Powerline Networking vs Wifi Bridge

[polyharmonic]

Hello!

I have my cable modem and router at one end of the house. My TV, game consoles, Blu-Ray players are at the other end of the house and all use ethernet only connections. To connect all those to my home network, I was originally planning to get the following:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...ertainment-bridge-with-4-port-switch-reviewed

(Thanks to SNB for that great review BTW!)

However, I heard that powerline networking is another alternative to consider. One of the best ones I was able to find is:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005XUNWZ2/?tag=snbforums-20

Obviously performance is going to be situation dependent. But if you could only choose one or the other, which one would seem, in most likelihood, have the best performance overall?

Thanks in advance for any responses!

 

[StratmanX]

Please clarify: You have ethernet-only (not wireless capable) clients - TV, BluRay player, game console - but they are not hooked up yet and you don't have ethernet cable to the location of the clients? You have a modem plus a router (not wireless?) and you want to use either a wireless bridge or PowerLine plugs to connect them to your LAN (to the router?)?

Have you read SNB's new review on the TRENDnet TEW-680MB 450Mbps Dual Band Wireless N HD Media Bridge? Looks like a beast.

As for PowerLine plugs, read both Thiggins and Rhombus reviews. You'll find some great info on the forum, especially head to head comparisons. My vote if I were in your situation and decided to go with a PowerLine plug solution, I would go with the Netgear XAVB5004 unless you already have a switch for the client end, and then I would get the XAVB5001.

 

[stevech]

Consider too using MoCA, if there's TV coax at each location

 

[polyharmonic]

Yes that is correct. The TV, BluRay and console are ethernet-only clients and I want to put them all in the living room on the other side of the house from the cable modem/router (Asus RT-N56U). They are unconnected when left in the living room.

I get about 3-4 bars out of 5 as indicated by the laptop wireless-n adapter in the living room area.

Thanks for your link to the new Trendnet. I might consider it over the Cisco WES610N!

Originally my plan was to get the WES610N. But along the way I discovered alternatives like powerline and MoCA. I'm fairly unfamiliar with these so that's why I wrote my post here and wonder if I should consider these instead. They seemed like they might be more stable and have higher throughput as they are "wired". But only if there was a good chance that they would work better than a Wifi bridge. So I am asking if in "general" people have experienced HomePlug or MoCA as being a better choice.

And yes there is a coax in the living room but the TV is hooked up to it via a STB.

 

[rhombus]

Short answer: it's impossible to tell without trying.

You can read my 500Mbps Homeplug Shootout to understand why, there is even a short paragraph "Homeplug vs Wireless".

Networking is all about goals and achieving those goals reliably, not getting the absolute best numbers. You are just going from one point to another point - so if a pair of Homeplugs in your location gives you the throughput you need in the long-term, then I would suggest this is a better solution than wireless for various reasons. You don't necessarily need a Homeplug with built-in switch by the way, you can connect any Homeplug of your choice to a cheap switch.

 

[StratmanX]

Not much to add to what Rhombus and Stevech wrote. You need to try things to see if it works for you over a period of time and if possible buy from a store that allows you to return it for no penalty fee.

 

[hungarianhc]

Just thought I'd put my personal 2 cents in there...

My parents have a fairly large house, and the XBOX / home entertainment stuff is on the opposite side of the house than the cable modem and router. We used powerline networking, and the speed is fantastic. I also find the reliability to better than using wireless. We put another access point there so that the wireless signal is now blasted from both sides of the house. Very nice.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I was huge into online gaming ....took a break for about a year but getting back into it.

To sum up the long story....couple of years ago....got married again...moved to "her" town. Until I sold my house in my old town...had to rent in her town. So got an old old 3 story farmhouse, about 3,600 sq ft. My office was up on the 3rd floor. Modem/router was down on first floor. (eventually moved up to 3rd floor office area for other reasons later). Since was only renting that house..I didn't want the bother of running CAT throughout. So at first...I did my online gaming via wireless. Faster first person shooter type games...Battlefield 1924/Desert Combat, etc. Generally sucked...like when doing a bombing run in the B-17..going into a dive...pushed the frames too hard, would cause a hang/lag..then snap out of the hang and find that I had crashed into the ground.

So picked up some of the Linksys powerline adapters. Problem gone...online gaming as snappy as if I ran ethernet cable.