Linksys PLK200 Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit
See it at Amazon.com for $79.98Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(5 out of 5)Simply works!
I got this because my wireless quality has been declining steadily over time. I live in a large aparment building in New York City and as more and more of my neighbors get wireless devices my signal quality has been dropping. I stream music wirelessly using Apple AirPort and the quality became so poor that I could not listen anymore. Not wanting to run cables all over my apartment I thought I'd give this a try - but buy from Amazon since they have a good return policy in case it did not work.
I just plugged it in and it worked! Simple as that. If you have monkeyed around with wireless you'll appreciate that there is basically nothing else to this. And it is fast! I can now play my ripped music from my PC to my stereo with excellent quality - better than I ever got with wireless. Luckliy the AirPort can stream music using a LAN cable in addition to wireless.
The only hitch that I can think of maybe the wiring in your house/apartment. I was worried about mine living in a aparment building that the circuits may not be linked, but they were. I had no problems plugging in other rooms with different circuit breakers - since they are all on the same control panel. I guess it is possible that this is not always the case - depending on how your house is wired. For example, if you have combined two apartments they could be separate. But if they are then it does not get any easier or much faster than this.
Only downside is the very high price - it is way more expensive than wireless. You can buy a good wireless router for less than $50 and if you have a laptop you are done. This option costs MUCH more than that. For me it was preferable to running unsightly network cables throughout my apartment.
Another option for me could have been trying an 802.11n wireless to see if the signal was better. But since that is not yet a published industry standard, each vendor (DLink, Linksys etc) has they own flavor of it and so they are unlikely to work together well. So I'd probably have to completely retool my existing wireless which may be no better and may have the same problem with interference when my neighbors all move to it in a few years anyway. So I gave this a shot and I could not be happier.
(4 out of 5)Finally, powerline networking that can handle HD
Finally a company has come out with powerline networking that can handle High Definition video. I tried the Netgear HD powerline kit and it was too slow for HD. With this kit I get much better speeds and I can actually watch HD video. I have this connecting rooms on different floors on the opposite sides of my house. The included linksys utility is horrible looking and didn't work with Windows XP x64, but you only need it for the first setup. It reports connection speeds at 120Mb. Actual throughput for me is around 40Mb.
(5 out of 5)Fast and Easy
I got these, plugged one in the same room as my router, and the other all the way across my house next to my XBox 360. No setup needed, just plugged in the ethernet cables, and I was good to go. I can stream high quality video all the way across the house with no problems. I haven't had to touch these since I plugged them in. It just doesn't get any better or easier.
(3 out of 5)Please understand yor house's wiring prior to purchase
I just had my basement finished and wanted a simple solution to connect to my network without installing additional wires. I decided to try the Linksys Powerline Adapter. It turns out though that my basement wiring is not on the same circuitry as the main floor of my house where my router is, so the adapter does not work. I just spoke with customer service and they confirmed this (their suggestion was to run an extension cord from my main floor to the basement!!!). I did test the adapter on the main floor where my router is and it worked fine (the reason why I am giving three stars and not less), so I have no doubt this adapter is worth it, assuming you are connecing on the same circuitry. Unfortunately nowhere on the packaging did Linksys feel it important to mention this ( I would think this would fall under the Minimum Requirements section!!)
(4 out of 5)Worked Out of The Box
I wanted to buy the Netgear 85 mps product but it was not on the store shelf. I also preferred the Netgear vs the Linksys as there were few reviews on the Linksys. But, what the heck, the Linksys product was there and the Netgear was not.
It worked out of the box, is located a floor and hundreds of feet from my cable modem. I am getting speeds equal to my cable model (13.5 mps) so I don't know if it can go faster.
The only glitch is I am running this of an Airport Extreme wireless router and I have had to turn my WEP security off. Not sure if it is an Airport issue but know that I have an Apple/Linksys issue and neither help desk can give me advice.
Save your money if your wireless router can reach all of your house....don't hard wire your house, this product works. I will buy more.