Q: Is PowerLine usually faster or slower than a strong wifi signal?

[JackTheMan18]

Question:
I am using a ZYSEL 500MBPS PLA4215 from a Netgear R7000 (Gigabit wired ethernet) connection.
Speedtest.net result: (approx.)
Ping 33, Download Speed: 8MBPs
Using 2.4 ghz band, on the same Netgear R7000, shows in Speedtest.net:
Ping 11, Download Speed: 14 MBPs
(results on the 5 ghz band coming...)
Does anyone know why the PowerLine is much slower? Are these speeds to be expected?

 

[L&LD]

Power line adaptors are never recommended vs. a 'strong wifi signal', especially from an AC class router and a fast enough client.

I would say that is par for the course. At least in your environment.

 

[rajl]

Powerline is very much a "hit or miss" proposition. Powerline speeds decrease over distance and powerline is affected by line noise, which is generated by every electric device plugged into a socket on the electric wires between the two adapters. Signal strength is also lost as you cross circuit breakers in your breaker panel, with some circuits breakers being worse than others. To make it more maddening, unless you built or wired your house yourself, you never know how long the wire runs are in your walls.

A good strong AC signal is going to be better than any powerline adaptor out there. The best powerline signal I've ever gotten is about ~400 Mbps. More typical speeds are ~100 to ~200 Mbps. In comparison, a single antenna AC signal is going to run at ~433 Mbps. Triple antenna Wireless N clients top out at 450 Mbps (in a theorettically perfect world). Most wireless N clients are single or dual antenna, so they top out at 150 Mbps or 300 Mbps. However, due to compatibility issues, wireless N clients operating on the 2.4 Ghz band will generally operated on only 20 Mhz wide channels, resulting in lower speeds. At that point, good powerline adaptors in a good setup (i.e. little to no line noise, crossing a minimum number of circuit breakers, over short wire runs) can be better than WiFi.

 

[ulaganath]

Try switching the socket as close to router socket you have high chances of good speed more over 500Mbs is gimic. Only 200 is practical as per hardware so check out the link rate with adapter and see if improves as you move closer

Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk

 

[thiggins]

The answer is "it depends".

The latest HomePlug AV2 MIMO devices can deliver over 150 Mbps at opposite ends of a home.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/powerline/bar/90-down?see=P_E

Re: "A good strong AC signal is going to be better than any powerline adaptor out there." is true. Compare:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/bar/119-5-ghz-profile-dn?see=P_0
and
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/powerline/bar/90-down?see=P_A
which are best case for 5 GHz wireless and powerline.

But both Wi-Fi and powerline performance degrade with distance and environment and require some experimentation and debugging to optimize.

There are scenarios where Powerline can be better than Wi-Fi and vice versa.
Never say never for either case.