Ethernet vs WiFi vs Powerline - Which is the Best?

There are several ways to connect your PC to a network. But which one is the best? Let's find out!

Note: it looks like the pricing for Ubiquiti's access points have gone up from when I purchased them for about $100 each. Now the UAP-AC-LR model is around $170 on Amazon, and I've added a link to the Lite model which is around $120. Sad to see.

Products featured in the video:

#Networking
#WiFi
#Powerline

[BitGoblin]

It looks like the pricing for Ubiquiti's access points have gone up from when I purchased them for about $100 each. Now the UAP-AC-LR model is around $170 on Amazon, and I've added a link to the Lite model which is around $120. Sad to see.

[ThatCaymanGuy]

Powerline ethernet work great at my house, i recently rewired my house and i use powerline for my office and for the tv in the master bedroom. works fine, never had an issue.

[skwira]

If you do a lot of things on your LAN, then it's best to separate the traffic out as much as possible. You can get one Powerline kit for example so that it doesn't chew bandwidth off of your Wi-Fi if say you use powerline to transfer files or stream a video from another computer. Then that frees up Wi-Fi to be use for a video call over the Internet because Wi-Fi is a shared medium and collisions are possible. I have a hybrid network when it comes to Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Powerline, and MoCa. I put my access point pretty much right in the middle of my house at ground level and it gets the tiny 3 room plus hallway upstairs really well as well as the entire basement. Plus I get the 2.4 GHz signal all around the yard. I connect all the phones to the 2.4 GHz. Then the tablets go on the 5 GHz because every where in the house there's coverage plus it doesn't have to deal with collisions from the phone traffic. Then I have one All In One PC that is on the Powerline upstairs in my bedroom. Also in my bedroom on the top floor I have one Ethernet drop ran from the basement where the Internet box comes in. Then on the ground level I ran 2 Ethernet ports for the Roku and wireless access point (I turned the Wi-Fi off on the DSL modem/router). And then also I have MoCa connecting the DirecTV Set Top boxes in my bedroom upstairs as well as the ground level TV. All I had to do to run ethernet from the ground level TV was cut a hole in the wall, drill down, and stick something from a unfinished utility room above the ceiling and pull it back. There is a den on the other side, so that's super easy. Then the basement TV I just hop over one bathroom and both sides of the bathroom is a utility room where the electrical comes in and on the other side is the furnace, and then I just go under the stairs where I have access to the back of the wall where the TV is. The hardest run was getting to the bedroom.

[joanale]

Thank you so much! I was about to buy 5 powerline adapters (1 per floor) in my house but now I gonna switch to Wifi 6e Mesh with 3 devices in 1st 3rth and 5 floor.

[ajaypalsandhu]

Bro, why didn't you test the internet speed? How much would you get in all of them, and how much speed do you lose with wifi and powerline!

[lovejoyone]

Where the inlets you used to plug in the powerline adapters on the same electrical phase?

[MattBasch]

For my setup, I go Ethernet first, MoCA second, and WiFi third. At my dad’s house, he was having WiFi range issues reaching his office. I installed two MoCA adapters (one at the router and one to his PC). On a Verizon gigabit connection, I was able to get 600 down and 900 up via MoCA 2.0 with low pings. Really good value for the money and many houses have coax run throughout.

[OldieBugger]

Thank you for all the work you did to get hard data. But I try to avoid using anything but ethernet cable connections. I've seen these differences with my own eyes, but only very approximately. I tested powerline adapters a few years back to link my mother's TV (livingroom) to her modem (hall), because installing the cable was really a frustrating job. But after the first report I heard from her I sighed and went to buy a fairly long cable and some hooks to hold it discreetly along the wall...

[rafaelmarques]

For powerlines to work well you need to actually have a decent power line circuit

[Prodigyproperties]

In my main home i have a mesh wifi network with the amazon eero. i just built a shop approx 200 feet away from my home. i ran an underground ethernet cable to the shop, im looking for everything to be on one network so when i walk out the house my phone will stay on one wifi network once i get into the shop. how would i do that or what would you recommend for my set up?

[vegas]

Powerline will beat wifi on long distances. Ex. Router at garage 150' away frome house access point, here is where it beats wifi.

[faerieknight]

I've been looking into this since I have a use case which demands wired internet on my PC, but only one (technically two) places I can position the router due to only having one working cable internet jack. I guess though that I'll continue just putting my computer where it currently is.

[terminative]

You probably have stuff plugged into your wall plugs causing interference. I had dsl speeds on my initial setup but all I had to do was plug my tv into the powerline 120v plug instead of in the second outlet above it.

[kzro]

Dang I still don’t know what to go with my router is a lil far from my PS4 an I’m not able to get the connection I used to have while it was in my room an in need of one of these but still don’t know what to go with due to all of them have mixed reviews? Or would a WiFi booster be better ? Juss need something to improve my gaming experience

[elmarulian]

what about the jitter?, that's something you really need to take a look for gaming, high latency with less jitter (powerline) is usually better than low latency with a lot of jitter (wifi)

[chrisdavies]

Hi, great video. Theoretically, would it be possible to send analogue video and audio from one room to another using the copper wiring in your home?

[johnkwolf]

I mount your to try cables tv the same power line

[telelaci]

I don't understand, I can't find a proper powerline adapter speed test on youtube.
Your local network speed is less than 400Mbps. Something is wrong with that, something is fishy, it's faulty.
The local networks speed groups are: ... so on.
You have a Gigabit local network that works only with 400Mbps (you should measure at least 940...960Mbps), so it's not properly configured or something is faulty. Then you plug you powerline adaptor to this faulty WAN.
Meh. The test is unusable.

[lydethful]

Should not include WiFi in this comparison, wired always better than wireless