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Forum Discussion
Best PowerLine Model to Extend/Boost WiFi in House
Last night we purchased the PLP2000 Powerline 2000 for our home to extend our internet downstairs. I did not realize until we got home that this model seems to only be for adding connections via ethernet cables, I have not opened the box and will most likely be bringing it back tomorrow to get a WiFi Extender... I am just not sure which to get.
The store had a few different PowerLine models, not many, but I did see one that said PowerLine WiFi (the one I should have grabbed IMO). I have always loved Netgears products, we had a Netgear Router hooked into our old ISP's modem before the ISP sent us their newer model modem w/ built in router.
Our house is not large, our connection is 300 downstream / 50 upstream. We have no issues with our 3 PC's connected via ethernet. Our WiFi is generally reall good besides in 2 rooms, the one directly below the room our modem/router is placed, and the kitchen. Our kitchen buffers, drops, and after doing a test I realized it generally averages 50mbps downstream, with random drops to 5mbps... but take 2 steps outside the kitchen into the front living room and 300mbps downstream consistently, never any issues as we have an Xbox, laptop, and a tablet in that room.. but bring them into the kitchen, and it's practically 5mbps down, just horrible :(
We have no more room (or patience) to run anymore Ethernet Cables, we have several spots in our house already. We would like to beef up the WiFi in the kitchen and the living room directly below the modem/router's location.
What would be the best Netgear product to purchase to help us boost our WiFi signal? We have no ethernet cable ran to the kitchen, it would be a nightmare to do so. We could probably benefit from the Powerline 2000 we grabbed as the living room (downstairs) Smart TV has an ethernet port... however the kitchen TV does not... this is our #1 problem, the streaming to our Roku Box and Amazon FireSticks in those televisions.
We are trying to do away with as many of the cable companies cable TV boxes as they have a monthly rental fee. We could easily get rid of 2-3 boxes and save ourselves $30 a month if we can get the WiFi boosted into the two rooms mentioned. Please help.... and yes I feel like a dummie purchasing the PowerLine 2000 (which I heard works miracles from a friend), but while shopping with the family I wasn't paying attention.. and should have grabbed the PowerLine adapter that said WiFi on it... I just honestly cannot remember the model #, any assistance would be greatly appreciated!
If the Powerline 2000 PLP2000 DOES boost WiFi signal that would be great.. but I am guessing it does not, and that it only puts out network cable capable connectivity... which is somewhat useless to these rooms for their needs.
8 Replies
As far as powerline goes, pure powerline extends ethernet - not wifi. Netgear does has two models that combine powerline with a Wifi access point. Those are the PLW1000 and PLW1010. They are easily distinguished because the wifi module has external antennas. They are one option, though the WiFi speed won't reach your 300 mbps download. They are N300 devices - max link speed of 300 mbps, with throughput being much lower. I'd expect around 90 mbps - though this depends the details of your wiring and circuit loading.
You could combine the PLP2000 with a WiFi access point (giving you better performance than the combo unit). Many netgear extenders (and routers for that matter) can also operate as access points.
So one strategy is to purchase an extender, and see if it solves your coverage problem. If it isn't enough, then switch to AP mode, and use the PLP2000 to connect it to the router. If it is enough, then return the PLP2000.
jayburn84 wrote:
I have not opened the box and will most likely be bringing it back tomorrow to get a WiFi Extender... I am just not sure which to get.
The best performing extender is the EX8000. It's free-standing and about the size of a router. The best performing "wall wart" is EX7500. These could be overkill - they could have more advanced wifi than your router, and of course you might not want to pay for the best possible performance. What router model do you have?
BTW, another approach is to get an Orbi RBK40 system, and use that to provide your home wifi (turning your router's wifi off). Then you could add a second satellite later on if needed. That is more expensive than the EX8000 though.
Thanks for the help! We have the Arris TG1682G, I did not want to post any names if there are any forum rules. This is the 3rd modem our ISP has given us (you could probably guess who), the ISP made us return our older Arris Modem we had connected to a small NetGear WiFi router we had. I honestly do not remember the WiFi strength in the areas I spoke about.. mainly because everything was working great and we did not have our Roku/Firesticks in the areas we now have issues in.
Our current Arris TG1682G works okay, it is pretty stable considering who the ISP is and the congested area we live in (North NJ). But it's quite sad when our neighbors who live behind us, probably guessing 50-60yards away (not exactly sure.. suburbs are tightly packed, and I just happen to know my neighbor/friend's network SSID heh.)
The ISP ran the line from the street pole to my office which is on the 2nd floor and on the side of the house... I've done speedtests walking around the house and thought maybe the modem/router unit was just in a bad location, but downstairs our WiFi is generally 300mbps down, all besides the kitchen and downstairs living room (kitchen is 1 floor down (50+ft maybe ?? and the downstairs is probably 50-75ft as well)... hard to tell the downstairs living room as it kind of right below the room the modem/router is in.. but gets awful WiFi speeds.
90-100mbps would be more than enough. I've noticed that our PC's we have hardlined via ethernet cable only pull 100mbps downstream, and we're lucky to get 25mbps upstream. But I game on my PC and do not nor can afford disconnects, I never game over WiFi.
The kitchen WiFi generally streams Netflix, Hulu, and other services perfectly fine but does have interuptions (randomly), and the Live TV App our Cable Provider (same as our ISP) they recommended to us to try out buffers and disconnects consistently, making television viewing impossible. It's like the terrible speed/low level of bars in the kitchen are tricking the Roku into thinking No WiFi connection... unless we reboot the device, then it generally reconnects 99% of the time on the 1st reboot.
I think I am going to try the cheapest route, the other unit I saw may have been one of the two you mentioned, it was right next to the Powerline 2000 I picked up. The store had some other extenders and such in the next aisle.
I was actually wrong on what our old Router was, it was actually a Linksys WRT54GL. I just found it lying around. I remember we tried once to plug it into one of the hard lines downstairs, and use it as possibly what you would call an Access Point (AP), but for some reason it was giving us issues, not sure why but it would disconnect and give slower speeds than we had hoped. That was a long time ago and I was always hoping that would have helped, but I remember it wasn't really helping so we scrapped that plan.
jayburn84 wrote:
We have the Arris TG1682G, Arris TG1682G
Ok. As far as I can see that's dual-band 802.11n router. New routers use 802.11ac, and the high-end models are triband. The EX8000 would certainly work, but would be overkill. The combo unit should be fairly inexpensive (and you could add a second one if you need it).
jayburn84 wrote:
I've done speedtests walking around the house and thought maybe the modem/router unit was just in a bad location, but downstairs our WiFi is generally 300mbps down, all besides the kitchen and downstairs living room (kitchen is 1 floor down (50+ft maybe ?? and the downstairs is probably 50-75ft as well)... hard to tell the downstairs living room as it kind of right below the room the modem/router is in.. but gets awful WiFi speeds.
50-75 feet is a long run for wifi, but of course the living room should be getting good coverage.
There could be a hole in the coverage directly over and under the router (often dipole antennas coverage looks like the figure below).
So you could try shifting the unit a bit, and see if that helps.
Construction can also make a big difference (fireplaces, pipes in the wall, metal studs, etc).
