In reply to a post by MrSpeedyGonzales:

Laying ethernet around the house is not an option unfortunately.

Just to echo what others said, if you aren't renting then lay ethernet. Yes it might be a pain, yes you might have to run the cable externally on the walls if there is no easy run between sections, yes it requires various tools etc but its worth it in the long run; it really should be part of every house now.

As to powerlines they are a spot gap, if they work (all depends on your wiring / electrical ring set-up) they can do the job till you get a better solution but they fluctuate and really best avoided. Other option is Mesh, but that depends on your property phyiscalities if that's viable, but its still nowhere as good as laying cable.

I've had great results with powerline, noting that the newer kits are definitely better and faster than the older ones. You will only be able to push just shy of 200Mbs through these though.

Another alternative is moca if you have coaxial cable in the walls. You can run full gigabit over these. I have both and while moca took some time to make sure the wiring was correct, it was as simple as powerline to plug in and get working, but with much much faster speeds. Moca is the only solution that can literally replace ethernet cables in most use cases.

Definitely something to buy and try as others have mentioned. Luckily it doesn't take much time to find out if they are going to work, but as others have mentioned the oddball change in the power circuit can change the performance. Noisy or badly made electronics (like the laptop power adapter in the above post that was almost certainly some fake or off-brand) can ruin powerline's bandwidth.