ZyXEL PLA4205KIT Powerline Kit Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Up to 500Mbps

Pros: These things are just amazing. I bought these with the EnGenius ECB350 to set up a bridge for my FIOS system. I have 3 in my house. One is connected to my FIOS router downstairs, one is in my detached garage 70 feet away (for the ECB350) and the other is in an upstairs bedroom (Panasonic DVR streaming; Netflix, etc.) about 40 feet away. It all works amazingly well together. I can pull 35+ Mbps wireless and about 50 Mbps with a direct connection into the Ethernet ports. I did have to try a few outlet combinations. For example, my garage has two different circuits and one only allowed ~15 Mbps, but the other is pulling >34 Mbps into my ECB350. I highly recommend these units.

Cons: None.

Pros: Connects easily. Speed can fluctuate, is usable, but is no where near theorectical limits (I saw 30-110Mbps based on location of the devices, and even at the same outlet it changed up and down over time). Plug and play. I did not experience any house outlet power phase issues that prevented usage which was common on older models in some wiring situations.

Cons: Performance was not great. Max was 110Mbps and worst was in the 25-40Mbps range. They asl fluctuated from momenet to moment sometimes as much as 40Mbps and would stay there until later in the day. Major brodcast storm issues on my main switch when using more than one remote unit; one host unit network connected and three remote units (I bought 2 x this kit and used them together which is allowed, but I would not recommend it after testing; see other thoughts).

Other Thoughts: Unfortunately, when I hooked three remote units to one main hub attached to my main switch on a cable router, the brodcast storms from the three units that were introduced on the cable router liternally brought bandwidth at times on the gigabit switch to its knees; our vonage phone box, also on the same switch, would have very interrupted calls with drop outs for 2-6 seconds every so many seconds (unusable). Turn off the one main unit and connection was restored and normal. I have 40Mbps line, granted it's cable, but this behavior was consistent to the powerline adapter being on and not cable bandwidth issues. Validated multiple times; good and bad. Bandwidth of the units is operation not as good as expected. Never got above 110Mbps (not horrible compared to others, but still expected a little more). Powerline adapters still have issues. My wiring is only 6 years old, and "probably" not the issue.

Pros: Small, Works immediately, great speeds (almost the exact same speeds as when fully wired), super simple to set up

Cons: Not much to say here. I guess it would be nice if the unit has a pass-through to allow another device to use the outlet but not a big deal

Other Thoughts: I was skeptical purchasing this. In typical Newegg fashion it arrived on my doorstep the next day. After running a couple speed tests with my wired connection (running 100' Cat5 cable) I pulled the plug and plugged these in. I immediately had connection, no buttons to push, nothing to set up. Ran another couple speed tests and my results were almost identical. I was amazed. I've been running these for a few weeks now and haven't had a single issue or dropped connection. My living room looks much cleaner without the bulky cable lying around.
Of note, my house was built in 1965 and I have no issue running these through my electrical system.

Pros: Fit any elect plug
Plug N play

Cons: Doesn't meet stated performance

Other Thoughts: Read the reviews of different brands. ZyXEL looked better. Did note some users had problems. Took the chance as needed to set up WMC video streaming from HDHR to computer in area of house can't E wire. Was using N wifi which was marginal. Installed powerline units which autoconnected to each other. One unit showing red indicator other green. Switched units (had bought two pairs) thinking one bad but same result. Tried other plugs with same slow result - speed test gave 5 Mbps DL / 3 UL. My 1/2 speed wifi N adapter gave me 21 Mbps DL. Disappoint to say the least. Will try another day or two My old Belkin wifi G router is giving me the same as the powerlines (5.2 / 3.2). If no improvement will return and try another way. Will update if something miraculous happens. Wish I could run wire like rest of house.

Pros: These work well bringing WiFi to my detached garage where I use it for four IPcams via a fast ethernet switch. What pleases me further is that this should not work since the garage is on it`s own 100amp service separate from the house`s 200amp service.
Both services come out of the same 400amp meter pan but that is all they have in common. Had it not worked I would have sent them back, but it works fine.

Cons: None so far

Pros: * Fast Connection
* Easy Setup
* Great answer to WiFi
* Easy to use software

Cons: * Issue with power arcing.

Other Thoughts: I live in a newly renovated house and to send a decent signle from the 2nd floor to our offices on the 3rd would be bad. This was a great answer to using WiFi and the speeds are perfect, I see no change from being directly plugged into my router.

My only downside is that my breaker blows with them in it due to one of the 4 i own (setting up with 4 is very easy as well) is arcing and popping a breaker, 2 or 3 of these are on the same breaker. This is a wiring issue with my house though and an issue with only one of 4 that I have worked around.

Great product and I am very happy that I purchased it!

Pros: great! these are great! faster than wifi. i was getting around 1.2mbps on 2 ddrt routers (1 for the bedroom, 1 for the media center) and now im getting 5mpbs so i purchased the 4 port switch kit of these. they work great and easy! got the single port kit for the other rooms for a total of 4 adapters and they are all working great across separate switch box too.

Cons: had like 150kbps speeds at first, so i contacted support. they never replied to my email about this issue. TERRIBLE SUPPORT!!! i figured out i had my main pc has dual ethernet ports so the connections was bridged. have to unbridge the connections and was getting 5mbps.

Other Thoughts: support sucks. no reply for weeks now. but the products are great.

Pros: - Link speed
- Plug and play (no real setup required)

Cons: - Unreliable
- Needs a reset once or twice a day

Other Thoughts: This kit would have been great if I didn't need to reset them once or twice a day. I used to have a pair of old Netgear 200Mbps powerline adapters in the exact same set of power outlets and they NEVER needed a reset in the two years I had them. These ZyXel adapters need a reset every day. I need to return them and get Netgear or Trendnet.

Pros: I was really skeptical about the whole Powerline way of doing networking connections but after hooking this up I don't think I will ever use a wireless-N connection to my new desktop. I mean wireless is great and the new Gigabit Wireless routers are great to have but for a steady connection on a desktop workstation this is just better. I'm getting a more constant connection at my desk that's clear across the house.

Cons: None for me but I don't know how this would work on a home with multiple breaker panels or circuits so just keep that in mind when reading my review.

Other Thoughts: This is practically the easiest network connection setup I've ever tried being new to a product. I mean you literally don't have to think when hooking this up straight out of the box!

Pros: We connected it to our wireless router. We plugged in the adapter in my sons room. Pressed the "sync" buttons on each end and presto ... network connection. We have my sons Xbox360 running across it and it's been as solid as any wirelss connection ... almost as solid as a wired connection.

Cons: More speed is always better. And it would unbelievable when this technology becomes as solid as a wired connection. Just the state of the technology at the moment ... not a dig on this device. We love this thing.

Other Thoughts: If you need a better-than-wireless connection, get this thing. It works. Its solid. We've been running the xbox across it for 5-6 weeks and have had nothing but success. We're getting ready to add a switch/hub on the end for additional connection to his PC. We'll see how that works out.