Powerline networking or a 20 meters cable for a gamer?

Givemema

Honorable
Oct 13, 2013
84
0
10,630
Hey.
I need to connect my upper floor to my bottom floor.
I can either use a 20 meters cable and run it outside the house, or try to get some kind of powerline networking.
I'm a gamer and every ms counts, as well as interference.
Will i get a higher ping, or more interference with powerline networking or is it just as good as a cable? don't really care about speed.
 
Solution
powerline is not 100% predictable. It will likely work fine but until you try it there is no way to know for sure. The house wiring and device in your house can have affect on the connection.

Ethernet is pretty much guaranteed to be your best option. The ping time on a cable is not possible to measure..it is approx the 2/3 the speed of light for your distance. You will get a few ms extra on the powerline but it is still not going to add enough to matter.

Of course ethernet is fast but that does not matter for games.

Pretty much ethernet is a pain to get installed sometimes but once it is up and running you never worry about it ever again. Powerline mostly works but being electronic it can have issue and you can get...
powerline is not 100% predictable. It will likely work fine but until you try it there is no way to know for sure. The house wiring and device in your house can have affect on the connection.

Ethernet is pretty much guaranteed to be your best option. The ping time on a cable is not possible to measure..it is approx the 2/3 the speed of light for your distance. You will get a few ms extra on the powerline but it is still not going to add enough to matter.

Of course ethernet is fast but that does not matter for games.

Pretty much ethernet is a pain to get installed sometimes but once it is up and running you never worry about it ever again. Powerline mostly works but being electronic it can have issue and you can get random interference. Plug a vacuum cleaner in on the same circuit or sometime anyplace in the house and it will cause all kinds of interference many times.
 
Solution

CCurious

Commendable
Oct 10, 2016
5
0
1,510
Pretty much what @bill001g said. I've been a combo powerline and ethernet setup and i can tell you first hand that powerline although pretty good does have its hiccups from time to time. The direct ethernet cable will always be your best option. But this is not to say powerline sux. It doesn't. I find it much better than wifi. As bill said, it really depends on the underlying wiring in the wall and interference. You can always temporarily buy powerline adapters and test them with your setup..if it doesnt help then return for a refund.

If running a direct ethernet line is an issue then there is a good chance powerline will be perfectly fine for you. For me, as i write this i am using powerline and its totally fine. I still wish i was direct connected but due to my situation it ain't gonna happen. And i certainly dont want to use wifi even though my line of sight would be fine. So the choices always go like this: 1. Direct connect cable, 2. Powerline adapter, 3. Wifi, 4. Moorse code and fire signals.