Powerline 500 kit vs. ac

[rtware923]

I have been thinking about getting a new power line kit (the one I have now is a 200 kit and is no longer reliable ). I have been shopping around and have seen some power line 500 kits but what is concerning/weird to me is that most if not all of them don't have gigabit ports. Why rate a product for 599 mbps and only give it a 100mbps port?

My other option is going to a wireless ac router.
Any recommendations on an ac router with decent rannge and of course good quality that isn't $200?
Also would need a pcie card for my computer that supports ac. Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance.

 

[i7Baby]

Router - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122581 - $190

"Why rate a product for 599 mbps and only give it a 100mbps port?" - no idea

 

[bill001g]

Why do 802.11ac routers claim 1300 or 1900 when they are lucky to get 300m.

It is purely marking hype to con the lazy people who only read the titles and do not spend the time to actually learn and read the details.

It is impossible to even predict which will work better both technology are dependent on how your house is built. 802.11ac since it only runs on 5g has poorer coverage than 2.4g wireless but both have issue penetrating thick walls. Powerline performance is based on how much electical wire is between the 2 devices. It depends how the house is wired. Generally powerline will be a little slower but it will have better range and be more consistent in speed. Wireless tends to be faster but is subject to random interference from wireless signals from outside your house.

They make faster powerlines. They claim 1200....haha.

You can see test results on this site but be aware even they claim this only represents their testing environment and you should not read much into the numbers for what you will get in your house.

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

 

[jacobian]

The way I see it, powerline should be used as a last resort. First, invest into a good wireless router. Do some data transfer and latency experiments. If you're not happy with the result, then the right way is to add a second wireless access point where the coverage is poor. The best way to link the access points is of course with the wired ethernet, but if that's not an option, then you can also try the powerline as a link between your wireless access points.

You can also link your access points wirelessly by the means of WDS or tricks like various repeater modes available in the third party firmware like dd-wrt.

But anyways, first get one good wireless access point, and see how well it goes. Place the router as close as possible to your highest performance network devices because 5GHz band is the fastest, but loses signal strength pretty quickly. Tablets, printers, phones, etc and anything too far away could be connected to the 2.4GHz band, which is slower, but has better range.

There are tons of good options for under $200. Check slickdeals.com. Most big name vendor routers (ASUS, Linksys, and Netgear) are pretty good, while TP-Link has earned a reputation for delivering a product that performs the same for significantly less cash. Today, I'd go with at least TP-Link Archer C8 or higher priced ASUS/Linksys/Netgear.

 

[rtware923]

Thanks for all the help guys. Going to get a router and try setting it up right next to the modem and see how to coverage is. Worst case I have to run a powerline kit from the modem to where the router will go for best coverage where I need it.