Average Reviews:
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ActionTec plug Av
Very Easy to set up if you had all the instructions.
A quick review and as typical for me an update will follow. I had everything set up and truly believed the Quick Start Guide when it said no configuration required. Unfortunately.... I first disabled my wireless card in the Windows Control Panel just so I would not have any conflicts. Then I plugged in the two devices as described above. The LEDs on both boxes were green and red, sometimes green and yellow. The Guide said "Make sure both lights turn solid green". The guide warns you not to plug the devices into any outlet that is surge protected or filtered, which I did not. Oh well I said, I started moving both boxes into different outlets and could not get both "link" lights to turn green unless they were plugged into the same outlet. Rats I said. There is no explanation in the guide at all as to what to do when the lights are not both green. NO troubleshooting guide at all. I tried to hook up to the Web, but nothing happened.
Here I will save you the trouble of the hour long process that followed, and just tell how you can save yourself the trouble I had
1. It does not really matter what color the "link" light is. It is only the quality of connection indicator. Please go to the [...] website and download the user manual for the HPE400AVP. There is no manual and no CD with the box you buy and in my case it was the critical missing step. Here is the lights portion of the manual
Red means the condition is poor and less than 50Mpbs,
Orange indicates a fair line condition of 50-100Mbps,
Green means the line is in good condition with over 100Mbps throughput.
Of course since I was using wireless previously in a remote location with a 18 Mpbs transfer speed, even a Red light meant a vastly improved connection. The connection speed varies for me between yellow and red, and always is better than the wireless. My wireless was a Linksys WRT54G with the power setting at 75mw, the distance involved was about 50ft with 3 walls in between.
2. There are small black buttons on both boxes, but NO explanation in the User Guide as to what they do. You have to download the manual for that. They are the security enable keys, and you have to go thru a sequence of four timed presses to set it up. In my trials of various outlets in the house, I must have pressed one or both, but in a wrong sequence and must have messed up the communications, hence even with the connection established, I could not connect to the web. At the time I still thought that it was because I had red lights and they needed to be green. I had to reset both boxes using a pin.
3. At this point following the reset, even though the link light on both boxes was red, the Internet magically appeared. So the setup is truly plug and play, unless like me you believe the dreaded step #13 in the quick setup guide "Make sure both lights are green " or you accidentally press the security buttons.
Finally when set up, and even with my troubles it only took an hour. The connection speed to the web as judged by [...] was 50% faster than my best wireless connection and 3 times better than my worst connection. Great product, and only a one star downgrade for no packaged in manual or CD.
Lastly you may also try the following steps to improve your speed at lower costs.
1. Get an antenna with gain for the router and your wireless card (10-30$, 50% improvement)
2. Change the wireless channel in the router utility (G networks conflict with 2.4 ghz cordless phones)
3. Move the antenna even slightly for possible improvement, Use a utility like network stumbler to fine tune the position
4. If available for your wireless router, get an open source custom firmware for it which will allow you to fine tune the antenna transmit power (I use Tomato).
UPDATE
5. Get an inexpensive N standard router with multiple antennas (used to be called MIMO multiple in multiple out). I have picked up one recently and now all my remaining computers have a better signal as well. While you will not get speds higher than G standard of 54mb, you will get closer to nominal. You would ned a N adapter in the pc as well to get all the benefits.
Happy Powerline and Wireless networking.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Actiontec MegaPlug 200 Mbps AV Powerline Ethernet Adapter and 4-Port Hub Kit
Product Description
Powerline Enet 200mbps hub and adapter megaplug
Product Details
- Color: white
- Brand: Actiontec
- Model: HLE20043-01KP
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 3.90" h x 1.40" w x 2.90" l, 2.25 pounds
Features
- Perfect for high-bandwidth applications like HD Video and audio streaming
- Compatible with any high-speed service provider or equipment
- More secure than wireless! 128-bit AES pushbutton security
- Very easy to install. Simply plug in.
- Uses HomePlug AV standard
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