How to Choose the Best Powerline Adapter
With more and more people working from home and using streaming services, it’s essential to have a fast home network. It’s almost as necessary as having a kettle or central gas heating, and the quickest way to improve your network speeds is by adding a best powerline adapter for gaming. They will speed up your network in the rooms that need it. And they are effortless to install.
What makes them awesome?
Although the best powerline adapters use a different way of extending your Wi-Fi access, the speeds are surprisingly similar to wired connections. It’s the ideal solution for a Wi-Fi network that can’t reach certain parts of your home or office. Some of these adapters even come with Wi-Fi antennas and transmit signals as well.
Similar to many other products, best powerline adapter for gaming come with a few crucial aspects that separate the good from the not-that-good devices, and they are:
Speed
One of the most important aspects of any powerline adapter is its speed. Therefore, always go for higher numbers and keep in mind that gigabit speeds are a necessity these days. Also, be aware that declared speeds are only theoretical ones and that they are almost impossible to achieve.
All powerline adapters are marketed with speeds from 500Mbps to 2.400Mbps. You most likely won’t reach the top speeds, but they tell you a lot about the technology inside and can be used to compare against each other.
Some of the adapters we have reviewed have been around for a couple of years, but the basic technology remains the same, and these are gadgets that you don’t need to upgrade very often, which makes them even better value for money. The technology doesn’t improve much from year to year, like on smartphones.
All best powerline adapter for gaming will have a transfer speed denoted in Mbps, or megabytes per second, which is the measurement of how fast the connection is; this is exactly the same way the speed of an internet connection is measured.
The Mbps of a powerline is the maximum amount of data it can transfer as other elements like old or outdated wiring and electrical noise can affect the connection. The way speed is measured for powerlines is the maximum amount it can transfer in both directions.
Speed Is Measured in the Same Way as Your Internet Connection, but Works Slightly Differently
A powerline that is capable of 600 Mbps in total is capable of a maximum of 300 Mbps in each direction. If you think of your internet connection again, usually only the download speed is mentioned; 600 Mbps powerline would essentially have an upload speed of 300 Mbps and download a speed of 300 Mbps.
Latency
If you want a great gaming experience, everything has to go smoothly and without a significant lag. For that reason, go for the device with the lowest possible latency, in order not to get unpleasantly surprised and realize your investment in best powerline adapter for gaming was a waste of money and it is completely unusable in fast-paced games.
Security
Although this may not sound that important, have in mind that these devices are using your electrical circuit to transfer your data. In other words, whoever has the approach to your circuit can potentially “hijack” your files.
Of course, this doesn’t happen to everyone and it applies more to offices, rather than home use, but whatever the location is, it is better to be safe than sorry. For that reason, be sure that your adapter is equipped with some sort of encryption, usually 128-bit AES that will prevent any situation in which your files may be compromised.
Usability
One of the requirements for powerline adapters to work, is that all of them are plugged in the same electrical circuit. If that isn’t the case, the devices that are outside of it, will not work. For that reason, before the purchase, be sure that the desired location for the best powerline adapter for gaming is suitable considering the mentioned requirements and that all of the devices will be in the same circuit.
Compatibility
Although officially most devices apply to compatibility certification standards, as HomePlug AV2 for instance, the fact is that in reality, these labels don’t mean much. In other words, the products may or may not work together, which isn’t an issue if you are buying your first powerline adapters set (they will surely work with each other), but is, if you want to widen your existing network and are looking for compatible products.
In that case, you have three options: 1) Search online to see other people’s experiences; 2) Contact the manufacturer’s support to see if the desired devices are compatible; and the last, but surely the safest, 3) If it is possible, buy the exact same product as the first time.
There are products that will connect over best powerline adapter for gaming but at the end have a wireless AP (Access Point). You will need some networking knowledge to set this up as you will have to faff about with IP addresses but all the instructions are in the box so if you are easily confused, it does provide a get out. The NewLink 200Mbps NL-HPW200 is, as it describes, a 200Mbps but has a wireless AP built in. At a few pence over ?38, it?s a very attractive unit.
Another unit is the Netgear AV 200 Wireless N Extender which is over ?92 but offers a little more confidence in the branded name.
Rounding things up
I hope that if you are reading this, you are interested in getting a powerline setup into your home and that you have found this article extensive and informative (Kudos via comments always go down well!). Powerline networking is a very hand way of extending your home network with reliable speed and managing to implement it without one iota of networking knowledge. I can?t begin to detail all of the possible combinations that you can have with this technology or indeed the huge range of options available to you from CCL.
Installing A Powerline Adaptor
If you worry about installation, don’t. This is how easy it is to install powerline adapters…
Plug one adapter into a power socket near your router and connect it to the router using an Ethernet cable. Now go to the room where you want an improved signal, plug the second adaptor into a power socket, and attach another ethernet cable from there to the device you want to use. That’s it; it really is plug-and-play.
Most best powerline adapter for gaming come in pairs of two, but you can buy “home kits” of three. If you need a faster network in more rooms, you can add single adapters to each room.