Should I go wireless, stay with a power line adapter or get wired Ethernet?

[mattrumsby]

I currently use a TP-LINK AV600 which is good but it is plugged into 3 extension cords before it gets to a wall socket, it is also a couple years old and a doesn't work too well. For a while now though I have been using a USB Wi-Fi antennae connected to my router of which gives me good results 40% of the time but is more reliable than the powerline adapter.

I could get a PCIe wireless card to get better and more reliable Wi-Fi, get a new powerline adapter or move my current one to an actual wall socket but I'll just need a longer Ethernet cable or getting a long ethernet cable and plugging it in directly to my router, it will give the best results but because of the positioning of the router it will be very difficult to do.

If anyone could reply with a the best solution with possible suggestions on what to buy in regards of your choice that would be much appreciated.

 

[JWoody]

If you game, avoid wireless, a new powerline adapter or ethernet is your only real choice unless you enjoy 500ms-ish ping times, if you dont, then id just simply go with better wireless.

 

[bill001g]

The av600 are the lowest models of the new av2 standard but they work a lot better than the av500 models. which use older standards. The only real difference between say a av600 and av1200 is the speed. It depends how fast your internet is if it will make any difference. For games it likely will not matter a lot since games use very little bandwidth.

Your problem with the powerline is likely the extension cords. If you could run ethernet all the way to the router that is your best option but plugging the powerline directly into the wall and running a ethernet cable from there would likely help.

Avoid wifi for games, it is fine for just about anything else but games have huge dependency on the timing between packets and wireless has a lot of variations in the timing between packets.

 

[failboat]

If you can go wired do it. cat5e is cheap. getting it in the walls is the hard part.