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I have a 20 year-old, 4000 sq ft home on three levels, with my internet connection and a media server on the main level. The electrical panel is in the basement in the middle of the house. I use SageTV to stream video from my server to the TVs in my house. Wireless has been problematic, because of the 14 other wireless networks in my neighborhood. I therefore decided to try the TRENDnet 500 Mbps Powerline AV Ethernet adapters to see if they would improve performance. Setting them up is easy and installing the software on a Windows 7 Laptop allowed me to verify that I had a connection and try different things to see the effect on connection speed.
With both adapters on the same circuit the software said the speed was 450. I then plugged in one adapter next to my server and ran a network cable from my network router to the adapter. First I tried using the second adapter upstairs in the master bedroom at the opposite end of the house. Initially the software identified the connection speed as low, fluctuating around 50-80. After I unplugged the two touch lamps that were on the same circuit the speed was identified as 129. Unplugging touch lamps on other circuits didn't seem to make any difference. Unplugging other devices on the circuit also made little if any difference. I then tried streaming video. DVD streaming worked without problems. However Bluray video kept cutting out, and was entirely unwatchable.
Next I tried placing the second adapter next to my home theater system in the basement, which is fairly close to the circuit breaker. Initially the TRENDNET software identified the connection speed at around 30. Moving to a nearby plug on the same circuit increased it to a 50. Unplugging the Monster Cable Surge suppressor which all of my AV equipment plugs into, brought the level up to a 79 (all touch lamps in the house were still unplugged). Plugging the TV and Sage TV extender directly into the wall rather than into the surge suppressor did not affect the network speed. However, when I tried to run SageTV the network connection was so slow that it took over ten minutes just to load the initial menus and I was never able to get it to display a list of videos, let alone attempt to play one.
Thus I am returning these adapters, because they don't work well enough in my house. I have friends who are using powerline networking with SageTV, so I know it can work. But in my case, performance was just too slow for my needs and actually slightly worse than the wireless network.
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Product Description
The 500Mbps Powerline AV Adapter Kit, model TPL-401E2K, uses any electrical outlet to create a secure building-wide high speed network. Connect one of the included adapters to your network, and plug the other in to any outlet on your electrical system for instant high speed network access. Connect the included adapters quickly using the convenient one-touch Sync button. Use up to 16* adapters to network devices in different rooms without running new cabling. A Gigabit Ethernet port on each adapter maintains high performance wired connections. Manage the Powerline adapters with the included Windows utility. LED displays convey device status for easy troubleshooting. Advanced 128-bit AES encryption secures your network. The included adapters are ideal for use in buildings that interfere with wireless networking signals.
Product Details
- Size: AV Adapter Kit
- Brand: Trendware
- Model: TPL-401E2K
- Platform: Windows XP
- Format: CD
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.55 pounds
Features
- Includes two TPL-401E adapters
- 500 Mbps** networking speeds from any electrical outlet
- High performance Gigabit Ethernet port
- Seamlessly stream HD videos, play games online, and download media files
- Use one to transmit and up to 15* TPL-401Es to receive a networked signal
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