I recently bought a Netgear powerline ethernet adapter that was capable of 300Mbps data transfer and should (theoretically) push my full 105/12 Mbps Comcast service. I actually get roughly 35-40Mbps, which sucks to have to settle for that kind of loss, but the reality is that you're hard-wired with that speed. Barring any major electrical noise, your latency will be super-low and the signal will be consistent. My ISP's .ac router has the range to reach where I'm at, with fair signal, but there's too much signal power loss (best case scenario = ~55dB... OKAY at best). I ran into intermittent signal loss that would screw with my web browsing and my online gaming at times - super annoying!
Jumping to a powerline adapter greatly improved my connection, even at the loss of speed. To get more to the point, the more stuff you have plugged into your walls across the house, the more opportunity for signal loss due to the noise on of those currents. If you have a ton of stuff that you leave on for no good reason, get in the habit of turning them off. I found that my high speed USB phone charger for my Nexus 6 and my Xbox One were creating a lot of noise that greatly degraded the signal from 40 to as low as 5! Now, I usually can leave my Xbox One on, but power cycling it ramped up my speed instantly, so I knew that was one item that (if left on for many many hours at a time) is capable of bottle-necking my powerline adapter.
As stated earlier, even older wiring can support good speeds, but remember that your wiring can run hundreds of meters depending on how everything is setup, and jumping between circuits further drops your signal - enough to probably cut your bandwidth by more than 50%. So if you don't have a fast internet service (under 15 Mbps), powerline adapters could ultimately be pointless, since you could see subpar connectivity. However, newer homes with up-to-date wiring can prove to offer lower noise when using these adapters. My home isn't new... not old, but not new. A newer wiring setup would probably double my speeds.
In the end, if you're choosing between accepting weak WiFi signal and decent, if reduced, powerline speeds, choose the later for sure. If you'd rather, run a powerline adapter from your source and put it maybe mid-way between your modem/router and where you need internet then hook up an access point. You'll probably pull the best speeds that way (if you aren't required to have a hardline connection). It just costs a bit more since you need the adapters AND the AP for that.
1Powerline adapters hardly ever get close to their advertised speeds, because of noise, outlets being on different circuit, and other variables. I have a Linksys PLEK500 (up to 500Mbps), and I'm happy to get 40Mbps, but much more reliable than Wireless-N. Reviews have the PLEK-500 adapters going up to 200+Mbps depending on your wiring. So perhaps a newer version of Powerline will be sufficient to get full speed from your ISP. – shinjijai – 2014-05-01T13:44:18.610
1"200Mbps" refers to Megabits, not Megabytes. When you say you are receiving 60MB download, do you mean Megabytes (MB) or Megabits (Mb)? – bdr9 – 2014-05-01T13:45:34.387
1Is it on a surge protector or power strip? I experimented with PowerLine adaptors a while back and found that putting anything between the adaptor and the wall socket would degrade or disable the connection. – P Fitz – 2014-05-01T15:21:43.367
1Other devices plugged into the circuits can attenuate the signal, or contribute line noise: both reduce your signal-to-noise ratio.
I haven't been able to determine in my cursory glance if the adapters are assigned IP addresses. If they are, then it may be possible to use an SNMP utility to determine their media quality, and negotiated transmission rate.
Keep in mind that even new house wiring would be hard-pressed to meet even Category 3 data wiring standards, as each device plugged in alters its transmission profile. – Nevin Williams – 2014-05-02T00:12:39.277
@bdr9 this i am not sure of, but have linked to the actual result (the faster one, direct wired) in my question. I understand the difference, just not sure because its labelled mb/s. does the lowercase indicate bits rather than bytes? – Baldy – 2014-05-02T06:00:02.613
I have updated my question with any other relevant info. @NevinWilliams - will look into SNMP utility. do you have a link to a recommended one? – Baldy – 2014-05-02T06:01:46.273
ok, so now i understand the difference in notation between MB and Mb. The powernline has the potential to run my connection at full speed but many factors affect it. I will do some more tests as suggested above and post details. – Baldy – 2014-05-02T08:00:45.910
1
SNMP requires that the devices have IP addresses (and that your system can send and receive traffic with them. This free app on the App Store https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/snmp-test-utility/id441785756?mt=12 can help determine if a device on your network is SNMP-capable.
– Nevin Williams – 2014-05-02T09:26:55.073