Before trying the Netgear Powerline 85MBPS kit, I was highly skeptical of its professed ability to use home power lines for computer networking. Having tried earlier attempts of this technology, I assumed the worse. Only a few reviews I had read led me to try it again.Once you have two units plugged in, and connected to your computer and router, it can take anywhere from a couple minutes to nearly an hour for communication to be enabled. Over the next half-hour or so, speeds tend to increase as the units filter noise and find the best methodology for communicating over your home's electrical system.
Now that I've installed this kit in a number of homes, I can attest that it works largely as advertised. But keep in mind that it won't work in all homes, and rarely in a commercial building (not recommended). It all depends on the topography of the electrical system and the amount of noise on the lines. If large electrical motors are in operation, for example, throughput can greatly decline or cease entirely.
Do keep in mind that this is not a fast, reliable solution to your networking needs. For connecting to the internet for simple browsing or transferring small files between computers, it's a great solution. But forget about streaming video or moving large files this system will choke if you try it.
I highly recommend this product for simple, straightforward installations in the home where wi-fi or running a CAT5 cable just won't do.
Not being familiar with this technology, and not looking at some of the diagrams for typical setups that was included, I was a little confused at first. I had thought that whatever I connected to one port on the powerline adapter downstairs corresponded to a similar port on the powerline adapter upstairs, which then connected to my router. Since I had both my HDTV and BluRay connected to the powerline adapter downstairs, I thought I needed to connect both corresponding ports upstairs to the router. Whenever I did this I essentially had the powerline network connected to 2 seperate ethernet ports on the router, causing everything on my network to lose connection. After my "duh" moment, I removed the excess connection from the upstairs powerline to the adapter and that resolved the problem.
This kit has 4 ethernet ports on one adapter and 4 on the other, essentially allowing you to connect 7 devices to your network, saving one ethernet port for the connection to the router itself. I believe I read that you can add other powerline adapters and have up to 16 devices sharing this single ethernet connection. There may also be a way to have more than one powerline network by using the included cd (only needed if you want to secure your network), but things were working fine for me already so I did not look into that. I still have 2 open ethernet ports on my router along with the remaining open ports on the powerline adapters. That's more than I need, but as of this writing a similar 85Mbs kit (Netgear 85Mbps Powerline Network Adapter Kit XETB1001) but with only one connection is $15 more expensive. Might as well get the extra ports.
We have a Panasonic HDTV Panasonic VIERA G10 Series TC-P42G10 42-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV which has internet access and allows you to stream HD content from Amazon. We watched a 45-minute high-def TV program last night and had no problems. These powerline adapters are advertised to be 85Mbs, and our internet service is 7Mbs, so if there were problems I would expect any bottlenecks to be the internet service unless multiple devices are having heavy internet traffic at the same time. As it was, we were able to watch the streaming HD content without any problems.
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I was dubious of this product for a while, it seemed to good to be true. The Price is high, but it does exactly what I needed. I wired my 360 and will be wiring my wii. Its made a big difference in connection speeds and for that matter it was a breeze to set up. At first I was worried it wasn't working right, but so far so good. If you want to secure your wireless network, and connect game consoles to your wired network this is the ticket.Also its worth knowing that this comes with two 4 port units, so you could buy a single port and have 2 4 ports to use...
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I usually avoid Netgear products after bad experience with my old wireless-G router and I had since switched to a basic Linksys N-Router. My house is pretty big and the router and my living room and master is over 100 feet and 2 exterior walls apart. So when I got the Linksys N router I thought my wireless hiccups will finally go away.Despite the hype about N, I still can't get excellent connection using N routers (not dual band) and G/N-cards. So I decided to switch to wired PowerLine adapters and given them a try. I needed to also connect my Blue-Ray player and Sling-Box which only afccepts ethernet connection that i don;t have in my living room.
So I started looking for Powerline products and I found in this area NETGEAR leads LinkySys in innovation and quality. The products have matured a lot since those slow 14Mbps adapters. I had a special need in that , I wanted both Transmitting and Receiving ends of the kit to have more than 4 ports.
XEB1004 is the only product I found that has 4 ports both in the Tx and Rx adapters. So if you have your modem far away from your office/living room that your wireless does not connect, you can do something like this:
1. Connect your Broadband MODEM LAN cable output to any one of the 4 ports in one of the 2 adapters in the kit
2. Connect any of the other 3 ports in the Tx adapter to say your LAN PC, NAS, Network printer etc etc
3. Connect the other switch in the klt in your office/living room. You can biu another single adapter as well.
4. Connect your Work PC, Sling box, Blue-Ray player, PS3 etc to any of the 4 ports in teh Rx adapter.
5. Optionally you can even connect your old wireless router to ANY one of the switch that gives you best coverage.
Its has been running PERFECTLY for multiple weeks now. Streaming non-HD video like a charm. Download movies , sling box , everything works great and fast. You don't need the 200Mbps version unless you are moving large files between PCs in your household often. I also trialed and tested the new 200 Mbps Powerline adapter from Netgear and after repeated test found no diff in performance for what I do and hence i returned and it didn;t have 4 port in teh Tx, only in the Rx side. Linksys doesn't even have a 4 x 4 powerline powerline adapter.
Advantages over wireless product:
1. NO SOFTWARE TO INSTALL (all thoughthey gave a CD, god know for what)
2. NO CONFIGURATION NEEDED. JUST LITERALLY PLUG AND PLAY (wow I thought only APPLE can do that)
3. NO 192.168.0.1 login and debug problems
4. NO SECURITY PROBLEMS, NO WEP2 vs WPA debates, NO PASSWORDS TO REMEMBER, NO INTERFERENCE WITH PHONES
5. NO MORE LONG "WAITING TO CONNECT" wireless card when coming out of Standby mode.
None of that junk.
EXCELLENT PRODUCT. JUST WHAT THE NETWORK DOCTOR PRESCRIBED. I THINK THIS PRODUCT LINE HAS GREAT FUTURE EVEN THOUGH THE NEW DRAFT 11Z P2P Networks CLAIMS TO FIX WIRELESS PROBLEMS but ALWAYS REMEMBER (I AM A COMPUTER ENGINEER from HP) :
WIRED ALWAYS BEAT WIRELESS PANTS DOWN.
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UDPATE: It's been 2.5 years since I bought these and I am happy to report that they are still working after several lightening storms in our area.I bought this item since I needed four network connections near my entertainment center. One for Dishnetwork DVR, one for Samsung LCD, one for PS3 and one extra for streaming movies from my PC. I connected one of the switches in basement to my router and one near the TV. That is all it takes. It works great. My only concern is its capacity to withstand power surges since this needs to be connected directly to the wall and not through a surge protector. Only time will tell.
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