Trying to improve overall internet speed

Apr 18, 2018
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Hey guys, I recently got into PC gaming and I'm trying to find ways to increase my internet speed.

My house is an older house, and it isn't wired for ethernet. We have a router in the office, and the office PC is wired to it, but my gaming PC is on the other side of the house. I've been using the WiFi, but it isn't cutting it. Speedtest.com gives me a reading of 92ms ping, 37.61Mbps download, and 11.42Mbps upload. However, when I play games online (notably Battlefield 4), my server ping will fluctuate like crazy, sometimes reaching the max it will show on the menu (999).

I know WiFi is bad for multiplayer gaming, but since my house isn't wired for ethernet, I don't have much of an option. I bought a WiFi extender to help out a bit, and while I'm wired via ethernet into the extender, speedtest.com gives me a reading of anywhere from 10-110ms ping, about 42Mbps download, and 12Mbps upload. I haven't tried gaming online with the extender wired to my computer because I'm worried that the fluctuation I see on the speed test will transfer over to in-game ping.

My question is, short of getting my house wired for ethernet, what can I do to improve my internet speed? The office PC gets about 10ms ping and over 100Mbps download speed on the speed test, hooked up to the router. Should I buy a second router for my home network, put it in my gaming room, and hook it up to my computer via ethernet? Will that even work?
 
Solution
Second vote for Ethernet over Powerline adapters (assuming you cant run Ethernet). The last two generations have improved speeds dramatically. I've been running them in my house and was able to get close to the 150Mbps download speed of systems hooked directly in to the router. However, make sure to read up on how to setup the network properly. It's not complicated but they are picky about how they're setup.

For good current gen adapters I'd look at
Zyxel PLA5456KIT
TP-Link TL-PA9020P KIT
NETGEAR PL1200-100PAS

They are more expensive than a basic wireless card, coming in around $75-$100, but they're cheaper than having Ethernet run through walls. But like Kanewolf said, Ethernet would be best. If you cant do in wall cabling, running...
Second vote for Ethernet over Powerline adapters (assuming you cant run Ethernet). The last two generations have improved speeds dramatically. I've been running them in my house and was able to get close to the 150Mbps download speed of systems hooked directly in to the router. However, make sure to read up on how to setup the network properly. It's not complicated but they are picky about how they're setup.

For good current gen adapters I'd look at
Zyxel PLA5456KIT
TP-Link TL-PA9020P KIT
NETGEAR PL1200-100PAS

They are more expensive than a basic wireless card, coming in around $75-$100, but they're cheaper than having Ethernet run through walls. But like Kanewolf said, Ethernet would be best. If you cant do in wall cabling, running through a crawl space/attic and drilling down in to rooms can be done neatly with a bit of work and putting in wall plates at the drop points.
 
Solution