Netgear Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit ![]() The plugs aren't polarized, and you can stand them up or hang them down in your AC outlet so they don't block the remaining outlet at the same time. There's only a single RJ45 in each module, and you can only connect one network device to each. The gray and off-gray nodules that make up Netgear's Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit will never grace a display case in the Museum of Modern Art, but who really cares? As with all the products here, installation was basically plug and play. Netgear Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit (XAVB101) Linksys by Cisco Powerline AV Network Kit (PLK-300)Ĭons: Highest average increase under load. ![]() At no time did any of the videos themselves show evidence of stuttering or hiccups, but these results don't bode well for networks that are under a heavy load of mixed media and data.įor lightweight network loads, Linksys is the budget choice here, beating out Zyxel in this category solely on a dollar basis. At five streams, the transfer time had risen to 48.35 minutes - faster than Belkin and D-Link but trailing Zyxel and Netgear significantly. Unfortunately, each time a video stream was added to the 90-foot file-transfer scenario, the PLK-300 added 3.28 minutes on average to the completion time. The 90-foot test also saw Linksys in second place at 31.94 minutes, this time slightly trailing Zyxel and just barely ahead of Netgear. Linksys by Cisco Powerline AV Network KitĬonnected to the same outlet, Linksys' time to complete a clean transfer plummeted to a much better 29.27 minutes, giving it a second place finish between a faster Belkin and barely slower Netgear Inc. It took 50.86 minutes to complete the room-to-room clean transfer only the Zyxel Communications device, at 50.16 minutes, was quicker. In most testing cases, the PLK-300 ended as the bridesmaid rather than the bride. As with the other devices, there's no installation to speak of, although there is a Quick Start guide and an electronic version of the user manual on disc. The modules use detachable power cords to connect to outlets one of them has four RJ45 connectors so you can attach multiple devices. The PLK-300 shares the same piano black styling with blue status LEDs as Belkin's devices but is just a little bit sexier. Overall, the Linksys kit is easy to install and performs very well, but its dumbed-down design decisions hurt its standing.Of 5 Linksys by Cisco Powerline AV Network Kit (PLK-300)Ĭisco-Linksys LLC's kit gets the nod for looks among these five devices. Most users won’t need such a utility, but it can come in handy for tasks like updating firmware and setting quality-of-service priorities. ![]() Linksys again cited simplification as its motivation for failing to include a software utility. Nevertheless, the red/amber/green link-rate indicator in the other kits offers a clear indication when one outlet is better than another (powerline networks may not work well if your circuitry is old or compromised). And since the network’s bandwidth is divided among the adapter’s four ports, the reps said, a green light (indicating that the adapter had a good connection) might be misleading, since a specific port might not be getting good throughput despite the positive signal. Linksys representatives said that they adopted this blue-light special to simplify the product. Instead, a single blue color indicates that a connection (good or bad) exists. Second, Linksys omitted the color-coded connection-quality indicator lights that all of the other HomePlug AV kits have.
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