Our household network plan allows for us to have 300mbps down and 15mbs up. We are with Virgin Media here in the UK if that information helps.
4. Due to being in a household with other people, I would rather not have a 30ft cable stretch along the floor and stairs. Moving my PC is also not an option and drilling a hole in the ceiling certainly isn't one either.

Anything that would help decrease my latency/packet loss and increase overall network speeds would be cool.
The price limit would have to be below the £50 threshold. £15-£35 would be ideal, though I'm open to any devices you may thoroughly recommend that are slightly above it.

I have looked into networking devices such as wireless adapters and powerline adapters and whatnot, but I'm not familiar with any of those.
I saw this on amazon but I think £13 for something like this seems too... cheap.

Thanks!

 

[USAFRet]

3 options, performance decreasing:

1. Ethernet. A properly strung cable is near invisible.
2. Powerline. This pumps the signal through the house wiring.
3. MOCA. Similar to powerline, but through the existing coax.

OK, 4 options.
WiFi of any sort. Far far far down the list, only use of none of the other 3 are possible.

 

[bandolero]

3 options, performance decreasing:

1. Ethernet. A properly strung cable is near invisible.
2. Powerline. This pumps the signal through the house wiring.
3. MOCA. Similar to powerline, but through the existing coax.

OK, 4 options.
WiFi of any sort. Far far far down the list, only use of none of the other 3 are possible.

What I'm gathering from this then is that using Ethernet trumps all, however, would using a WiFi dongle adapter be of any notable and worthwhile change performance-wise?

 

[bill001g]

That is just a different wifi adapter it will not likely be any better. In many cases those tiny adapters perform poorly because they have small antenna and they do not transmit at full power to save battery. Those tiny devices are designed for laptop.

It really depends on the wifi card you have. The best ones are internal pcie cards with antenna that are mounted on short cables so you can place the antenna on top of the case.

There is no way to even predict if it will be better or worse since the huge factor is the house and how much signal the floor absorbs.

If you are going to spend money the best price option is going to be powerline units based on the newer AV2 protocol. Even the very best wifi will get small lag spikes in games form time to time. If you have lots of interference online games will have a lot of lag spikes.

Depends on your house and if you own or rent. You might be able to have ethernet run for a couple hundred dollars.....really depends on the layout of the house. The method the ISP use is to drill through the outside wall of the house and run the cable outside. Not the preferred method but it tends to be cheap to do and would be something you could do yourself if you can tolerate the wire on the outside.

 

[bandolero]

That is just a different wifi adapter it will not likely be any better. In many cases those tiny adapters perform poorly because they have small antenna and they do not transmit at full power to save battery. Those tiny devices are designed for laptop.

It really depends on the wifi card you have. The best ones are internal pcie cards with antenna that are mounted on short cables so you can place the antenna on top of the case.

There is no way to even predict if it will be better or worse since the huge factor is the house and how much signal the floor absorbs.

If you are going to spend money the best price option is going to be powerline units based on the newer AV2 protocol. Even the very best wifi will get small lag spikes in games form time to time. If you have lots of interference online games will have a lot of lag spikes.

Depends on your house and if you own or rent. You might be able to have ethernet run for a couple hundred dollars.....really depends on the layout of the house. The method the ISP use is to drill through the outside wall of the house and run the cable outside. Not the preferred method but it tends to be cheap to do and would be something you could do yourself if you can tolerate the wire on the outside.

After looking into it further and asking a few mates who use Powerline Adapters, It seems like this would be the best option for me. I have been recommended this by my friend, however, I only have one socket in my room, and I need it to connect to an extension cord for my pc.

Are there any adapters of similar price and spec that have a socket that I can use to plug in my extension cord, whilst simultaneously using the socket for the powerline adapter?

 

[bill001g]

They make models with a passthough plug. You would plug the powerline into the wall and then plug the extension cord into the socket on the powerline.

 

[bandolero]

They make models with a passthough plug. You would plug the powerline into the wall and then plug the extension cord into the socket on the powerline.

Yeah, just found a few, this one seems decent. Any thoughts?

 

[bill001g]

I thought I had this stuff figured out. Used to be they called them av2-600 and av2-1200. From what I can tell tplink renamed the older av500 units av600. From what I can tell these are not av2 based units. The av2 units are better than av500. They now have things called 1000 and 2000.

This is a chart I like but it does not have all the models in it.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/powerline/view

 

[bandolero]

I thought I had this stuff figured out. Used to be they called them av2-600 and av2-1200. From what I can tell tplink renamed the older av500 units av600. From what I can tell these are not av2 based units. The av2 units are better than av500. They now have things called 1000 and 2000.

This is a chart I like but it does not have all the models in it.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/powerline/view

Thanks for the list, however;

For the most part, my wifi supplies me with 300mbps, so looking at these adapters that give me 600mbps or 1000mbps seems a bit overkill. Wouldn't it be best to get one of the AV1 units such as this one that more than suffice my needs at 600mbps and are on the cheaper side, rather than something like this? Or am I missing something?

 

[kanewolf]

Thanks for the list, however;

For the most part, my wifi supplies me with 300mbps, so looking at these adapters that give me 600mbps or 1000mbps seems a bit overkill. Wouldn't it be best to get one of the AV1 units such as this one that more than suffice my needs at 600mbps and are on the cheaper side, rather than something like this? Or am I missing something?

The AV2 units have the most stability and least problems with compatibility with home wiring. Don't be taken in by the "1000" or "2000" rating. Typical real world throughput is 200 to 400Mbit.

 

[bandolero]

The AV2 units have the most stability and least problems with compatibility with home wiring. Don't be taken in by the "1000" or "2000" rating. Typical real world throughput is 200 to 400Mbit.

Yeah, that's, why I was slightly confused, since most performance tests I would find online, would not match up to what was said they could theoretically achieve I guess. If that's the case then I guess the TL-PA8010PKIT V2 seems to be the best for the price I can find right now.

Thanks!

 

[SamirD]

If you can afford the av2000 version of these, I'd get those because, as you already know, you'lre not going to get the full 300Mbs--but you might as well get as much as you can.