Suggestions for powerline adapters for gaming?

LLCoolKris

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Jan 21, 2013
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The information you guys provide me might even tell me that it's unnecessary for me to get(although I'm not sure). But I just found out about powerline adapters and was wondering if any of you had any good suggestions for one that would be good for gaming online.

With that said, you can hold onto your "you will always experience the best connection for gaming online on a wired connection" I know. But the modem/router is in a room that is much too far away for me to run a wire to. But believe me, I know.

My current router is the Netgear Nighthawk and I don't experience many problems with it. But if a powerline adapter will increase my speeds, I'm all for it.

Any suggestions, tips, any info? Thanks in advance!


EDIT: and when I say gaming I mean a powerline adapter that has a good enough speed I suppose. I'm not familiar with whats fast in Mbps, just MB/s. Dunno if that sounds dumb or not haha.
 
Solution
That is correct, well it would be enough reason to move over for gaming... probably not for anything else. Unfortunately Powerline experiences vary greatly so test immediately after purchasing and be prepared to return if the experience isn't good.

xcrabx

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Dec 11, 2014
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Powerline adapters are a great solution to range connectivity issues! I cannot personally suggest a particular product, because I do not own one. But many of the posters on this site have suggested the TP-LINK TL-PA4010KIT AV500 Nano Powerline Adapter Starter Kit.

But before you go off and purchase one of these bad boys, can you tell me your speeds and latency? And how far the wireless is from the device you're connecting?

Also Mbps and MB/s can mean the same depending on how you're referencing the two. Mbps = megabits per second is used when referencing data transfer speeds. And sometimes MB/s means megabytes per second when referencing actual data transfer! Google can tell you more, but you always say megabits per second (Mbps) when speaking of internet speed.
 
You won't go wrong with the tp-link ones - the speeds generally are a misnomer.
A 200mb set is really good for around 60mbs.
A 500mb set will pull around 120mbs absolute max.
Either are fine for online gaming - as long as your electrical circuitry isn't 50-60 years old theyrecan excellent solution & far more stable than wireless once setup.
 

LLCoolKris

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I'm not too sure how to find my latency? Sounds noobish but that's me in some aspects haha.

I believe my internet speed is supposed to be 60mbs but when I test it(i'm on wifi) it comes out to 24.95mbs download and 24.15mbs upload.

 

LLCoolKris

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If you mean through the command prompt then I have no idea what to ping. Just a website through it?
 

APassingMe

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Open up the command prompt and run "ipconfig /all"

Then in the same command prompt run "ping gatewayaddress" where gateway address is the ip address of the gateway mentioned in the ipconfig results, it's normally either 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1
 

APassingMe

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The ping will vary depending on how heavy your network load is but we/I am mostly interested in the ping result in the best condition (no traffic) compared to the ping results of someone using Powerline in the best condition since they are the only numbers that can be equally compared in this situation.
 

LLCoolKris

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0ms minimum 3ms maximum 1ms average.

It pinged 3ms the first time <1ms the second and 1ms the next two times.
 

APassingMe

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If you can get the same result with Powerline as what digitaldoc is suggesting it sounds like a feasible option. He's testing internet ping which isn't really comparable but if it's the same on Wifi vs Powerline for him than it's probably not much worse and it should be more stable.
 

LLCoolKris

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So even though the speeds are the same, the stability should be enough to justify the move over to powerline then?
 

APassingMe

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That is correct, well it would be enough reason to move over for gaming... probably not for anything else. Unfortunately Powerline experiences vary greatly so test immediately after purchasing and be prepared to return if the experience isn't good.
 
Solution


It is really dealer's choice. I don't consider either one better. I find that that if I have a lot of downloads or uploads, that the Powerline will sustain the speed better, and I don't have to worry about dropouts.

 

prepper2010

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Apr 4, 2010
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Been using Powerline AV 200. Obviously not as good as an Ethernet connection. It's fine for surfing the net, but when I have to stream anything in HD I notice it takes a while to load. Games like WOW and FF14 seem to play fine. Would be impossible to run a cable here because of the layout. Still. Pretty close to the ancient router (Linksys WRT54G) and I keep wondering if upgrading the router and adding a fast WiFi card to my desktop would give me a better connection. I definitely feel your pain. Not sure I can add much to this conversation except to say I never lose my connection, but it doesn't seem that speedy either. Going to upgrade the router since I just got a bump in internet speed. I'm following this thread to see what sort of ideas you folks put out there. Always interesting.
 


The AV200 standard is getting kind of slow these days. I would look for AV600 powerline gear that has 10/100/1000 ports, as the AV200 stuff was only 10/100 and could be bottlenecking also. While you are at it, check on your router, and make sure it has the 10/100/1000 ports to see if that needs an upgrade.