Ethernet connections

I've been using a number of different ethernet connections for my xboxes and computers and last night I decided to test the speed of each one.

I connect to the cable modem either hardwired to a switch which is wired into my cable modem, wirelessly to my router or using a powerline ethernet adapter which carries the ethernet signals thru your electrical outlets. Last night I hooked up my laptop to each type of connection in turn and downloaded a large file via FTP.

I have a 30mbs down/5 up cable modem connection. Hardwired thru the switch to the modem gave me a download of 3700 Kb/second. Wirelessly through my router I got 950 Kb/sec and the powerline gave me 550 Kb/sec.

I've always been a huge fan of Powerline ethernet simply for the ease of use. Plug one end in the outlet near your router, the other end near the device you want to get online and boom, you're surfing in no time. However, as you can see above, it comes at a severe cost in speed. The adapter I have is 14Mbps, they now have 85Mbps adapters, I would be interested to test it to see how much an increase in speed I'd get.

So it looks like in order to take full advantage of my connection, I will have to bite the bullet and run an ethernet cable from my switch, thru the crawlspace to the other side of my den.