It is a reality that not everyone can have the router next to the PC to be able to connect it directly, and in the same way, sometimes it is a nuisance to be too far from the router and not be able to enjoy the Wifi in conditions. For all these cases, there are PLC deviceswhich not only serve to bring wired connectivity to other rooms in your house, but also to extend the Wi-Fi coverage. In this article we are going to talk about these devices and show you some that are offerin case you decide to buy them that you can save a lot of money.
PLC are the acronym for Power Line Communications, or communications through the power line. As its name suggests, this system takes advantage of the fact that the current that circulates through the electrical installation of our houses is alternating to “sneak” a flow of data into it, which in short allows carry internet signal to other places far from the router, as long as they share the same electrical installation (that is, it is in your house).
Why use a WiFi PLC in your home?
There are many PLC devices, but most of them are limited to carrying the Internet signal through the power line from the router to another room in the house, that is, they only provide you with an RJ-45 port (or several, in some cases) so you can connect another device to them. However, the premise of this article is that, in addition to this, they also generate a WiFi signal to expand coverage throughout your home, regardless of the distance.
The biggest difference of these WiFi PLCs with respect to a traditional repeater is that it does not depend on your own home WiFi; a repeater needs to be within range of your WiFi to receive the signal, amplify it and re-broadcast it, but it will always be limited in both distance and power. Using a WiFi PLC is different, it does not depend on your WiFi coverage because what it does is receive the Internet signal from the router directly and then generate a new WiFi, with all its power and range.
Sure, we are talking about a new WiFi being generated, so here is a trick: you will simply have to configure the WiFi with the same name and password as the WiFi of your router; This way, when a device comes into range, it will connect directly to this new WiFi without you having to do anything, so it will be completely transparent to you, as if you simply had much better coverage at home.
PLC WiFi adapters on sale on Amazon
As we have said before, we are going to recommend a couple of WiFi PLCs that are on sale, but we have decided to only choose products that we ourselves would buy and use (in fact, the person signing this article has had the first kit that we are going to recommend for a long time , so we can guarantee that they work like a charm).
So let’s start with the kit. TP-Link TL-WPA8631P, which consists of two linked devices. The first one, the one with only one RJ-45 connector, is the transmitter and therefore the one you must connect to the router, while the second device, the one with three RJ-45 ports, is the receiver. To the latter you can, therefore, connect up to 3 devices by cable and, in addition, it is the issuer of this additional WiFi that we have told you about before.
In addition, a great advantage of these devices is that they do not cancel the socket you use to transmit the Internet signal, since both incorporate a Schucko socket so that you can continue using the electrical socket for whatever you need. In this case, they are capable of offering up to 1200 Mbps over the wired line, up to 300 Mbps over 2.4 GHz WiFi and up to 867 Mbps over 5 GHz WiFi.
At the moment, they have an 8% discount on Amazon, which is not much but you save 10 euros which is always good.
The second kit that we are going to recommend is designed for very large homes, houses with several floors that have serious problems to have WiFi and Internet coverage in all rooms, since it consists of a total of five devices: we have a transmitter that It is the one that we must connect directly to the router, two WiFi repeaters (plus two wired RJ-45 ports) and two other repeaters, in this case with a plug but without WiFi.
As you may have already guessed, this is designed to be able to have a greater range of WiFi in two areas, and another two with a wired connection. In this case, they offer up to 600 Mbps through the wired line and up to 300 Mbps through WiFi, so we would not recommend them for homes with 1 Gbps Fiber optic lines, but rather for typical 300 Mb symmetrical lines.
Of course, the offer is quite good because you can save 39% of the price on Amazon.
