Powerline connection not great

[alexrp1234]

I play CSGO which is a pretty demanding game response wise. For me to be able to react I need to have as low latency as possible for online.
I have a powerline since the room I'm in doesn't have a network port. While using my powerline I achieve 70 ping/ms on a server. That same server using wifi I get around 23 ping/ms, HUGE difference. But when I'm on wifi my ping spikes constantly and isn't reliable enough for me to play this game on. Is there another option for me/another product so I don't have to run cables through my wall?
Mainly can't do hardline cause I live in a household with parents who aren't fans of video games in the first place. I've asked and they don't necessarily jump up when I mention I have to "cut" holes in the walls basically.

 

[WatEagle]

I also have a powerline and sometimes can be really annoying. is the powerline only ethernet or you can also use wifi?
and a stupid thing is it connected to a power strip or directly into the wall socket?

 

[kayjay010101]

I play CSGO which is a pretty demanding game response wise. For me to be able to react I need to have as low latency as possible for online.
I have a powerline since the room I'm in doesn't have a network port. While using my powerline I achieve 70 ping/ms on a server. That same server using wifi I get around 23 ping/ms, HUGE difference. But when I'm on wifi my ping spikes constantly and isn't reliable enough for me to play this game on. Is there another option for me/another product so I don't have to run cables through my wall?
Mainly can't do hardline cause I live in a household with parents who aren't fans of video games in the first place. I've asked and they don't necessarily jump up when I mention I have to "cut" holes in the walls basically.

Would running a really long ethernet cable underneath a door or keeping your door open be an option?
Otherwise I'm not sure you've got any other options.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I personally have never seen powerline adapters work with total satisfaction, except in new houses (or new wiring in older homes) and when both ends are on the same circuit.

For sure, you need to make sure your outlets are properly wired and tied to Earth ground. Every home and every computer user should have access to a AC Outlet Tester to ensure the wall outlet is properly wired and grounded to Earth ground. I recommend one with a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupt) indicator as it can be used to test bathroom and kitchen outlets (outlets near water) too. These testers can be found for your type and voltage outlet, foreign or domestic, (like this one for the UK) at most home improvement stores, or even the electrical department at Wal-Mart. Use it to test all the outlets in the home and if a fault is shown, have it fixed by a qualified electrician.

 

[newtekie1]

I personally have never seen powerline adapters work with total satisfaction, except in new houses (or new wiring in older homes) and when both ends are on the same circuit.

I think a large part of the dissatisfaction is that people expect too much. I mean, it's using a single wire in the power system of your house(sometimes two in the really high end kits) and getting you a network connection.

My home was built in the 60s and I get good results with a 1300Mbps MIMO kit set up with one in my house and the other in a detached garage. The connection is more stable than WiFi, as OP experienced, but yes there is more latency. I mean, that only makes sense when you consider that it is converting the signal from ethernet to the powerline standard and then back to ethernet. But the latency is stable unlike WiFi that tend to give major pink spikes. It's a trade off. To me, a more steady but higher latency is actually better than a lower latency with massive spikes, because you definitely feel those spikes. And the speeds aren't bad, I get about 200Mbps in the garage.

 

[dirtyferret]

I play CSGO which is a pretty demanding game response wise. For me to be able to react I need to have as low latency as possible for online.
I have a powerline since the room I'm in doesn't have a network port. While using my powerline I achieve 70 ping/ms on a server. That same server using wifi I get around 23 ping/ms, HUGE difference. But when I'm on wifi my ping spikes constantly and isn't reliable enough for me to play this game on. Is there another option for me/another product so I don't have to run cables through my wall?
Mainly can't do hardline cause I live in a household with parents who aren't fans of video games in the first place. I've asked and they don't necessarily jump up when I mention I have to "cut" holes in the walls basically.

Have you tried MoCa adapters? Is the wi-fi signal weak to your PC? There are ways of improving the signal strength.

I personally have never seen powerline adapters work with total satisfaction, except in new houses (or new wiring in older homes) and when both ends are on the same circuit.

For sure, you need to make sure your outlets are properly wired and tied to Earth ground. Every home and every computer user should have access to a AC Outlet Tester to ensure the wall outlet is properly wired and grounded to Earth ground. I recommend one with a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupt) indicator as it can be used to test bathroom and kitchen outlets (outlets near water) too. These testers can be found for your type and voltage outlet, foreign or domestic, (like this one for the UK) at most home improvement stores, or even the electrical department at Wal-Mart. Use it to test all the outlets in the home and if a fault is shown, have it fixed by a qualified electrician.

I use my powerline adapters in my home (built in 86) with no issue but I don't use them for gaming or anything too demanding. I run a line into our master bedroom for a better wi-fi signal for simple web surfing (converted old router into a second AP) and for streaming on the bedroom TV via a roku.

 

[Rahnak]

For sure, you need to make sure your outlets are properly wired and tied to Earth ground. Every home and every computer user should have access to a AC Outlet Tester to ensure the wall outlet is properly wired and grounded to Earth ground.

While that's certainly a nice bonus to have, it's not strictly necessary. I've been using powerline adapters for a number of years (up until early last year for my main rig, work laptop still on it) and the wiring for the outlets in my house isn't grounded, except for the kitchen and ceiling, if I'm not mistaken. It works very well. The internet connection is as stable as running a cable directly from the router just the speed isn't anything to write home about (40-50 mbps, single digit ping, according to speedtest).

I started with a Devolo dLan AVplus 200 kit. Later naively upgraded to a TP-Link 1200 kit but it didn't improve anything (needed ground for better speeds).

But WiFi these days is much better than it used to be, I have a router and an extender and that gives me much faster speeds (~220mbps) and the same single digit ping.

 

[Bill_Bright]

While that's certainly a nice bonus to have, it's not strictly necessary.

It is if it is supposed to be. That is, if your house was wired with 3 conductors (hot, neutral and ground) to each outlet back to the Earth-grounded service panel, then each outlet should still be properly wired and grounded to Earth ground.

Even if the house is wired with 2-conductor wiring, as mine was (and still is in some parts), if the receptible is polarized (one long and one short slot) polarity matters.

I was careful how I worded my initial comments. I did NOT say total satisfaction was not possible with power line adapters. I simply said "I" have not seen it and I specifically said "total satisfaction" because I have seen working power line networks that worked for some tasks, but not heavy bandwidth tasks - thus not to total satisfaction.

That said, power line adapters are often a viable option. I would just make sure your retailer has a generous return policy. Many don't for opened boxed electrical items.

 

[Rahnak]

It is if it is supposed to be. That is, if your house was wired with 3 conductors (hot, neutral and ground) to each outlet back to the Earth-grounded service panel, then each outlet should still be properly wired and grounded to Earth ground.

Even if the house is wired with 2-conductor wiring, as mine was (and still is in some parts), if the receptible is polarized (one long and one short slot) polarity matters.

I was careful how I worded my initial comments. I did NOT say total satisfaction was not possible with power line adapters. I simply said "I" have not seen it and I specifically said "total satisfaction" because I have seen working power line networks that worked for some tasks, but not heavy bandwidth tasks - thus not to total satisfaction.

That said, power line adapters are often a viable option. I would just make sure your retailer has a generous return policy. Many don't for opened boxed electrical items.

My bad, I misinterpreted your post. I can get behind the total satisfaction claim as well.

As for the OP, maybe you could try to convince your parents to upgrade the Wifi (ac/5) and add some extenders/repeaters? Probably easier to sell that idea because everyone benefits.

 

[newtekie1]

That said, power line adapters are often a viable option. I would just make sure your retailer has a generous return policy. Many don't for opened boxed electrical items.

The other thing that people need to do is not buy the cheapest ones out there. I still see the 85Mbps adapters sold at the big box stores and even Amazon and the like. Those just outright suck. They'll get you a connection, but it will be slow, likely in the 1-2Mbps range even with good wiring. Then there are the 200Mbps and 500Mbps ones, which also aren't much better. The 1000Mbps and 1200Mbps ones are decent, but the ones you really want are the 1300Mbps ones. Those ones are the ones that use MIMO. All the others just use the neutral wire, they achieve faster speeds by just raising the signal clock speed. The 1300Mbps adapters not only use the higher clock speed, but they also use the ground and neutral wire. These are the only ones that necessary need to have a ground wire properly connected to get good speeds. All the others only care about the neutral wire. But of course nothing is going to really help with the latency, other than maybe if there are faster processors in them to do the conversions.

IMO, the speed ratings(much like WiFi) are deceiving to customers. The rating is the raw data throughput, not UDP/TCP data. And they are taking the speed of both directions and adding it together. It's like the old days when NIC manufacturers used to market their 2000Mbps network cards. But they were really just standard Gigabit NICs, but it was 1Gbps in each direction so they would claim 2Gbps.

At the end of the day, nothing is as good an actual hardwired cable, every other solution is a trade-off.

As for the OP, maybe you could try to convince your parents to upgrade the Wifi (ac/5) and add some extenders/repeaters? Probably easier to sell that idea because everyone benefits.

WiFi extenders are probably going to add more latency than the powerline adapters.

 

[milewski1015]

As for the OP, maybe you could try to convince your parents to upgrade the Wifi (ac/5) and add some extenders/repeaters? Probably easier to sell that idea because everyone benefits.

I'm currently using a mesh wifi network, and have my PC connected via ethernet to the node on my desk. Obviously not a true hardwired connection since the node still has to wirelessly communicate with the master node that's connected to the modem, but I've found it significantly improved the stability of my connection.

 

[Rahnak]

WiFi extenders are probably going to add more latency than the powerline adapters.

I just have my own experience to go by, which is not much, but I have less latency on my desktop using wifi and connected to an extender than my work laptop on wired powerline. Wifi is more fickle though. I've also had a much better time with wifi 5 (ac) than previous versions.

I'm currently using a mesh wifi network, and have my PC connected via ethernet to the node on my desk. Obviously not a true hardwired connection since the node still has to wirelessly communicate with the master node that's connected to the modem, but I've found it significantly improved the stability of my connection.

That's strange. But yeah, mesh is possibly a good option for the OP as well. How is it in regards to latency?

 

[kapone32]

You got get yourself a WIFI 6 adapter. When I got one it maxed out my ISP's wireless. There are 6E components coming later that also promise Speed increases.

 

[dirtyferret]

You got get yourself a WIFI 6 adapter. When I got one it maxed out my ISP's wireless. There are 6E components coming later that also promise Speed increases.

You will need a Wifi 6 router as well as client to see wifi 6 benefits. Your increased throughput may have more to do with the better chip in the new adapter (or one that plays better with router). Also better throughput does not always correlate to better latency. My guess from the op's description is his parents have the 1200ac router special from their ISP with rather poor range. Perhaps he can use an old router in bridge mode which also falls into your "new adapter" answer or an extender as other''s have mentioned. As long as the issue isn't an upstream issue with the ISP, there are several ways to go about trying to solve the issue.

 

[milewski1015]

That's strange. But yeah, mesh is possibly a good option for the OP as well. How is it in regards to latency?

Decent. Usually average 25ms in Valorant. Definitely not the most conventional solution - more of a bandaid fix since a true hardwired connection to the router downstairs isn't an option, but it's more stable than just straight wifi.

 

[95Viper]

Just a possible idea.
I used it to setup the wife's work at home office: and, one is connected to my TV for streaming and stuff..
You might want to check into using a Moca setup, if there is any coax in the room.

MoCA Home™ 2.5