Powerline adapter vs Range extender (RE).

[Budgeter]

As title, can anyone tell me what's the point of using powerline adapter? Aside from extending signal at the place we can no longer using range extender (even range extender can't receive signal).

Let suppose my main purpose is using range extender /powerline adapter only as a receiver, and plug Ethernet cable from PC to it. Well, simply you can think it as a "wifi adapter". Wifi extension performance is secondary. Internet plan is more than a gigabit to avoid bottleneck. Both devices have gigabit Ethernet port.

E.g: Router -> powerline kit -> PC (all via Cat 6 cable) vs Router -> Range extender (wireless, 5GHz, 2-4 stream backhaul) -> PC (from RE via Cat 6 cable)

In ideal scenario (both can perform at their best, loss is limited but still exist as in real word application), what should I use and why?

In case I'm looking for a powerline adapter, what should I notice and expect? For example, choose Broadcom based device, avoid Mediatek, 128mb ram at least, choose the one that has function ABC, expect that I can only receive 1/2 of my original speed in best case scenario, etc.

Actually, I have tried several range extender before (RE9000, EX8000, Tplink Re series, some Asus RE, etc), so I have a sense of how it should perform in real world application. I ask this question simply to know how is powerline adapter compared to range extender in general and in ideal scenario. By the way, I'm not a technical expert, just a tech-savvy dude want to know more about these stuff.

 

[hyelton]

Depends on your house wiring. If old it’s gonna be really bad.

But power line has been hit or miss for me. And no where near as reliable as a normal range extender.


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[Trip]

IMHO, powerline should only be used for temporary and/or emergency connectivity; not as a long-term solution, and certainly not for anything critical. The technology is inherently flaky due to a myriad of issues around electrical circuitry. In some places, it can work fine and do so for years, in others it won't work at all, but most the common case I've seen is it works well enough in the first few weeks or months, but then deteriorate and/or loses sync at an increasing rate over time.

Try as best you can to run ethernet between locations, or if there is pre-existing coaxial, use MoCa 2.0 or 2.5 adapters. Otherwise, if you absolutely have to build the link wirelessly, then do so with a proper point-to-point bridge; don't use repeaters if you can help it. Pre-paired 2-packs of bridges are the easiest way to get that done (ex: Ubiqitui Loco M2). Then you can re-broadcast your client wifi from a proper AP on the other side of the wireless link.

 

[coxhaus]

Ethernet wire is best. Trip I ran a powerline adapter for years with no issues. I never had to reboot them or anything. I used them with my Cisco gear. I got just under 200 mbs.

 

[RogerSC]

I had terrible results here with powerline adapters. Guess the wiring is just too funky, although it works well for power *smile*. I also tried wireless extenders, and couldn't get the reliability or throughput I was looking for. Since I can't really afford to put ethernet cables in the walls (no crawl space or full attic), decided to go with the cable TV coax already in the walls. My goal was to have essentially a hard-wired connection between our fiber gateway and gateway router node and the router node at each of our two TV's (ended up with a 3-node eero wireless router system), this has worked out perfectly. Using MoCA 2.0 adapters and splitters, have essentially a hard-wired connection between these 3 locations. The MoCA adapters do add a couple of ms. of latency, but we get full ISP download and upload speed at both remote endpoints.

Great for all our streaming needs. We have an OTA antenna with a Tablo that streams via the eeros, as well as internet streaming TV. Everything is working well.

 

[Budgeter]

Thanks for all the input. I still can't find the full answer that I'm looking for.
Properly duo to its dependence on electrical wiring of each house, it is really hard to have a test in ideal case. I also knew powerline kit have far worse wireless performance, that's why I stated "Wifi extension performance is secondary". Well, in this case, specs tells everything.

At least in my experience, with 4 stream back-haul extender (RE9000 and EX8000), I could get nearly a gigabit local file transfer if I connect my devices to them via Ethernet (1 Gig port), while the extender is connected to 4 stream routers (Tplink A10, R7800). I would say this result is limit of what range extender at this point can do. To get this result, my setup is unrealistic, but this is only to see how they perform at best.

 

[coxhaus]

To me a powerline adapter is faster than 2.4GHz. But 5GHz is faster than my powerline adapter.

I should add the powerline adapter has pretty constant speed where the wireless varies more.

I have streamed a lot of TV across my powerline adapter with great results and no pauses. We are talking years of streaming.