Powerline adapters have long been seen as a solution to increasing your network range at home, and to an extent, it does work. It especially works when your only alternative is to trail Ethernet cables everywhere, which can be a problem for renters. However, mesh networks and Wi-Fi networks are much more capable than they used to be, which in turn makes it so that there are even fewer use cases for powerline adapters than there once were. However, using them might actually be detrimental to your connection, and there are a few things you should know about them before you consider them for your home.

5 Powerline adapters use your home's electricity to carry networking signals

With that, you can have a poor signal integrity

If your home has poor quality wiring, your powerline adapters will struggle to extend your connection. Older buildings can be built following older electrical codes, meaning that it may not be as capable of carrying networking signals as a newer counterpart. Powerline adapters also struggle in things like surge protectors or extension leads, which means you need to plug them directly into your wall outlet. As well, while distance matters for Wi-Fi, it does for powerline adapters too... but you don't know how long the electrical wiring in your walls actually is.

Things can get even worse though in some homes. Some homes will have multiple electrical circuits on the inside, something that I discovered with my own powerline adapters when I lived with my parents years ago. The powerline adapters could not connect to each other, which I later learned was because my home had multiple circuits going through it. I eventually had to return them, as there was no way for them to connect to each other.

On top of that, depending on the quality of the wiring, you can have a degraded experience. When I configured a set of powerline adapters at a friend's house, the download and upload speed were cut to about 10% of what they had been previously, dropping from 100Mbps down to just 10Mbps. While powerline adapters are completely fine in some settings, it's good to be aware of their weaknesses.

4 You need to be aware of range

However, you can't really be sure until you use them

With powerline adapters, you need to be aware of their range and how far they can transmit data, but there is a problem: how can you tell? While you may be physically within the distance limitation, the problem is that wiring doesn't always just follow directly to from one place to another. What this means is that if you're 100 feet away from the router and you plug in the powerline adapter beside it, it might still have to travel over 150 feet of cabling to reach you.

Of course, there isn't really much you can do about this aside from trying it out and seeing. Whatever distance limitation a powerline adapter gives you is a good ballpark to aim for, but it could technically be a further distance when accounting for cabling and what might be happening within your walls.

3 It's not built for bandwidth-heavy workloads

Normal wired, or Wi-Fi 7 is better

If you want to do bandwidth-heavy work on your network, then a powerline adapter almost certainly isn't what you want. With electrical interference and noise, download speeds can drop, and those connections become more sensitive to noise as speeds increase. Even worse, you could face frequent network connection drops if your powerline adapters suffer from too much intereference, as they'll fail to communicate with each other consistently and maintain a connection.

However, if you don't have significantly fast internet or you don't care about gaming and the likes, then a powerline adapater is very likely to be a quicker and cheaper option than building a mesh network or buying a new router. Powerline adapters have their place, but I'd never use them for anything mission critical or anything that's particularly heavy.

2 Powerline adapters are secure

Even if you're in an apartment complex

One common misconception surrounding powerline adapters is that they're insecure. That's something that they absolutely aren't; anything that uses the HomePlug AV standard is encrypted via AES-128, meaning that your adapters are communicating over encrypted channels. You don't need to worry about someone eavesdropping on electrical signals, and you don't need to worry about someone else using your Wi-Fi, either.

Now, if your signal leaking outside of your apartment still bothers you, then that's another reason to not use a powerline adapter, but for all intents and purposes, you're safe. AES-128 is a strong encryption algorithm. There have been some instances of powerline adapters being eavesdropped on in the past, so your mileage may vary depending on the device you use. However, at the very worst, it's like using the internet on a public Wi-Fi connection, which isn't a problem these days either.

1 They can be great for homes where mesh networks aren't an option

Thick walls or other problems

If you live in a home with thick walls, a mesh network might still not be ideal. That's where a powerline adapter comes in, as it will obviously bypass that problem entirely. While it's quite rare that a mesh network wouldn't be able to penetrate walls in a regular home, it could still be the case. I'd still recommend trying to find a way to get a mesh network built, but you can't argue against how much cheaper it is to just get a powerline adapter too, especially when a semi-decent one for a home consumer won't be expensive, either.

There are ways around that too, and there are ways to improve your Wi-Fi signal in your home. It might be worth looking into those options first before taking the plunge on powerline adapters.

If you're still considering a powerline adapter for your home, make sure you definitely need it

Powerline adapters are great pieces of kit, but it entirely depends on what you need them for and where you live on whether or not they're a good addition to your home. I wouldn't use them after the experiences that I've had, and instead, I've built a mesh network both at my own apartment and at my parents' house to replace the previous powerline adapter setup that was in use. There are reasons to use powerline adapters, but make sure you definitely need them before taking the plunge.