[SOLVED] Should i buy a good router or a good USB WiFi adapter ?

knowledge2121

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What i have:

- Bell fibe internet 500mbps/500mbps download/upload

- The modem is a Home Hub 3000 which is a Sagemcom f@st 5566 it has 12 antennas

- Currently using a Linksys ac1200 usb adapter.

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The modem is downstairs and my pc is on the 2nd floor.

With my USB adapter upstairs, i am getting around 200mbps but with my phone near the router downstairs i am getting 450mbps..

To get 500mbps:

1. Should i get a good ac1900 usb wifi adapter like this:

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B01EOQ61KI/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&psc=1

2. Or should i buy a very good router and pair it with my Linksys ac1200 ? If so, which router do you recommend ? I want something future proof...might consider upgrading to 1gbps internet later...
 
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It has the same 2.5gbe port that the gocoax adapter has (your link) and it is cheaper.


A moca 2.5 adapter with a 2.5gbe port can provide faster speeds (if you get a mb with a 2.5gbe port and your ISP also provides higher speeds) compared to a 1gbe port.

So the moca adapter with a 2.5gbe port is more future proof than an adapter with a 1gbe port...i would spend 20 bucks more and get the 2.5gbe adapter.

Is my understanding correct ?
Yes but you might want to go visit someone who already has a "future" internet connection and a pc that has a 2.5g port. What you will find is you pay lots more for a faster internet connection but it makes almost no real world difference. Now if you are one of those torrent download guys...
I doubt you are going to ever get close to 500. Walls floors eat a lot of the signals. The more complex you make the signal the harder it is for this signal to get through the floor.
It is hard to say how much if any a different wifi adpater might have. The main difference would be is you are going to try to use 3x3 mimo rather than 2x2. So it depends on if you can get 3 overlapping signals cleanly though. The router and nic card will keep dropping back until they get something that works.
So it might use 3 data streams at a lower encoding rate than when you use 2 and you get more or less the same speed.

There is no real fix for this the equipment is limited in how much radio power it can put out and most equipment puts out near the maximum. This means there is no magic device you can blast the signals through the floor with.

If you have coax cables in both rooms you might want to consider spending your money on MoCA. That can get full gigabit speeds. There is not much else. Powerline is a option but it is likely slower than your current wifi. It all depends on if the speedtest numbers are more important than the stability of the connection. Things like online games do not care about bandwidth they want very consistent latency with no packet loss so things like powerline are better than wifi even if it is has less bandwidth.
 
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knowledge2121

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I see the price of moca adapters is greatly increased since the last time I looked at them. Used to recommend gocoax brand, there were under $150 for a pair.

You MUST have coax cable in both rooms to use these. Telephone jacks will not work.

There is a very small change you could re use the telephone wire as ethernet but it all depends on where the wire run to. Pretty much they would all need to run to a central location and the wire would have to be good enough to run ethernet. This one is going to take some searching your house for the answer.
 

knowledge2121

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I have a coax receptacle downstairs right next to the modem...i also have a coax receptacle in my bedroom 15ft away from my pc....

From the two moca 2.5 brands above, which one is faster ? Or do they perform identically...

Also, with moca 2.5 adapters, will i achieve 500mbps ?

Is moca as fast as a direct ethernet connection ?
 
I wish I knew more about moca stuff. Unlike wifi stuff they don't have to submit as much stuff the government agencies like the fcc where you can dig around and figure out what chips they are using.

MoCA is one of those industry standard things. In theory any device that say it is moca 2.5 compliant will work with any other. That would mean they also have very similar performance.

I do not know which companies actually make the moca chips that are doing all the work. It is highly doubtful that any of these brands make their own chips so they might have exactly the same chip.

In this case you are going to almost have to blindly buy on or the other.

Moca 2.5 has 2.5g of total bandwidth. With only 2 units this means you should be able to send 1gbit and receive 1gbit of traffic and still have extra bandwidth. This would mean it should be able to fully support a 1gbit ethernet connection that is full duplex and can send and receive 1gbit at the same time.

There likely is some overhead in moca that makes this not 100% true but you should easily get a 500mbps download speed.
 
So after some more looking it seem you can still get gocoax cheaper
https://www.amazon.com/goCoax-Ethernet-Bandwidth-existing-MA2500D/dp/B09QZS7SJV?th=1

These units have a 2.5g ethernet. They will of course run at 1gbit. In theory at least these should be a bit faster than one that only have a 1gbit port but the total network bandwidth is still 2.5g so you can not actually run a full duplex 2.5g ethernet connection.

They might also sell the models with only 1gbit ports but this is about the price they used to sell those.
 
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knowledge2121

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Moca 2.5 has 2.5g of total bandwidth. With only 2 units this means you should be able to send 1gbit and receive 1gbit of traffic and still have extra bandwidth. This would mean it should be able to fully support a 1gbit ethernet connection that is full duplex and can send and receive 1gbit at the same time.

I found this unit:

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B07Z3SB1HH/ref=ox_sc_act_image_3?smid=A10N8VOD71M84Q&psc=1


My connection is 500mbps download and 500mbps upload...

The link is a moca 2.5 with 2 ethernet ports....does that mean i could connect it to two PCs and get 500mbps download and 500mbps upload on both PCs and still have extra bandwidth ?

If i connect only one PC then the max i can get is 1.25gbps download and 1.25gbps upload ?

The products description also says that it supports 3gbps weird...
 
No your total speed is still 500mbps. It is no differnet than if you connected both devices directly to your router they still share the total internet bandwidth.

In theory you could take 1 pc and use 500mbps internet and the other one and use 700mbps to a NAS on your network.

A single pc is still limited to 1gbit on those units. The port speed is only 1gbit.

Even if you purchased the gocoax units I linked unless your PC also has 2.5 or faster ports it will still be limited to 2.5g.

Pretty much you are only going to get 500mbps since that is your internet speed. If you have some local traffic maybe you can come up with a way to use more of the bandwidth.
 

USAFRet

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So you mean some moca 2.5 adapter brands have ethernet ports that support 1gbps max..and some brands, like the gocoax adapter have ethernet ports that support more than 1gbps? Like 2.5 gbps ?
Consider a MOCA 2.5, with a standard gigabit switch attached to it. 2 PCs connected to that switch.
Each PC can operate at their full 1 gigabit.
The MOCA device can provide 2.5 to and from its other end.

In reality, you'll never see that much bandwidth ever actually being used.
You'd need to have a very intensive internal LAN and LOTS of data flying around all the time.

And of course, any comms with the outside world is, in your environment, capped at 500megabits/sec.
 

knowledge2121

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my pc supports max 1gbps...but I would rather buy a moca 2.5 adapter with a 2.5gbps ethernet port. it would be a better investment...it is future proof..

My last question:

Which one of the following moca 2.5 adapters have a 2.5gbps ethernet port?

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B08ML1TSXC/ref=ox_sc_act_image_3?smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&psc=1

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B07Z3SB1HH/ref=ox_sc_act_image_4?smid=A10N8VOD71M84Q&psc=1

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B09K97S3QL/ref=ox_sc_act_image_5?smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&psc=1
 
None of those have 2.5g. The only one that I know that has 2.5g is the gocoax I linked.

I now see the issue I have been having. You are linking amazon in canada with prices in canada dollars. Even if I look up the exact units you link and factor in extra shipping and the currency conversion it is still cheaper in the USA.

They do not seem to sell the 2 pack of gocoax units in canada and they sell the single units for much more. The single units are $59 USA dollars which should still be less than $80 ca dollars but they want almost $100 ca dollars for the units on canada amazon.

Can you buy from amazon in the USA and have them deliver to canada. When I do that it seems to be cheaper even after paying the extra shipping and currency conversion.
 
You would think they wouldn't hide it so well.

You have to remember it is not really 2.5g. 2.5g ethernet can use 5gbit since it is full duplex. I would not get too hung up on it you need a very special application to be able to use even 1gbit. Gigabit internet is kinda a scam even if you could get it. Many sites have artficial limits on them so you get no where near your full speed. Speedtest sites might show you get 1gbit but there is only a very limited number of sites that you can actually download at very high speeds.
 

knowledge2121

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It has the same 2.5gbe port that the gocoax adapter has (your link) and it is cheaper.


A moca 2.5 adapter with a 2.5gbe port can provide faster speeds (if you get a mb with a 2.5gbe port and your ISP also provides higher speeds) compared to a 1gbe port.

So the moca adapter with a 2.5gbe port is more future proof than an adapter with a 1gbe port...i would spend 20 bucks more and get the 2.5gbe adapter.

Is my understanding correct ?
 
It has the same 2.5gbe port that the gocoax adapter has (your link) and it is cheaper.


A moca 2.5 adapter with a 2.5gbe port can provide faster speeds (if you get a mb with a 2.5gbe port and your ISP also provides higher speeds) compared to a 1gbe port.

So the moca adapter with a 2.5gbe port is more future proof than an adapter with a 1gbe port...i would spend 20 bucks more and get the 2.5gbe adapter.

Is my understanding correct ?
Yes but you might want to go visit someone who already has a "future" internet connection and a pc that has a 2.5g port. What you will find is you pay lots more for a faster internet connection but it makes almost no real world difference. Now if you are one of those torrent download guys I will just shake my head.

It is so strange that the gocoax is so expensive in canada. In the USA and many other parts of the world it is much cheaper and was for a very long time the only vendor that offered moca 2.5 to end users. The units you link though likely work as good as any others. The MoCA standard has been pretty stable and I don't know
which company is actually making the moca chipsets so they might all use the same ones anyway.
 
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