Question Powerline adapters or Wifi repeater?

[jasonmason]

I want to start using Ethernet on my PC and came up to the conclusion of what to use in that regard, either powerline adapter or wifi repeater.

What would give me better results regarding latency and ping, powerline adapter or wifi repeater?

 

[bill001g]

Using a wifi repeater connect via ethernet is not really any different than just using a wifi adapter in your pc or maybe a USB connected wifi adapter. Generally you would only use a repeater if you have multiple device and it was cheaper to buy the repeater than multiple wifi cards.

Powerline tends to be slower than wifi, you might get only 100mbps rather than say 300mbps on wifi. Powerline will be much more stable. Wifi is subject to interference so you get highly variable latency. Check your current wifi speed with maybe your phone to see what speed you might really get.

In general you do not need even 100mbps for most application. Something like 4k netflix uses about 30mbps and that is one of the largest "normal" uses. Online games only use about 1mbps. The key thing is games do not tolerate the variable latency on wifi very well.

The only thing you would need high bandwidth for is downloads. Some games are huge and can take a while at 100mbps.
It depends how much of your time is spent doing downloads in a day.

What you could do I guess is use powerline for everyday stuff and then if you need downloads plug in a rather inexpensive wifi card.

 

[jasonmason]

Using a wifi repeater connect via ethernet is not really any different than just using a wifi adapter in your pc or maybe a USB connected wifi adapter. Generally you would only use a repeater if you have multiple device and it was cheaper to buy the repeater than multiple wifi cards.

Powerline tends to be slower than wifi, you might get only 100mbps rather than say 300mbps on wifi. Powerline will be much more stable. Wifi is subject to interference so you get highly variable latency. Check your current wifi speed with maybe your phone to see what speed you might really get.

In general you do not need even 100mbps for most application. Something like 4k netflix uses about 30mbps and that is one of the largest "normal" uses. Online games only use about 1mbps. The key thing is games do not tolerate the variable latency on wifi very well.

The only thing you would need high bandwidth for is downloads. Some games are huge and can take a while at 100mbps.
It depends how much of your time is spent doing downloads in a day.

What you could do I guess is use powerline for everyday stuff and then if you need downloads plug in a rather inexpensive wifi card.

But there are some powerlines that let you use more than 100mbps right? I got 600mbps contracted with my provider. So i assume that i could use those 600mbps through certain powerlines that can go above 100mbps, right? Enlighten me if I'm wrong.

Thank you.

 

[bill001g]

Just like wifi can run over 1gbit 🙁

If you buy the top of the line power line adapters that have numbers like 1000 or 2000 you might get say 130mbps. Hard to say depends on the wiring in your house. You want to avoid the cheaper one that have 600 numbers on them. Many of those only have 100mbps ethernet ports because the manufacture knows they do not even come close to the 100mbps.

It all depends on what you are doing. More bandwidth does not make a connection more stable, it does not make web pages run better, it does not improve video quality. Pretty much it only is useful if you are downloading large amounts of data. In some cases if you have a lot of people using the internet connection at the same time you might need more bandwidth. You could still have 3 people watching different 4k netflix programs at the same time on a 100mbps and it would be fine.

Be very careful about chasing big numbers. If everyone actually used all the bandwidth they pay for the internet would fail. The bandwidth the ISP sells to you is a big scam. They sell the same bandwidth to many other people living near you and hope you will not all use it at the same time.

This is where my ISP keeps telling me they have good deals on 5gbit internet....for ONLY $180 a month. You have to think about if you can not actually use all the bandwidth you pay for maybe saving some money each month and cut the internet plan.

 

[PEnns]

Just like wifi can run over 1gbit 🙁

Be very careful about chasing big numbers. If everyone actually used all the bandwidth they pay for the internet would fail. The bandwidth the ISP sells to you is a big scam. They sell the same bandwidth to many other people living near you and hope you will not all use it at the same time.

This is where my ISP keeps telling me they have good deals on 5gbit internet....for ONLY $180 a month. You have to think about if you can not actually use all the bandwidth you pay for maybe saving some money each month and cut the internet plan.

I couldn't agree more.

My (800 units) apartment complex just had a new "great deal" with a new ISP that promised 1 GBit connection.
I was literally the first one who picked up the new equipment, activated and ran a speed test. I got numbers around 700 Mb on my phone and 500 MB on my PC. The field tech himself who was working on a neighbor's router issue told me: "NO ONE will get 1 Gbit - no matter what they promise you"!!

I was certain this this number will fluctuate (and go downward) once more people activated their equipment.

And sure enough....the speed now is anything from 150 Mb to 350 Mb. And I am certain those numbers would be 1/10 of the 1 Gbit mentioned in the "great deal". Unless one is streaming / testing at 3 am!

 

[COLGeek]

Remember, most of these stellar offerings are worded as "up to XXX speed". No particular speed is actually guaranteed.

 

[futureman 101]

I want to start using Ethernet on my PC and came up to the conclusion of what to use in that regard, either powerline adapter or wifi repeater.

What would give me better results regarding latency and ping, powerline adapter or wifi repeater?

I use Powerline adapters; two are rated at 1000mbps and one at 500 mbps. On the utility they say they are transferring data at beteen 450-650 mbps but I'm only using them for cctv.
I haven't had any problems.
It also depends on the structure of the building you live in and distances.
I also use bluetooth from my PC for some portable devices using a usb bluetooth adapter.

 

[Moonstick2]

From my experience (in an older UK house, where most/all walls are solid brick):

- Main WiFi router in one corner of the ground floor, one 2.4 GHz WiFi repeater in the other corner.
- Son's Xbox on other side of wall from repeater (brick wall, originally external). Decent speed from the repeater connection but endless complaints about lag during gaming. Installed a Powerline ethernet and wired the Xbox into it and all the complaints went away.
- PC on the floor above, connected to repeater with okay speed. Eventually installed Powerline WiFi + ethernet into the same room, mainly to solve WiFi reach in another part of the house. Tried both 5 GHz connection and Ethernet but no difference speed-wise, in either case about 3x the original connection. Don't really game online so can't comment on lag. RPi 4/5 not working with Steam Link put paid to the idea of streaming the PC to the downstairs TV.
- Between the three WiFi points we have very good WiFi coverage all over the house.

Generally speaking, you'll get better latency from Powerline vs WiFi, but there are so many variables and it's so dependent on features of your home that nobody would be able to tell you for sure. I mean, it might even be that installing ethernet ports yourself is a possibility.

If you can, buy whichever you can afford and return most easily and just see if it works for you.