Why aren't powerline adapters more popular?

hellagrant

Distinguished
Jul 6, 2009
67
1
18,635
Powerline adapters seem like a great product but many people do not use them. Is it under rated or am I giving them too much credit?

Here is my situation, please tell me if you would do something different.

-Cable Internet 25mbs
-Connects to a standard, rented cable modem(I know, I should buy one instead of renting from Comcast).
-Cisco Linksys E2500 router connected to cable modem(maybe it is time to upgrade router)
-The router is on the 1st floor of the house and my wireless speed all over the house is 10mbs
-However I believe my xbox 360(that uses a wireless adapter) gets speeds far below 10mbs. I am guessing maybe even less than 1mbs, but I don't know how to check it.

So I was thinking to use a powerline adapter to get my Xbox 360 speeds up to a level where I can stream movies from the console.
 
Solution
1. relies on wires you have no way to check or clean up, so its a risky buy.
2. Security, there is no way to limit what wires the signal travels down, its plausible to tap into the power drop and grab the signal, in actuality. Not that I would do this, I got no will to have 240V with too many amps to survive running through me, but it may be plausible in certain situation for the neighbor to make a weak connection to your network through them.
3. Many houses [and commercial buildings], and I mean a LOT of them have illegal wiring that will not work with these, where I work. Good quality workmanship is not always what people want they hire a lot of third party companies to do it quick and dirty, especially if they are flipping a house...
Powerline adapters are pretty under-represented, and are a solution thats halfway between the most common options of Ethernet cabling and wireless. Most people simply dont know it exists.
Its a good thing to have if you cant afford to puch holes through the wall and run Ethernet cabling, but don't want to subsist on wireless speeds.
 
1. relies on wires you have no way to check or clean up, so its a risky buy.
2. Security, there is no way to limit what wires the signal travels down, its plausible to tap into the power drop and grab the signal, in actuality. Not that I would do this, I got no will to have 240V with too many amps to survive running through me, but it may be plausible in certain situation for the neighbor to make a weak connection to your network through them.
3. Many houses [and commercial buildings], and I mean a LOT of them have illegal wiring that will not work with these, where I work. Good quality workmanship is not always what people want they hire a lot of third party companies to do it quick and dirty, especially if they are flipping a house or repairing it to sell on the market and its going to be hidden where the average inspector will not look.
 
Solution