TP-LinkAV600 Powerline Ethernet Adapter Kit - Gigabit Port, Plug Pair &Play, Power Saving, Nano Sized Powerline Network Adapter (TL-PA4010 KIT)

This is PERFECT!First, my setup. I have a NAS from where I stream all of my media (mostly to my Minix NEO X8H Plus using Kodi / XBMC) using the wifi served by router A. Only my TV box and laptop are connected to the wifi served by router A (everyone else's devices use another wifi network served by router B) but nevertheless it kept losing a lot of its link speed when everyone was home, mostly in the evenings, when a lot of streaming occurs (my devices from the NAS, everyone else I assume netflix or just browsing. Only my devices have access to the NAS). This resulted in buffering occurring sometimes which was very annoying, particularly because I knew the wifi local network could stream my files without problems, as it did most of the times. I tweaked the channels the wifi network on router A used (made sure they weren't the same as router B's, etc.), also made sure the laptop wasn't connected to the wifi from router A when I was streaming from it just to make sure, but the buffering still occurred. I needed a permanent solution.I didn't even know what powerline adapters were a week before buying these, but I read about someone's setup using them to stream from a NAS on a forum somewhere and immediately started looking up what this devices were about. I'm glad I did, and particularly glad that I went with these TPLink ones. TPLink has quickly become my go to brand for any home-related networking and for good reason: they perform very well.THE GOODPairing both units is as easy as the quick installation guide says (I used the pair button method). Once it's done and you locate your devices where you need them (unit 1 connected directly to the power outlet closest to the router, unit 2 to the power outlet where closest to my android TV box) it's like you're connected directly to your router using an ethernet cable! Some buyers have reported that their units kept disconnecting every week or so and luckily that's not something I have experienced at all!Using the software utility I see that the link speed between both powerline units (please note that this is different from the link speed between devices in your local network) is anywhere from 196Mbps to 211Mbps which, theoretically, is enough to carry the 100Mbps output that can be sent through this units ethernet port (it is not a gigabit port). This also means that it probably makes a big difference to buy the AV500 version over the AV200 one. I have the AV500, I'm just guessing but this probably means that it lost more than half of the supposed 500Mbps connection speed on my house's wiring alone. I don't know if this means that you will get less than 100mbps connection speed between both units using the AV200 version but if you're a first time powerline adapter buyer (like I was) maybe it makes sense to throw a couple of bucks more to make sure that your experience is at least optimal.My apartment is relatively new (around 16 years, we are first tenants). I don't know how long the wiring is between one outlet and the other but actual distance between the two must be around 25 feet (they are in different rooms, there is a room between one and the other). The wired distance must be longer since has to go through the walls and I believe it has to go through the power switch before reaching one another.THE BAD*I don't know if using high voltage household appliances has an effect on the performance of powerline networks but so far that seems to be the case in my house. I had some video buffering happening while ironing some clothes. It was very unusual and it has not happened again but I will update this review if I can figure out exactly what may have caused it. Maybe someone can offer a more technical explanation?*The power saving feature seems to work great but unit 1 seems to never go into power saving mode. I guess it makes sense because the router is always powered on but I kind of assumed both units slept after not being used for a while.*There isn't a version of the software utility for Linux. I installed it via WINE but it didn't run, there may be a way tweaking it and doing-who-knows-what but I'm too old for that now, I just booted up windows and installed it there. They should work some kind of web interface for this utility. A desktop application for a networking device? What year is this?*It would've been useful if the software utility could tell you which pairing method was used on the units, given the fact that if you just plug both units to the power outlet they get paired, once you use the pairing button method (which is allegedly more secure) you don't know if the pairing worked via the pairing button or it just fallbacked into the regular "just plug it in" pairing. I ended up establishing my own network name between both units manually using the utility because of this. According to tplink support this is what the pairing button method does, only that it generates a random network name for both units to use.*The powerline utility doesn't work unless you connect your computer directly to the powerline unit via the ethernet port. That was very disappointing since my laptop doesn't have one but I guess it makes sense technically. Still it would've been nice if there could be some kind of web interface that could be used if both devices were on the same network (maybe TPLink could integrate one in their routers?). This was the most disappointing of all but once you setup both units to your liking you really shouldn't need to use the software utility. You may not need the software utility at all. I did not find the software utility as unpleasant as some people did, it does the job and it has a simple and clear interface. Why the hate (besides what I just outlined lol)?TECHNICAL SUPPORTWhile the technical support representatives were relatively prompt to respond to my queries (they took at least 12 hours to answer) and very informative once they did, the technical support website JUST SUCKS. Seriously, there is something seriously wrong with the way it handles its cache. Sometimes I got an email about my ticket being answered and when I opened the link via the email it still showed the website as it was in my last visit, as if no response had been posted, I had to manually refresh it even though I had just opened the darn website! It's crazy and very confusing. I didn't try phone call support which is the one you may need to use if you need urgent help, I just needed clarification on some technical aspects of the units.CONCLUSIONSomeone more picky (or prickly) could very well have take one star off from the review judging by the negative points I listed but they all amount to minor matters in my book. Only one of those could become an ongoing worry (video buffering while high voltage appliances are being used) and the review will be updated accordingly depending if the issue occurs again, even though that may have to do more with the powerline adapter standard than the units themselves. The remaining issues have little to do with the performance of the units once they're set up. Luckily, the units perform very well for what I wanted them and that is more than enough for me.

I've been a Network Engineer for over 10 years and ever since I've dealt with computers, cabling is one of the worst aspects of the job. I can't tell you how many times I've run/extended CAT3/CAT5/CAT5e/CAT6 cabling and ended up terminating both ends and testing them. Some situations are easier than others when you're allowed to run a cable across the floor or above ceiling tile... but in other situations like getting networking in a certain room in your house can be a total pain in the butt.For the average home user, the only way to get networking from point A to your house to point B is either wired with cabling or use WiFi & bridging if the WiFi didn't extend far enough. When Powerline technology came out it added convenience of using existing power cabling but still was a little flaky and troublesome. But since then, Powerline has jumped leaps and bounds since and is much more reliable & faster.When it came time to buy originally back in July 2012, I put a lot of research into looking into the latest powerline solution for my home. I wanted something with high performance and the current version of "high performance Powerline devices" allows 500Mbps transfer rate. Even still, I was having trouble selecting which manufacturer to go with (Belkin, Cisco, Netgear, etc). After my homework (and despite Netgear's horrible sales support), I ended up with the NETGEAR Powerline 500Mbps Nano Adapter - Starter Kit (XAVB5101).Despite the insane price point (currently $87.99 on Amazon - 12/13/2013; I bought these for $108 back in July 2012), the Netgear adapters worked wonderfully in my home. I was able to maintain faster throughput from device to device while on wired Ethernet while not saturating my WiFi network. However, over the course of a year and a half, the number of devices I had in my house grew considerably (especially over WiFi).In the past year, I added a few cell phones, a laptop, a tablet, a Roku 3, a Western Digital TV Live, 2 Chromecasts, and a new Smart TV. Because of that, my WiFi started to become degraded because every single one of those new devices was connecting to my network over WiFi. When multiple devices would start streaming things like Netflix and I was doing transfers from my media server to a PC, Netflix would stutter and my WiFi throughput would literally crawl slower than a snail on a salt bed. That's when I realized I needed to invest in more Powerline Adapters for certain rooms to speed up transfers as well as help reduce the load of my WiFi network.But you see, despite being pleased with my Netgear adapters, I didn't want to spend another $100. A friend of mine (who I told the Netgear adapters about) bought another brand of Powerline AV 500Mbit adapters from a company called TP-Link to save money. He said they worked pretty good. After finding out that they were $35 on Amazon, I immediately pulled the trigger. I mean after all, I had a word of mouth approval from a friend and you can't argue saving over $50 vs another set of my Netgear adapters... the result? Absolutely no difference in speeds.Just like the Netgear adapters, these are essentially Plug & Play. There were literally no problems connecting these in my house. I went to the living room where I needed wired connectivity and plugged these up to the wall. The TP-Link adapter immediately recognized my existing Netgear Powerline adapters and the 2nd LED (Powerline LED indicator) immediately lit up. I plugged in my small 10/100 switch to it and then my Roku & TV up to it and the 3rd LED (Ethernet indicator) lit up and the devices could not only talk to other devices on my LAN, but they had Internet access as well. I personally noticed NO DIFFERENCE in throughput speeds both within the LAN and the Internet.The *ONLY* difference between the TP-Link set and the Netgear is the that the TP-Link doesn't tell you the "current speed" of that adapter's Powerline network. The Netgear has multicolored LEDs that indicate the speed of your Powerline network. While this normally won't matter to a lot of people, it will tell you whether you are having degraded performance within your home's electrical wiring. It also aids in troubleshooting as well. But it's not a show stopper...Personally, I would recommend this product over the Netgear adapters I have.1. The price is a LOT cheaper.2. TP-Link has a TWO YEAR WARRANTY vs the Netgear's ONE YEAR WARRANTY. If you're really concerned on whether you're buying "a crap product", rest assured that this works just as good as the bigger name brands and you have an extra year of product care!Highly recommended.