I'm not going to explain it much, because I did in the shoutbox earlier and don't want to type it all again.

Powerline Ethernet Connectors allow you to plug one connector into the AC Electrical outlet, and the cat5 cable into it. You put the other connector where you want internet service, and plug your cat5 cable into that, and into your game console, your laptop, whatever you want.

It uses the houses electrical wiring for your network.

Some of these connectors have 4 ports built into them.

I'm having some minor lag issues with my wireless adapters on my 2 360's, and I want to swap back to a hard line.

Is this a good solution? No, I'm not running wires through my house, no, I'm not swapping to a different wireless setup as I'll still use it for my phone and my son's PC.

Examples.

http://www.netgear.com/Products/PowerlineN...etAdapters.aspx

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c...d=4230166539L10

Prices are actually pretty damned good on these things too.

So, if your comments are off of this topic, or ignore what I said in it, your comments will be deleted, and you will be warned.

Roger?

 

It's a poor solution. Electrical wires werent designed with data transfer in mind, especially that of a multi-wire ethernet lline. You'll get poor connectivity, interference, and a connection that will probably be worse then your wireless.

You're the one who's always saying it redz: if you're going to do it, do it right. Run the wires or stick with wireless.

 

How do you know it's a poor solution? All feedback I've read on ratings sites have good ratings. None have said anything about poor speeds or interference. I'm still doing some reviewing of peoples reviews... that sounds funny... and will post more here.

I cannot run wires, this is a rental house, I will not have wires sitting across the carpet. I will not be sticking with wireless, as I said in the first post.

I want to hear from folks with first hand experience with these.

 

If you don't want advice don't ask for it redz. If it's such a great solution why isn't it remotely widely used?

 

Actually I disagree with you Caj. I have heard that it is a totally feasible solution. I sold many of them when I worked at BB. I would buy local versus over the internet so the worst case scenario is you are not happy with the performance and return it to the store.

 

I'm working my butt off right now, pulling 10 hour days at work and then working at home... I don't have time this week or next to look through reviews.

Wireless - is it an option to try to fix the problem you are having? I thought it was in the first post, doesn't seem to be in the second post.

Best Buy has one on sale for $170 - I'd consider you go pick one up and see how it works, and return it if it doesn't fix your problem. It seems a little pricey though, so I guess it depends on the extent of your problems and how much it affects your gaming.

Since there's a problem with both of your 360s, the problem has to be related to the wireless in some way.

Are you not experiencing any problems with the wireless on computers or the phones? I'm not a wireless guru, but it seems strange that it would have problems with both XBoxes and no other interfaces.

I've seen these before, wasn't sure if that's what you were talking about at first. I've seen the wireless bouncers that you can plug into the wall that will help boost the signal. Have you considered these? If they're comparable in price, I'd go with the hard line model.

Sorry bro - I don't have any personal experience with this.

Have you checked the XBox forums for problems similar to what you're having?

 

Dude, if the reviews are good give it a try. But keep in mind your application. If you are not having an issue with the computer or anything this may not do a lot of good for you. Like Majik said I would try to find people who are using these with their XBox. That way you will have a clear answer if it helps or not. I am doubting many people on here have used them and the chance of someone having it for use with their XBox is even slimmer.

It seems like a nice setup and I agree that running wires through the house sucks and I understand that isnt at all an option for you. It seems like its either try this or try to boost the wireless somehow.

 

^^^
I'm going to ask on the Xbox forums, just thought I'd check with my techheads here first.



I don't want advise, I want opinions on what I asked about bro. It is becoming more widely used now, but it's still relatively NEW technology. The year wireless routers started they weren't widely used either.



Good point, I'll see if any of the locals have it, I can always take it back if it DOES work well and get one online for cheaper too. LOL

Out of the 15 reviews I've read so far, only one gave it less than 4 out of 5, and that was a 3, partially for the LOOKS of the item. Who cares? Who's going to see it? All the rest were 4's and 5's.




It's not really a fixable problem, it's just the general bit of slowness of the wifi compared to ethernet connection. I've got upgraded antennas on my router, and it works well, but with a bunch of neighbors with the same 2.4GHZ wireless, there's going to be some interference.



Well, problem is just what I'm calling it. Most folks wouldn't care, but I do play for a few clans and I can SEE and FEEL when I'm lagging just a bit. A perfect headshot missing by a fraction of an inch on a player standing still. Getting shot from someone after you are out of line of site, things that don't happen to me on a wired connection.




The usual stuff on the phones and my son's PC. Occasionally they lose signal, or I have to reset the connection on the phone, but thta's more WM6 than the wifi. My son's connection is just for school, so It's just fine. Most "professional" gamers wouldn't use wifi if their lives depended on it, and I'm getting to the point where I'd rather not.

Considering I could sell both of my wireless adapters for more than it costs to get one of these powerline setups, I'm going to give it a shot, just thought I'd see what the general consensus was.



Yeah, I saw those too, Netgear has some on their site. The thing is, why pay for that, when I could just have WIRED service right there and avoid all common wifi problems?

I'm doing some research on these this weekend.

Just did a search on Xbox.com's forums and found these.

http://forums.xbox.com/17995204/ShowPost.aspx

http://forums.xbox.com/9157498/ShowPost.aspx



So it seems GOOD as long as I stay away from the 102 model from Netgear, and one other person having a problem with a DLink one.

 

X10 (radio shack brand) is slow as balls. Stay away from it. It won't suit your needs.

Powerline ethernet is an emerging technology. There there alot of benefeits to it, like you can control your lighting and electronics as well. I'm not so sure it's ready for mainstream use just yet. I'd wait a bit longer. They're still getting glitches worked out.

Using powerline ethernet, your entire home power grid (from the 220->110v transformer) will be on a network. This means if you plug in an extension cord and run it to your next door neighbor's house, you'd still be on your network. Your neighborhood is isolated from your network by the transformer.

There are powerline ethernet soloutions out there which will give you faster connections then 802.11G will. Then again, that's why they created 802.11N. Keep in mind this also depends on what you are running in your house. Every time you turn on or turn off an appliance there will be an electrical noise dropped into a line. Power saving electronics can cause a resonance in the signals. There's alot of other factors such as the lines are not shielded. Actual ethernet cable is shielded to keep unwanted signals out. Power wire is not. It is possible to get alot more errors in your data using powerline ethernet.

I'm not digging the technology just yet. In a perfect world it seems great, but we all know our world is far from perfect.


Now 802.11xx technology would be perfect for your house Z. I would move the modem and a router to the living room, and plug in the xbox directly to the router. It could be configured many different ways and as long as you have good signal strength, you should not notice any difference in speed. If there were 4 walls and 50ft between your xbox and your router, i'd start to worry.

Alot of the time people say they cannot game with a wireless connection. Most of those people are jacking their neighbor's internet to start with. If you have 10mbps, your connection to the internet will be fine. If one device is transmitting less power then the other, packets can get lost and problems can occour. If you have a good signal strength, your wireless internet will be seamless.

Personall, I use my internet from my car at about 200ft away through 2 walls with no problems whatsoever. It's all about how you set it up and the quality of components you use. Get a good name, don't skimp. That D-link crap has problems with pinging time servers all the time. Netgear dosn't play nice with others. Go with all Linksys and you should be fine.

You can modify linksys routers to run hacked firmware as well. I hacked my linksys 802.11G and boosted signal strength about 800%. I reconfigured another to hook up to my network and another to hook to that one and rebroadcast the signal. Linksys hardware is versitile and reliable.

Another benefeit is many wireless devices, PDAs, internet devices, mp3, cell phones, are all starting to come with 802.11x technology built in. You can hook up a media center by just buying it and turning it on. A media center extender by doing the same. Really, buying a wireless router is kinda like building a framework for your entire house.

802.11N would be the technology of my choice for networking. It's fast, safe, secure, reliable and available. They've released standards that folks are starting to agree upon now and it would be a good idea to start changing over.

802.11N with good signal is faster then 100mbps wired ethernet. 802.11G is faster then you will ever need for the internet. 802.11A/B will handle your modem and only your modem with no cross talk from other devices.

 

After doing some research, I've found several good brands that seem to have good ratings everywhere, Circuit City, Bestbuy, Cnet, Walmart, and Xbox.com.

All of them say stay away from DLink.

All of them like the Linksys and some other company that starts with a C, and give some of Netgear's stuff a medium to high rating.

Doing some of this research I find that this technology started in 2002 for public use, but that the faster 200 and 100 rated ones are recent, in the last year or so, and are specifically made for HD streaming, gaming, and VOIP in different rooms.

I'm not investing in another wireless router, my Linksys works great for what it's for, I just want better connectivity on my 360's because I'm a die hard gamer. My clan is going to be in some major tourney's, and if I want a piece of the money, everything counts.

You DID give me the idea DTN, of putting my router/modem in the living room, and just hooking my PC up wirelessly, and I may look at that tomorrow, as that would be dirt cheap. All I'd have to do is remove the wireless adapters, hook the 360's directly up to therouter in the living room, and get a wireless card for my PC. One of the 360 wireless adapters can be used on my wife's PC, and I can sell the other.

I'm going to pick up one of these powerline setups, with a 4 port hub, and try it out. If I don't like it, DTN gave me the free answer in my house.

I don't game on my PC's, so a bit of lag is no issue at all.