Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)First and foremost its important to state that powerline networking is not as simple as just plugging in adapters and sprinkling pixie dust. There are many factors that affect the performance of the units in use. To those who have noted that these units did not give them any additional speed over their current implementation is not to say that these items dont work as advertised, it simply illustrates that their partiucular implementation is not ideal for powerline networking. What I am getting at is that in most of the cases mentioned they referenced a already existing solution that was well below the rated speed and thought that they would get more if they placed these in service. If your not alreay maxing out your current solution what makes you think you would get more out of something faster? Obviously, these were situations where the problem was environmental not product specific.
I recently placed a set of these into service in my home to provide networking between floors where a set of bridged wireless routers was not cutting it. These are on separate circuits (different breakers) but on the same phase (same side) in the junction box. I currently see 4 to 5 megabytes of throughput across them which is huge ove my previous solution. My wife is now able to take full advantage of the 20 to 25 megabit per second internet connection as well as enjoy streaming from our media server without any stutter. All in all these were a stellar upgrade to our problem of networking on the second floor. So much so that I will be adding another set to the network to provide extended wired and additional wireless coverage to the house.
Now like i mentioned before powerline networking is more alchemy then science. There are a multitude of problems that can significantly impact your throughput. After doing significnat research before my purchase I discovered several factors that can cause problems for those going down this road. Listed below are some of the major snafus that will cause you problems.
1. If your circuits cross phase (opposite sides of the breaker box) dont even try stick with wireless.
2. If your Circuits are behind GFCI or AFCI you will have problems. All houses built after 2002 probably have AFCI breakers supporting bedrooms and will soon have them for hallways and other rooms.
3. Do nto place them in surge supressors or battery backups with any kind of line filtering.
4. They are all vulnerable to line noise so motors or particularly noisy CFl's can reduce the performance.
5. Poor grounding of your electrical wireing may hurt it.
6. Old wiring can be problematic.
7. Distance will significantly reduce performance quickly.
I summary I would highly recommend these to anywone looking to provide a solution for wired networking in their home where they cannot get to the floor or ceiling to run regular cat5 cable and where wireless is not providing the performance they were looking for. However, make sure the place you buy from has a solid return policy should they not work for your installation. If amazon has them for cheaper go buy them at BB first, test them if they work then you have the option of returning and rebuying or just keep em since it appears the amazon return policy is a bit troublesome for some.
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