[SOLVED] Worth getting Gigabit powerline over 500Mb or am I unlikely to reach those speeds?

[W.D. Stevens]

Hi all,

I'm building my first desktop after being a laptop guy forever and I'm thinking about networking. I'm not in a place where I can run a direct line from the router so I thought about going down the Powerline route. That said, I'm actually planning to move in about 6 months so it might not be an issue depending on where I move to. My internet speed caps out at 100Mb/s but I have a home NAS where I keep all my media and such. Gigabit powerline kits seem harder to find and about twice as expensive as 500Mb/s ones. I wondered if there was actually any benefit to the extra expense? I really wanted to go wired so I could have better speed and stability to and from the NAS as the WiFi does have odd speed dips every now and then that can cause a film to freeze up as well as drop copy times.

The building where I am was built around 15 years ago and the computer would be on the same circuit as the router which makes it seem like it should work about as optimally as can be expected but if it's unlikely to make full use of the connection even in the best circumstances, then I might as well save a few bucks and get a 500Mb/s kit rather than a Gigabit one.

Thanks for any advice you're able to give!

 

[helpstar]

I would test it myself, but even between 2.4Gbit (500Mbit/s in real life) and 500Mbit (330Mbit/s in real life) it´s only around double the speed

You could be lucky and get more or unlcky and get less than the speeds above. But should be more stable than any wifi connection.

 

[bill001g]

There is a significant difference between the av500 and av2-1000/av2-2000. The AV2 method of data encoding tends and the use of the grounding lead as well as the power improves performance. Most the advantage is that is works in more houses that have less than optimal wires.

The 500 models only have 10/100 ports which means the vendor know they come nowhere close to 100m. The av2 ones can get about 300mbps for most people.

A much better option is you have tv coax cables is MoCA. You can get a pair of the newest moca 2.5 units for about $120 and these actually give you gigabit speeds.

Maybe move the NAS into the room that has the most need for good performance to the NAS.

 

[SamirD]

Moca would be a much better way to go than powerlines if you want anything close to gigabit. Otherwise, the newer and faster powerlines are much, much faster than the slower/older ones. I have some netgear av500 with a gigabit port and a newer newgear av1200 is 4x faster on the same wiring, still just over 100Mbps. My moca adapters hit 940Mbs as soon as I installed them. Moving the nas is also a good idea. Sometimes planning your network to minimize bandwidth issue is enough to get by.

 

[W.D. Stevens]

Ahh, that's interesting to know. I did not know that. Thanks! I shall go with the Gigabit option in that case. Cheers!

I did have MoCA recommended to me but there are no coax plugs in here and I would have to get an electrician or something round to find out if there's a cable even run to where I need it to be. And at that point, I'd just get an ethernet run.

 

[JordonB]

Hi all,

I'm building my first desktop after being a laptop guy forever and I'm thinking about networking. I'm not in a place where I can run a direct line from the router so I thought about going down the Powerline route. That said, I'm actually planning to move in about 6 months so it might not be an issue depending on where I move to. My internet speed caps out at 100Mb/s but I have a home NAS where I keep all my media and such. Gigabit powerline kits seem harder to find and about twice as expensive as 500Mb/s ones. I wondered if there was actually any benefit to the extra expense? I really wanted to go wired so I could have better speed and stability to and from the NAS as the WiFi does have odd speed dips every now and then that can cause a film to freeze up as well as drop copy times.

The building where I am was built around 15 years ago and the computer would be on the same circuit as the router which makes it seem like it should work about as optimally as can be expected but if it's unlikely to make full use of the connection even in the best circumstances, then I might as well save a few bucks and get a 500Mb/s kit rather than a Gigabit one.

Thanks for any advice you're able to give!

I have used both in situations where rooms were farther away like guest houses and they are OK but Cat 6 and up is always better.

 

[SamirD]

Ahh, that's interesting to know. I did not know that. Thanks! I shall go with the Gigabit option in that case. Cheers!

You're welcome! The fastest stuff isn't even that expensive compared to slower options so I'd get the very fastest you can. Yeah and no need to run wire for moca.