Powerline adapters? How effective and good, low cost recommendation?

[TheGlow]

My daughter has recently gotten addicted to playing Smite on my PC and welcoming her into PC gaming vs DS and Wii U.
So I had an old backup machine in the corner. Big old lian li case, quad core, gt260 card.
I load it up and it does play smite w/ smooth Fps.
Ok, big problem is this apartment is sloppy with the layout. I would have to crimp cat6 at about 80 ft to get to her spot, after drilling through a wall and having it cut across another room.
In the mean time I didnt have a wireless card for the desktop so I took a spare E1000 router, set it to bridge mode and have it on, but now she's teleporting around with lag.
So what kind of minimum do I need? I know 100MB vs 1gb is useless since my cable connection is putting out that high.

 

[InvalidError]

Powerline networking depends heavily on the electrical wiring layout and all the distributed surge/EMI suppression throughout the house/apartment. If the locations where you want to put the two powerline adapters are on different breakers, performance will degrade considerably, even more so if they are on opposite phases of a 120V/240V system.

If you want predictable performance all the time, every time, without having to worry about 50 possible variables, go with Ethernet.

 

[USAFRet]

My daughter has recently gotten addicted to playing Smite on my PC and welcoming her into PC gaming vs DS and Wii U.
So I had an old backup machine in the corner. Big old lian li case, quad core, gt260 card.
I load it up and it does play smite w/ smooth Fps.
Ok, big problem is this apartment is sloppy with the layout. I would have to crimp cat6 at about 80 ft to get to her spot, after drilling through a wall and having it cut across another room.
In the mean time I didnt have a wireless card for the desktop so I took a spare E1000 router, set it to bridge mode and have it on, but now she's teleporting around with lag.
So what kind of minimum do I need? I know 100MB vs 1gb is useless since my cable connection is putting out that high.

In any particular residence, the only way to know powerline performance is to try it.
In an apartment building, even more so.

From any consumer grade powerline devices you can buy, do not rely on the advertised numbers.
Your house wiring is the determining factor.

 

[TheGlow]

I figured. I was hoping to avoid the ethernet, which I've done in other apartments.
Any opinion on these?
http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-PA4010KIT-Powerline-Adapter-Starter/dp/B00AWRUICG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446768263&sr=8-1&keywords=powerline+ethernet
Sadly I don't know much about house electrical, just small electronics and some basic network, CCNA R&S.
This apartment building has 30+ SSID's and saturated as hell. This was my main concern before even configuring the machine.

 

[USAFRet]

I figured. I was hoping to avoid the ethernet, which I've done in other apartments.
Any opinion on these?
http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-PA4010KIT-Powerline-Adapter-Starter/dp/B00AWRUICG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446768263&sr=8-1&keywords=powerline+ethernet
Sadly I don't know much about house electrical, just small electronics and some basic network, CCNA R&S.
This apartment building has 30+ SSID's and saturated as hell. This was my main concern before even configuring the machine.

That particular one, or any other, may or may not work in your residence.
The only way to know is to try.

 

[InvalidError]

Any opinion on these?

Powerline networking, just like WiFi, depends heavily on the environment. As USAFret said, the only way to know for sure is to try it.

As I said earlier, if you want something that will work with 100% certainty, assuming the cable and equipment at both ends are in good working order, use Ethernet.

If the apartment is wired with coax in every room and you have access to wherever the coax runs come together to install a splice coupling between the two coax runs you want to re-purpose for your LAN, another option might be MOCA adapters. It is a little like powerline networking, except it runs over coax and yields much more predictable performance since coax cable has much more tightly controlled characteristics and is designed to carry high bandwidth signals.

 

[TheGlow]

Any opinion on these?

Powerline networking, just like WiFi, depends heavily on the environment. As USAFret said, the only way to know for sure is to try it.

As I said earlier, if you want something that will work with 100% certainty, assuming the cable and equipment at both ends are in good working order, use Ethernet.

If the apartment is wired with coax in every room and you have access to wherever the coax runs come together to install a splice coupling between the two coax runs you want to re-purpose for your LAN, another option might be MOCA adapters. It is a little like powerline networking, except it runs over coax and yields much more predictable performance since coax cable has much more tightly controlled characteristics and is designed to carry high bandwidth signals.

I've been out of the game for awhile and wasn't aware this was an option.
I have Optimum so I do have coax running to each room already, with the main split by my PC to the modem. However its currently in use for the TV, so this can run in conjunction with the cable signals?
If I was only looking to patch 1 spot, what would be the minimum gear required? With powerline I knew I needed 2, 1 from the router to get it into the electrical system and one by the Desktop in the far room.

For what its worth I got my CCNA in R&S a couple months ago and know some of the basics and can crimp my own ethernet. Just that it would be a horror. I've never drilled through a wall yet so my luck id hit electrical wires and kill myself.
Also more than half of the outlets I found out have the polarity reversed so I'm not sure what kind of impact that would have on powerline adapters. And if they work ok in surge protectors.

 

[USAFRet]

MOCA devices
http://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Ethernet-Adapter-without-Routers/dp/B008EQ4BQG

Yes, it will work with your current TV signal through the coax. Different freq's through the cable.
I use one (Verizon FiOS) to pump the internet signal upstairs. Works quite well.

So...
COAX splitter to the MOCA
Short Cat5e off the router, into the MOCA device
Coax through the house
Other MOCA device elsewhere
Cat5e off that, into the PC. Or a switch for multiple PC's.

Works just like the powerline, except it uses the house coax instead of the house electrical wiring.

 

[InvalidError]

If you use MoCA over cable that has TV/internet service on it, ask your company how high in frequency their cable plant goes. If in doubt, make sure you use MoCA adapters designed for the D-range (1150+MHz) to avoid interfering with cable channels. You may also want to get a MoCA filter to install upstream from your main splitter to keep your neighbors and external interference out of your MoCA network.

 

[TheGlow]

MOCA devices
http://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Ethernet-Adapter-without-Routers/dp/B008EQ4BQG

Yes, it will work with your current TV signal through the coax. Different freq's through the cable.
I use one (Verizon FiOS) to pump the internet signal upstairs. Works quite well.

So...
COAX splitter to the MOCA
Short Cat5e off the router, into the MOCA device
Coax through the house
Other MOCA device elsewhere
Cat5e off that, into the PC. Or a switch for multiple PC's.

Works just like the powerline, except it uses the house coax instead of the house electrical wiring.

So $140 is the average rate on these? That's a bit on the pricier end. I may rather take the chance on the powerline and if doesn't work then run cat6.

 

[USAFRet]

MOCA devices
http://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Ethernet-Adapter-without-Routers/dp/B008EQ4BQG

Yes, it will work with your current TV signal through the coax. Different freq's through the cable.
I use one (Verizon FiOS) to pump the internet signal upstairs. Works quite well.

So...
COAX splitter to the MOCA
Short Cat5e off the router, into the MOCA device
Coax through the house
Other MOCA device elsewhere
Cat5e off that, into the PC. Or a switch for multiple PC's.

Works just like the powerline, except it uses the house coax instead of the house electrical wiring.

So $140 is the average rate on these? That's a bit on the pricier end. I may rather take the chance on the powerline and if doesn't work then run cat6.

Well, I got mine for free, just by sweet talking the FiOS installer guy. But yes, that seems to be the price for those.

If there is any way you can run Cat5e or Cat6a, then do that. The other options (moca and powerline) are fallback solutions.

 

[InvalidError]

If there is any way you can run Cat5e or Cat6a, then do that. The other options (moca and powerline) are fallback solutions.

OP already said he could run cat6 but does not want to.

Not everyone considers stringing cable through or across halls, through walls and around rooms a first option. If I didn't already have 15-50' pre-made cables and a spool of cat5e, I would probably consider WiFi or possibly even powerline instead of pulling cables I already own just to avoid the clutter. For now, my cables are simply taped on the walls.

 

[TheGlow]

If there is any way you can run Cat5e or Cat6a, then do that. The other options (moca and powerline) are fallback solutions.

OP already said he could run cat6 but does not want to.

Not everyone considers stringing cable through or across halls, through walls and around rooms a first option. If I didn't already have 15-50' pre-made cables and a spool of cat5e, I would probably consider WiFi or possibly even powerline instead of pulling cables I already own just to avoid the clutter. For now, my cables are simply taped on the walls.

That was how I did it in my old apartment, but was railroad style. I just put it next to the coax for the cable tv. Then noticed he drilled a hole only fitting the coax and a little plastic cap on it so i couldnt fish through it as well and ended up having it ugly as heck.
I'll grab a spare 50' here at work and see how it is. Maybe piggyback off the coax again. I dont remember exactly how they did it because their drill bits weren't long enough at some spots so theres a bunch of half done holes in the walls.

 

[RealBeast]

As stated earlier, Ethernet is best. If not possible, I would strongly suggest the latest AV2 MIMO capable powerline adapters, which are called 1200Mbps, but actually run around 200-250Mbps in reviews and in the dozen or so installs that I have done.

Take a look HERE for comparisons. I have used the TP-Link and Trendnet AV2 MIMO units and found similar performance, with very low latency -- so good for gaming.