Powerline adapters...

[Mountain Max]

I just hate to see someone buy long outdated 802.11N technology, the performance just isn't there and the range of "N" routers is really short. It's also possible that the bottleneck isn't in the wireless adapter in the computer.

If he has a place to plug in a network cable on his computer, upgrading to two wireless AC routers like sholling mentions would probably be easiest. If he has an open PCI express slot, you could run a beefy wireless adapter on his end and a replace your main router with something equally beefy (if your main router even needs an upgrade)

Think something like this:

ASUS Dual-Band Wireless-AC1900 PCI-E Adapter $91
PCIe Adapter.jpg

And your main router should match it with at least AC1900 otherwise get something like this:

ASUS Dual-band Wireless-AC1900 Gigabit Router $139
AC Router.jpg

The above setup will give him the absolute lowest latency for gaming over a wireless network, although the two router setup is still decent and the difference will be minimal.

[sholling]

If he has a place to plug in a network cable on his computer, upgrading to two wireless AC routers like sholling mentions would probably be easiest. If he has an open PCI express slot, you could run a beefy wireless adapter on his end and a replace your main router with something equally beefy (if your main router even needs an upgrade)

Think something like this:

ASUS Dual-Band Wireless-AC1900 PCI-E Adapter $91
[ATTACH]657897[/ATTACH]

And your main router should match it with at least AC1900 otherwise get something like this:

ASUS Dual-band Wireless-AC1900 Gigabit Router $139
[ATTACH]657898[/ATTACH]

The above setup will give him the absolute lowest latency for gaming over a wireless network, although the two router setup is still decent and the difference will be minimal.

A second advantage of this is that the bridge-mode router is also a gigabit hub with 3 additional open ports for other devices such as a printer or a Roku.

[BuddyBoy]

Powerline adapters have worked very well for me, with the caveat that I'm only using them on streaming media adapters (including a Smart TV) or low-bandwidth devices, so I have no idea what the latency is or how they would perform for gaming.

These are some five year old AV200 adapters I'm using at our vacation house. I'm getting 80-90Mbps. In our primary residence I have some AV500 adapters and I'm getting around 190Mbps out of them.



I don't bother with encrypting the signal. I live in a house, with its own electric meter, so the signal doesn't leak over to my neighbors.

[the86d]

Well, I just bought the Belkin adapters mentioned, (and they are about $3 more now that Christmas pricing has arrived,) I will drop an update w/test results to help others choose or not if they are thinking about these types of devices.

[Mountain Max]

Well, I just bought the Belkin adapters mentioned, (and they are about $3 more now that Christmas pricing has arrived,) I will drop an update w/test results to help others choose or not if they are thinking about these types of devices.

Yeah, I'll be interested in how they work out. How old is your house (the wiring in the walls?) that seems to be the difference for latency purposes.

[the86d]

Yeah, I'll be interested in how they work out. How old is your house (the wiring in the walls?) that seems to be the difference for latency purposes.

2k5. I should have the set by 12/5.

I believe that they are going on the same breaker, so that might be a factor too?
We shall see.

Dang, that reminds me, I am going to need another switch, or larger switch in the area it is going to get it's feed from...
EDIT: Not bad, $18 for a used 8-port D-Link Gigabit from CO.

[the86d]

UPDATE:

The Belkin F5D4076 powerline Gig. adapters work well, until they don't...

They work well for a few hours to days w/out issue, then have to be power-cycled. After a few times of doing this I just thought there might be a firmware update to correct this issue, so I just upgraded firmware on all of these from factory: "22207" to the updated "2.0.22 (svn: 27221 branch:0)". I then actually read the instructions on how to enable encryption, and locked-in encryption, so this was also enabled/refreshed.

(OH, BTW, the remote device should be upgraded first, as the link dies on the remote side when upgrading the device/side plugged into the network. Easily remedied by just plugging in the remote device locally into the network and upgrading the second... after the fact.)

Sitrep to follow regarding testing, post firmware-upgrade w/encryption enabled....

[Mountain Max]

The Belkin F5D4076 powerline Gig. adapters work well, until they don't...

They work well for a few hours to days w/out issue, then have to be power-cycled. After a few times of doing this I just thought there might be a firmware update to correct this issue, so I just upgraded firmware on all of these from factory: "22207" to the updated "2.0.22 (svn: 27221 branch:0)". I then actually read the instructions on how to enable encryption, and locked-in encryption, so this was also enabled/refreshed.

(OH, BTW, the remote device should be upgraded first, as the link dies on the remote side when upgrading the device/side plugged into the network. Easily remedied by just plugging in the remote device locally into the network and upgrading the second... after the fact.)

Sitrep to follow regarding testing, post firmware-upgrade w/encryption enabled....

Thanks, let us know how the update goes.

[solipsism]

I tried some TPLink powerline adapters recently due to wireless not cutting it even though my house is small.

Speed and latency seemed decent but definitely didn't get speeds advertised which I knew going into it.

I ultimately had to return them because it would cause interference with my speakers giving me an awful static sound. I did what I could to fix it within reason but it never went aware. I just bought a modern and better router and that fixed my wireless issues.

[the86d]

Thanks, let us know how the update goes.

My son informed me of ZERO issues, post FW update.

[the86d]

Completely issue-free, still!
Not bad for ~$28!

I hereby recommend them, IF you update the firmware.