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Matthew E.

Matthew E.

Joined on 05/23/09

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 11
Most Favorable Review

Great Powerline Ethernet Kit

ZyXEL 500 Mbps Mini Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit (PLA4201KIT)
ZyXEL 500 Mbps Mini Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit (PLA4201KIT)

Pros: This kit works great. I live in a three story town home and I am connecting from upstairs to my basement (3 floors) and I am getting about 85 Mbits/sec. This is much higher than I expected it to be and I am very happy with this product. This kit also allows for 128 bit AES encryption which gives me piece of mind that I cannot be snooped on.

Cons: I think that this kit could have came with better instructions on how to encrypt the data between the devices. I ended up looking up the manual online.

Overall Review: For anyone that may be looking at this review and cannot figure out how to encrypt this kit. Here is how: Plug each device into a plug close to each other. Plug each device into a computer so that they will not go into low power mode Hold the Reset/Encrypt button down for ~10 seconds on each device, they should blink (this resets the devices) Press and hold the Reset/Encrypt button down for ~2 seconds on each device within 60 seconds of each other, they should blink (this encrypts the devices) The devices will now be married and can be unplugged and moved.

Great Wireless Range Extender

LINKSYS RE1000-RM Wireless-N Range Extender
LINKSYS RE1000-RM Wireless-N Range Extender

Pros: This wireless range extender is great, I am getting about 35 Mb/s in my basement where I was only getting about 1 Mb/s. I can now easily watch HD video streams from my server.

Cons: None really, for the price point.

Overall Review: I was hesitant about purchasing a refurbished model, but I have had no problems to date. I have read other reviews and immediately changed my extender's IP address to static so that connections would not fail if and when the dhcp lease expires. I put ddwrt on my E4200 router to increase the output power, this greatly increased the potential throughput of the range extender and allowed me to place it further away than I would have been able to without increasing the power.

Great Modem

ARRIS SurfBoard SB6121 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem
ARRIS SurfBoard SB6121 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem

Pros: This modem is DOCSIS 3 compliant and it can bond up to 4 channels. There is a web interface on your LAN where you can view logs and signal information. No more paying the cable company a monthly fee. The modem is much more stable than modems that I have had in the past, as far as I can tell, it has never dropped a signal. The modem is fast. Theoretically, it can go up to 171.5 Mb/s. I have seen speeds north of 80 Mb/s.

Cons: None with this modem, but the cable company's customer support could be better (see other thoughts).

Overall Review: The person at the cable company who hooked up my new modem the first time failed to do it properly. I pay for 36 Mb/s of bandwidth, but they gave me the docsis config file for 26 Mb/s. I was able to find that file name in the modem's log, I contacted customer support once again over the phone, gave them the file name, and they were able to reconfigure my router giving it the proper bandwidth limitations.

Good Micro USB Cable

Coboc 3 ft. USB 2.0 A Male to Micro-B 5-pin Male Cable (Black)
Coboc 3 ft. USB 2.0 A Male to Micro-B 5-pin Male Cable (Black)

Pros: The cable works to charge my Android cell phone, it is inexpensive, and it is built well.

Cons: None, the cable works.

Great Price

SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA Model SH-222BB/BEBE
SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA Model SH-222BB/BEBE

Pros: I have two of these, they seem highly reliable and burn disks pretty quickly. I don't burn too many disks anymore, but this thing is just so cheap that I cannot justify buying a DVD ROM.

Cons: Can be kinda loud at times.

Good Motherboard

ASUS E45M1-I Deluxe AMD E-450 APU AMD Hudson M1 Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo
ASUS E45M1-I Deluxe AMD E-450 APU AMD Hudson M1 Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo

Pros: Looks like it is discontinued, but I really like this Motherboard. It is a great HTPC motherboard, handles any video that I have thrown at it.

Cons: Gets a little hot, but that is how AMD usually is.