Power Line Adapter extended range

Question

I recently moved into a new house, and brought with me a pair of old Netgear Powerline 200Mbps adapters. I use this to connect my two PCs (a small HTPC and desktop), a PS3, and A/V Receiver to the router downstairs.

In my last place, it was only a small apartment, so I had no issues. However, now I find myself on the 2nd floor, with the router all the way downstairs on the ground floor. My Powerline Adapters each have a red light on indicating that their data link over the powerlines is not ideal. I understand that this means that the range of the connection is too great and therefore there is a lot of packetloss, dropping the bandwidth. This is very clear in that my internet connection through the PLA is rarely more than about 5Mbps, but the internet connection to the router is rated at up to 50Mbps and a solid WiFi connection (usually have to be downstairs) on my phone/laptop can get me well over 30Mbps most of the time.

Now, I have considered getting a pair of PLA 500 adapters to replace my old ones. However, I wonder whether I might simply end up with the same problem. Do the 500Mbps adapters increase the range, or simply the throughput in ideal conditions? Would I see an improvement at all? I have looked around, but these devices are rarely if ever marketed in terms of how many floors they can cover, resilience to noise etc. It's all just about throughput... and I can't find any information on the PLA standards talking about a minimum range or noise resilience, either.

An alternative I have considered (though a much more expensive one) is to buy a new AC router and an AC Wireless bridge, which I am certain would improve things significantly.

Answer 1

Thinking laterally, try a WiFi range extending power line adaptor.

1. Test different plug sockets with your existing powerline adapter to see where the edge of current capability is.
2. Use a wifi extending powerline adaptor and enjoy wireless access all over.

Examples:

From TP Link; just use filter for wifi versions only.

From Netgear:

Don't know your host country but your bound to find something.

Meshing

Some adaptors claim signal resilience if you use multiple adaptors ie some acting as a sort of internal repeater. My personal experience is that it's not that effective. So if you want to try this you can add a single compatible adaptor somewhere in between and see if it works for you. Didn't really boost things for me but that was a few years ago.