ZyXEL PLA4201KIT Mini Powerline Ethernet Adapter Starter Kit Up to 500Mbps

Pros: Plug and Play need I say more. Went from the modem to the router in another room and fixed all my issues.

Cons: none this product is amazing.

Pros: Much more stable than wifi

Cons: none so far

Pros: Great price, much easier, more secure, and much faster than wireless....

Cons: None so far

Other Thoughts: Great solution for a single family house... Probably great for any dwelling with the security features built in, I just don't have any experience in an apartment or row house or condo...

Pros: My house was built in 1968 and features aluminum wiring, lack of ground, and generally loose broken outlets.

Was able to push 8-9MB/s which saturates my 20Mb Comcast. Same speeds across different circuits in my house. Beats my wireless hands down.

App reports link rate of 137Mbps/44Mbps

Small size. Good bang for the buck.

Cons: Lack of gigabit port. But based on my research even the 500 Mbps adapters with gigabit ports don't hit over 100 Mbps in real world conditions.

Pros: Relatively fast speeds.
Plug'n'Play.
Option for encryption (although, no idea how strong).

Cons: Somewhat expensive.

Other Thoughts: I've tried 3 different powerline products. This one seems to yield the best results.
Remember: quality of your electrical wiring is everything. I've tested this in a 40yo building and was getting only 30-40Mbit 2 rooms over. In a remodeled house with a recent overhaul of the electrical system, I was at 200-300Mbit 3 rooms over and 1 room down (!).
In my personal experience, this kit proved to be superior to WiFi in Linksys E3000 and ASUS RT-N12 for HTPC downstairs. There are 4 walls and a floor for a straight shot. Couldn't get more than 2MB/sec transfers, which rendered streaming MKVs impossible. Then enters this kit and hits a steady and consistent bandwidth of 4.5-5MB/sec. I'm happy :)
Keep these away from laser printers, surge protectors, any hungry devices. Speeds will instantly drop by 50%-70% otherwise. I only share the dual outlet with a lamp.

Pros: Easy to install and set up
Excellent signal
Able to utilize my full internet bandwith

Cons: Didn't pick these up sooner

Other Thoughts: I picked these up because I was tired of the abysmally weak and slow WiFi I was getting in my room. I hooked these up and they worked right away. Not a single problem. Now I have a connection that is just as good as being hooked directly to the router, even though it is a pretty good distance from the source.

Pros: Best price for the 500mbs/100mbs system out there. Really simple to get working.

Cons: These are budget adapters -- 100mbit connection instead of 1000mbit. I'm all about 90% of the speed for 50% of the price.

Other Thoughts: 500mbs is the theoretical limit -- like 54mbs is for 802.11G. Not only is it the transfer limit -- but the max of the whole system. If you have 4 connectors instead of 2, all 4 dip out of the 500mbs connection.

That said, the 100mbs ethernet connection hardly every limits the transfer speeds, but it can occur. It does makes the hardware cheaper, and the whole unit affordable.

Most people will think that the proximity of the outlets matters -- it does and it doesn't. You will need to know if you're on the same circuit/breaker or not -- same circuit means a direct connection, different circuits means your distance is from the outlet, to your breaker box, back to the other outlet. So outlets 35' away from eachother, in reality, be much farther apart (200' would not by tough in my little 1500sf home).

I'm really happy with this product, it allows me to stream 1080p media, it's much faster than my dual band 802.11N network, and was dead simple to install.

Pros: Easy Setup. Works imediately, faster than dual band 802.11N for me (<50')

Cons: It would be nice to have some way to screw this into the power outlet -- keep it nice and secure. Nobody else does this, it's not really a con, but mine can get a little loose.

Pros: Easy to install, small size

Cons: On the second floor of my house, which is only 4 years old, the indicator was red, meaning 0-20 MBS. I bought this to get better speed than my wireless connection and was disappointed to find it no better at all. I tried several outlets, made sure not to put it in a power strip, but could not get good signal only 35 feet or so from the source. Returned it.

Pros: * Work instantly.

Cons: Connected and used before going to bed, and found one of them dead the next morning. No LED lights after connect to power whatsoever. Nothing, just completely dead. Tried connect to power and press reset button. The other works fine (so far), but it is useless with only one. Tried opening it up to see if there are any obvious burns / disconnected parts only found out the screw head is triangle. The screw is put in so tight and it breaks my only triangle head screw driver (it's a cheap one; but still why?). Stay away.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for your recent purchase. We value our customers' satisfaction and would like to ensure that your solution is working at its optimum. I'm sorry you are having trouble with this unit and the product should be plug 'n' play. Please feel free to contact me directly to resolve your issues. Our team can help replacing your unit.

Thank you,

- Tony Macias
tony.macias@zyxel.com