ZyXEL PLA470 HomePlug AV Powerline Switch $40 + shipping from Newegg

[Hardlin]

Just got the two I ordered in today. They found each other with no problem and everything appears to be good so far. Haven't had time to do a speed test but it's nice to have the systems in the basement not get randomly dropped now.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: Hardlin
Just got the two I ordered in today. They found each other with no problem and everything appears to be good so far. Haven't had time to do a speed test but it's nice to have the systems in the basement not get randomly dropped now.

Thanks. Anyone else? Newegg wrote me to tell me that I could order and that they would honor the $39.99 price. No free shpping though

I need to decide soon.

Also, did you guys/gals receive version (part number ending in V2) or version #1? I don't know what the difference is though.

 

[mrrman]

you can use as many as these as you like as long as there is an AC plug...I am using the Linksys Models and they work great. ( 3 so far, 1 for each PC) You will not get 200mbps....thats the max rating hover most ISP's choke their bandwidth

 

[cyberia]

Well, I got mine in today and here is what I found.

1) These devices are great. They are truly plug and play and are easy to set up. They just work right out of the box.

2) They appear to be V1. I don't see V2 marked anywhere.

3) The encrypt button did not do anything. The enclosed quick start guide said that it was reserved for future use. The full manual disagreed. In any case, they did nothing for me.

4) Network cables were NOT included. This was expected by me in an earlier post. However, I feel that the manufacturer could have included them. I am pretty sure every other network device I have ever bought had them.

5) The firmware check utility reported FW version "3-0-3052". The FW upgrade utility determined that it was the latest version and did not perform an upgrade. According to the website, the latest FW version is 3.0.5, so I don't know whose math is wrong.

6) The FW check utility (and probably the upgrade utility) would not run on Vista 64. I have not tried the configuration utility.

7) And now, the most important part: the performance.
Here is my original setup:
1. Wi-Fi router in Room 1 (Office) on 2nd Floor.
2. Wi-Fi Media Center Extender in Room 2 (Bedroom) on 2nd Floor.
3. Wi-Fi Media Center PC in Room 3 on 1st Floor.

Here is my attempted setup:
1. Master PLA470 connected to the Wi-Fi router in Room 1 (Office) on 2nd Floor.
2. A 2nd PLA470 connected to Media Center Extender in Room 2 (Bedroom) on 2nd Floor.
3. A 3rd PLA470 connected to Media Center PC in Room 3 on 1st Floor.

I did get a great performance boost from the two adapters I installed in different rooms on the 2nd floor. One was the master device hooked up to my router, and the other was hooked up to a Media Center Extender. According to the extender, the network performance went from oscillating around mid-level "orange bars" to green "full bars". Notice that the Media Center PC was still on wireless. Because the extender was not a full PC, I could not get any specific throughput numbers. I did not have time to bother with hooking up a laptop either.

However, when I moved the PC from wireless to a third Powerline adapter downstairs, extender-related network performance dropped to an unacceptable low level ("red bars"). BUT, file transfers from a server wired to the router to the "powerlined" Media Center PC went from 2.8MB/s over Wi-Fi to 4+MB/s over the powerline (as reported by Vista). At the same time, an Internet speedtest run from the Media Center PC showed that bandwidth went up from 6Mbps to 20+Mbps.

Clearly, non-Media Center performance of the "powerlined" Media Center PC improved. However, Media Center performance dropped significantly. It is also clear that the best scenario for me is to switch the extender to Powerline while keeping the PC wireless.

This clearly forces an unfortunate conclusion: In my house, the powerline gear works perfectly well upstairs but does not "integrate" well with the 1st floor adapter. And it was the 1st Floor where I needed it the most because I was thinking about adding a Slingbox-like device there.

Unfortunately, this exercise just proved what was already known: The devices themselves work great. The technology is great and clearly has its place. However, your results will depend on the electrical layout of your house and the performance will vary. Because most people will not know whichever parts of their houses may belong to different electrical circuits, it is a "plug and pray" game.

 

[MisterE]

Try turning on your clothes dryer or oven while testing the slower 1st floor device and see if speeds improve, or try other 1st floor plugs if convenient. Your circuit breaker box is basically divided into two 110v circuits, and if the Powerline devices are on different circuits then transfer speeds will be slow. Turning on a 220v appliance like a clothes dryer or oven will bridge the two 120v circuits and should give you a speed increase (EDITED to add: This doesn't always work). If your speeds increase, you should research how to properly fix the problem (basically bridge to two circuits in your breaker box with a capacitor).

 

[nutxo]

Originally posted by: cyberia


This clearly forces an unfortunate conclusion: In my house, the powerline gear works perfectly well upstairs but does not "integrate" well with the 1st floor adapter. And it was the 1st Floor where I needed it the most because I was thinking about adding a Slingbox-like device there.

Run an extension cord from the upstairs.

 

[cyberia]

Originally posted by: nutxo

Run an extension cord from the upstairs.

Sounds like a plan.

 

[cyberia]

Originally posted by: MisterE
Try turning on your clothes dryer or oven while testing the slower 1st floor device and see if speeds improve, or try other 1st floor plugs if convenient. Your circuit breaker box is basically divided into two 110v circuits, and if the Powerline devices are on different circuits then transfer speeds will be slow. Turning on a 220v appliance like a clothes dryer or oven will bridge the two 120v circuits and should give you a speed increase (EDITED to add: This doesn't always work). If your speeds increase, you should research how to properly fix the problem (basically bridge to two circuits in your breaker box with a capacitor).

I did not have time for a bridging test with a clothes dryer. But I just bounced my test results off someone, and he came up with an interesting theory.

If you remember from my previous post, I saw an overall improvement in network performance on the Media Center PC, but not in Media Center activities. So, it could be because during Media Center activity two powerline devices are talking at the same time. So, the powerline setup is not "wide" enough for two bandwidth-hungry devices. And this situation may not necessarily be due to them possibly being on separate circuits.

I will need to try switching my extender back to wireless and measuring Media Center performance. If that does not improve the Media Center performance, I will have to replace the Media Center PC's PLA470 with the one I used with the extender. This way I can make sure that the Media Center PC's powerline adapter is not faulty.

And if that does not make any difference, then we will know it's due to the 1st floor's separate electrical circuit.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: nutxo
Run an extension cord from the upstairs.

OMFGROF:laugh:MAO

My first thought was literally "but a long ethernet cable would be less intrusive and faster" and then the sarcasm meter kicked in and my coworkers were all looking at me funny about a half second later.

 

[cyberia]

Checking the network performance in the configuration utility (figures reflect numbers in the following format: application data rate / raw data rate):

Transmit rate from the master adapter to the two remote adapters is 103/135 Mbps and 92/120 Mbps.
Receive Rate: 121/158 Mbps and 95/124 Mbps.

Transmit rate between the two remote adapters is 70 / 91 MBps and 102 / 133 MBps.

These are very decent numbers and do not explain why Media Center performance would suffer so badly. However, these numbers seem to have been taken instanteneously and are not updating in real time.

 

[cyberia]

Originally posted by: cyberia
Checking the network performance in the configuration utility (figures reflect numbers in the following format: application data rate / raw data rate):

Transmit rate from the master adapter to the two remote adapters is 103/135 Mbps and 92/120 Mbps.
Receive Rate: 121/158 Mbps and 95/124 Mbps.

Transmit rate between the two remote adapters is 70 / 91 MBps and 102 / 133 MBps.

These are very decent numbers and do not explain why Media Center performance would suffer so badly. However, these numbers seem to have been taken instanteneously and are not updating in real time.

 

[Engineer]

Thanks everyone. Since I currently don't "need" these, I decided to just wait until I "need" something. Also, after looking at the Belkin 1Gbit powerline stuff, I imagine that others will follow. Also looking to see how 802.11n shakes out now that the final specification should be approved in September.

Thanks again!

 

[cyberia]

I did some more testing last night.

1) There is a priority setting that you can apply to each adapter. It lets you change the adapter's transmit speed. That did not do much to improve the situation. In fact, raising priority seemed to have a negative effect based on the speeds reported by the configuration utility.

2) Turning the clothes dryer on did not have any effect. Having the air conditioner on did not matter. So much for the bridging idea.

3) I switched my extender from powerline back to wireless while keeping the Media Center PC on the powerline and it boosted my Media Center performance to full green bars. So, either the extender or the PC must stay on wireless and the other must use powerline in my environment.

I can definitely live with the extender on Wi-Fi and the Media Center PC on the powerline. However, I wonder what will happen when I add a Slingbox-like device to the Media Center PC's powerline adapter. Will the powerline network be able to handle the increased traffic?

CONCLUSION: In any case, the Powerline gear was a nice addition to my network. By providing an extra "pipe" in parallel with the wireless portion of my network, I essentially increased its capacity. However, I don't think it was cost effective. For almost the same price, I could have gone with a higher-end Wi-Fi router or even add a low-priced second router for the 5GHz band.

I recommend adding Powerline gear if you know for sure that your house has good wiring on a single circuit. A second scenario where you may want to have this gear is if you are hooking up a device with NO wireless capability, especially if you need the extra flexibility of a built-in 4-port switch at that location. And I would definitely not pay more than $40 per adapter because at a higher price you can throw in high-end wireless gear into the mix.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: cyberia
I did some more testing last night.

1) There is a priority setting that you can apply to each adapter. It lets you change the adapter's transmit speed. That did not do much to improve the situation. In fact, raising priority seemed to have a negative effect based on the speeds reported by the configuration utility.

2) Turning the clothes dryer on did not have any effect. Having the air conditioner on did not matter. So much for the bridging idea.

3) I switched my extender from powerline back to wireless while keeping the Media Center PC on the powerline and it boosted my Media Center performance to full green bars. So, either the extender or the PC must stay on wireless and the other must use powerline in my environment.

I can definitely live with the extender on Wi-Fi and the Media Center PC on the powerline. However, I wonder what will happen when I add a Slingbox-like device to the Media Center PC's powerline adapter. Will the powerline network be able to handle the increased traffic?

CONCLUSION: In any case, the Powerline gear was a nice addition to my network. By providing an extra "pipe" in parallel with the wireless portion of my network, I essentially increased its capacity. However, I don't think it was cost effective. For almost the same price, I could have gone with a higher-end Wi-Fi router or even add a low-priced second router for the 5GHz band.

I recommend adding Powerline gear if you know for sure that your house has good wiring on a single circuit. A second scenario where you may want to have this gear is if you are hooking up a device with NO wireless capability, especially if you need the extra flexibility of a built-in 4-port switch at that location. And I would definitely not pay more than $40 per adapter because at a higher price you can throw in high-end wireless gear into the mix.

:thumbsup: for the review. You saved me $120 + shipping. Will wait for something better or will eventually pull Ethernet cable (Cat6 or the likes) through my house. Might check out coaxial networking devices too.

 

[SpeedEng66]

I purchased a set of these (thanks op)

I have them set up from my basement (where my modem is @)
to my garage (detached garage with no way of gettting any wifi signal inside)

so I hooked them up and they do work.. but seems really slow (a nice lag after I click on a any link it takes a good 2-4 seconds before it will redirect or whatever)
what do you guys/gals use to test the upload/download speed from adapter to adapter?

 

[cyberia]

Originally posted by: SpeedEng66
what do you guys/gals use to test the upload/download speed from adapter to adapter?

If you have a file server, try copying a large file from it to each of the PCs hooked up to the adapters you are trying to test. Vista will give you the speed at which the transfer is happening. Also, try an internet speed test like speedtest.net. It will give you the speed from each of your LAN locations which should ideally be identical. speedtest.net also lists your ping, so you will know what your lag is from each location.

I am sure there are other ways to do it, but these are quick solutions that don't require installing anything.

 

[SpeedEng66]

Originally posted by: cyberia

Originally posted by: SpeedEng66
what do you guys/gals use to test the upload/download speed from adapter to adapter?

If you have a file server, try copying a large file from it to each of the PCs hooked up to the adapters you are trying to test. Vista will give you the speed at which the transfer is happening. Also, try an internet speed test like speedtest.net. It will give you the speed from each of your LAN locations which should ideally be identical. speedtest.net also lists your ping, so you will know what your lag is from each location.

I am sure there are other ways to do it, but these are quick solutions that don't require installing anything.

doh!>! online speed test..

Thanks :thumbsup:

 

[cyberia]

I just noticed that this Powerline adapter has become deactivated at Newegg. Congrats to all who jumped on it and improved their network performance.

As indicated in my mini-review a few posts above, I am getting a decent performance out of my set but feel that I could have done just as well with a dual-band router. However, I *think*, my Media Center Extender's connection stability has improved ever since I switched the Media Center PC from Wi-Fi to Powerline.

 

[bjamm2]

I bought a bunch of the ZyXel 318S Routers and just linked them together. I paid $28 each for the routers on amazon. Set them up, turned off wirless and assigned them each a different domain. Plugged the main one into my Linksys running DDWRT and it assigns everything an IP from the linksys. Works great. Streams HD pretty well up to 30mbps, but could be limited by my cpu.

For 90 shipped I got three adapters.

 

[Binky]

I higly recommend jperf to measure network speeds. It's the best and easiest tool I have found (so far).

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30408/53/

Needs java installed. Copy folder to two computers. Open port 5001 on both firewalls. Start one and set to server. Set "num connections" on server to 10 or more so you can run multiple times (if desired). Have other computer connect to server. Set "transmit" on client to at least 30 sec to see accurate (non-burst) numbers.

 

[ROSALIEPIZZA]

FYI to those people who have problems with outlet wiring it is a simple thing to move circuits used for lan to the same bus. Just mark circuit breakers that need to be switched and kill main breaker before removing cover to breaker panel. Usually every outlet in a single room is on one circuit so at the most three or four circuits might need to be swapped over . Keep in mind the two bus need to be balanced so be mindful of this and if you dont have a clue what you are doing ask a friend who does.