Best way to get net downstairs?

[OnionRings]

Hey guys, moved to a new house, router is in my room upstairs, sister and brother in law need ethernet downstairs. My brothers PC does wifi but its shit, like 20 mbps, and my sister needs wifi because her rig is my old rig and the motherboard and GPU didn't have clearance for a wifi card.

 

My idea was a powerline network adapter, plug 1 under my desk, run an ethernet cable to it, plug the other downstairs and (with a 2 port model) run the 2 ethernets to their PCs.

 

Here is where the debate comes in, my sister is afraid to have 2 pcs in the same room, shes afraid it may be too much for the circuit, however I am doubting the 2 PCs will pull enough power to trip the breaker. Her rig is an i7 6700 and RX 570, his rig is a R5 3600 and RX 580. Those 2 PCs, 2 basic 1080p monitors, a nintendo switch, printer, some basic low power stuff, is that too much? 

[Sorenson]

I’ve had a couple powerline adapters and found them to be pretty unreliable. They work perfectly one day then just randomly are buggy as heck the next. If you have coax run through your house you can get a pair of MoCA 2.0 or 2.5 adapters to send the signal through the existing wiring. If you don’t, netgear orbis are really good and have Ethernet ports on the satellites (essentially turning them into a giant WiFi antenna for the pc connected). 

[LunaP0n3]

Doesn't sound anywhere near enough to trip a breaker, assuming the rest of the circuit is not under too heavy a load.

I might suggest (budget permitting) to run an AP off one of the ethernet ports to give WiFi to the bottom floor for good measure.

[Dutch_Master]

No, it'll be safe, provided other power-hungry devoices are on a different circuit as you're approaching the theoretical limit (yes, there's some spare power, so technically you could run a hairdryer as well as both PC's at full power). In practice, neither PC will consume all of their power, at the same time and for a prolonged time, so your sis and B-I-L will be fine. To really alleviate the fears your sister has, rewire her power outlet to a different circuit to that of her husband, just make sure this is done to building standard by a qualified engineer!

[LunaP0n3]

1 minute ago, Sorenson said:

I’ve had a couple powerline adapters and found them to be pretty unreliable. They work perfectly one day then just randomly are buggy as heck the next.

I agree. In the right circumstances they can work, but the quality of the wiring and presence of noisy devices on the circuit can cause speed downgrades and even dropouts.

[George Vella]

If you need wifi, Powerline Adatapters as mentions before were too unreliable for me too but what I did was that I repurpesed my old Laptop as a WiFi Exptender and it worked way way better than Powerline Adapters

[OnionRings]

3 minutes ago, George Vella said:

If you need wifi, Powerline Adatapters as mentions before were too unreliable for me too but what I did was that I repurpesed my old Laptop as a WiFi Exptender and it worked way way better than Powerline Adapters

Well I'd be using the adapters to hard wire their PCs, not wifi. Are even the more expensive adapters still garbage? What about a second router downstairs? My only issue with that, is that I use comcasts like 2-1 shitty modem/router combo so I have no idea if you can even have 2 of those, I'm guessing not. Would I need to buy my own router and 2 modems? (or is that vice versa, I never did figure out which of the 2 does what job).

[SuperCloneRanger]

13 minutes ago, Sorenson said:

I’ve had a couple powerline adapters and found them to be pretty unreliable. They work perfectly one day then just randomly are buggy as heck the next.

I had tons of issues when i started using poweline, This little trick fixed 98% of them. most(all?) powerline equipment has power saving sleep modes built in, this little script pings the router every second stopping the adapter going to sleep while your using it.

 

@OnionRings Powerline is one of the easiest ways to add wired networking but its not perfect, like @LunaP0n3 said a lot of stuff can affect the link quality. The only way to know if it works for you is by trying it. On my relatively modern wiring i get a fast and stable connection(once i started using the trick in the video).

 

Make sure to get the correct set for the speed you want, the av600 sets use 100mbps ethernet(sold as 300mbps, WTF) and in real use manage 60-70mbps(at least on my particular setup). If your needs are higher you should look for av1000 or av1300. I've recently upgraded to the UK version of this AV1300 kit, it uses gigabit and i've not managed to max it out yet, it handles my full 200mbps internet without issue.

 

Also if its more cost effective you can run multiple devices from a single socket powerline adaper using a cheap ethernet switch. I run my entire media setup(HTPC, TV, consoles, etc) on a single socket adapter without issue.

[Dutch_Master]

1 hour ago, OnionRings said:

Well I'd be using the adapters to hard wire their PCs, not wifi. Are even the more expensive adapters still garbage? What about a second router downstairs? My only issue with that, is that I use comcasts like 2-1 shitty modem/router combo so I have no idea if you can even have 2 of those, I'm guessing not. Would I need to buy my own router and 2 modems? (or is that vice versa, I never did figure out which of the 2 does what job).

The modem is the device that connects your network to your ISP, the router (or switch, although technically not the same) accumulates your network traffic to go via the modem to the ISP and thus the web. There's plenty of 8-port Gbit switches that'll do the job for not a lot of money and 100ft of Cat 5E or even Cat 6 also won't break the bank.

[OnionRings]

12 hours ago, Dutch_Master said:

The modem is the device that connects your network to your ISP, the router (or switch, although technically not the same) accumulates your network traffic to go via the modem to the ISP and thus the web. There's plenty of 8-port Gbit switches that'll do the job for not a lot of money and 100ft of Cat 5E or even Cat 6 also won't break the bank.

Well we didn't want to run a chord down the stairs, it looks weird. Might just try the powerline with @SuperCloneRangervideo trick and see if it works.

[fredrichnietze]

residential electric is the wild wild west. how many things on that circuit and how much voltage it can pull is a big "?!?!?" until you get a electrician to take a look. if something passes inspection it is "to code" until you renovate/rebuild to a level requiring re inspection, so your wiring may be 10, 30, 50, 100 years old, how old do you think the house is? basement? but hey you try it and maybe it flips the breaker, so what? 

 

powerline ethernet works, but the more power and data you are trying to push through those lines the worse cross talk and speeds you will get. you could run a wire from the wall port your modem/router is plugged in down to the basement in the wall, through the ceiling and put wireless there or run it through the ceiling/across the ceiling to the room these pcs are in. residential wiring is less standardized then commercial, so it is hard to give more specific advice without seeing your house and knowing where everything is. but it's a lot less scary then it sounds and a lot of places dont require pulling a permit or licenses for this kind of thing. the carrot to this is potential gigabit line direct to your pcs downstairs depending on what type of lines and how many you run. 

 

[OnionRings]

Went with powerlines, BIL went from 25mb wifi to 75, sister getting about 65. Better than no nut, but its not even half of what we pay for. Ugh.

[SuperCloneRanger]

4 hours ago, OnionRings said:

Went with powerlines, BIL went from 25mb wifi to 75, sister getting about 65. Better than no nut, but its not even half of what we pay for. Ugh.

Is that with a gigabit kit?

[Donut417]

On 6/1/2020 at 1:29 AM, OnionRings said:

hes afraid it may be too much for the circuit,

For some context. Me and my mom's rooms are on the same 15 amp breaker. I run a gaming PC, Plex server and both of us in the summer have window AC units. Still haven't burned down the house. So.......... Oh and I also use multiple monitors. So I'm pretty loaded up. 

 

I seen Moca adapters were suggested above. Would also do the same. I don't use them myself, but Moca is a much much much better standard that power line adapters. You should be able to get near Gigabit speeds with Moca 2.0 adapters. The only downside I seen is they might add a little bit of latency to the connection, but who cares.