D-Link ships $139.99 PowerLine HD Ethernet Adapter Starter Kit
By Darren Murph 
posted Apr 15th 2009 3:19PM
posted Apr 15th 2009 3:19PM
posted Apr 15th 2009 3:19PM
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Up to 200Mbps... Yeah... I like to meet just ONE person to ever hit that speed. Even if you attach these things to the same outlet I doubt you will get that speed.
It's probably 200Mbps if your electrical wiring is made of Cat5. I've never understood how they're allowed to get away with all these theoretical speed limits, it's like the self-assessed Energy Star ratings: if they're not tested independently under fairly realistic conditions you probably can't rely on them at all.
@404
... same with laptop battery life, fuel efficiency ratings, and economists.
Actually, as long as your house isn't using crappy (or Aluminum) wiring you should hit 200Mb MAC rate no problem.
Unfortunately for most consumers, the difference between MAC rate and usable throughput is too hard to understand.
I don't get anywhere near 200Mbps on my Linksys powerline kit.... but they are still AWESOME!
This looks pretty cool. If it works right, I might pick one up.
Netgear has had these out for awhile now... my partner and i sold an HTPC and the distance of the TV setup from the customer's router required either getting a guy in and running a cat5 cable across his house, or using one of the netgear EOP units... they blew me away... he was running Hulu in full HD on his 55" sammy with utter beauty!! my partner and i were amazed. we'd definitely use these again! the units we sold him even had 4ports on each end!... and they're cheaper than the Dlinks by about $30-40...
Tony
@hickhamt - your website link doesn't work. you or your boyfriend need to sort that out.
HAH!
Cool!
Directly from the product site:
** Maximum throughput based on theoretical transmission PHY rate. Actual data throughput will vary. Network conditions and environmental factors, including volume of traffic and network overhead, may lower actual data throughput rate. Interference from devices that emit electrical noise, such as vacuum cleaners and hair dryers, may adversely affect the performance of this product. This product may interfere with devices such as lighting systems that have a dimmer switch or a touch-sensitive on/off feature, short wave radios, or other powerline devices that do not follow the Universal Powerline Association (UPA) standard.
It's not bad at all....until you find a good electrician that will install Cat-5e for less $$$. And there are plenty of electricians needing work around here these days.
Yeah and you'll have to sit there waiting for him to show up then tear your house up when a simple plug like this works too, plus you can change location of the thing any time.
I'm not technically inclined enough but it seems to me you could make these yourself as a simple DIY project. Any comments/ideas?
I plan to run some cat5e from top to bottom floor and figure if I can DIY a wall outlet, that might be more fun than running wires all afternoon.
I have the linksys 200Mbps adapters and they work perfectly for steaming to my xbox watching netflix HD and to my PC and Mac mini streaming 720p videos from my server.
I was very skeptical but after just plugging them both in and waiting for them to find each other everything has worked perfectly. Your performance will vary depending on your house wiring, but my apart seems to handle these fine. I never tested the speeds i get but if i can stream 720p and HD over netflix im fine with that for now. Thats basically the max any network should be able to handle.
Yup, my dad has the Linksys PLK200 and I have the PLK300. My dad need top floor to basement 1080p streaming and I needed the same in my condo (too much wireless interference from all the units). They work perfectly and never need to be touched once setup. I HIGHLY recommend them.
http://www.linksysbycisco.com/CA/en/support/PLK200
http://www.linksysbycisco.com/CA/en/products/PLK300
I've read previous incarnations of this type of product were either unreliable or would break down after a few months (possibly from overheating).
maybe they have the bugs worked out now.
Hasn't Netgear had these for a while now. Not sure why we need them, I watched HD over the 85Mbps rated Netgears and it was perfect.
I have the 100Mbit Linksys adapters, the Linksys software is reading a 93Mbit connection between the two points, but for some reason 1080p MKV files are still choppy on my Popcorn Hours A-110. 720P works perfectly though....
I don't see what the big deal is. Homeplug Av at 200Mbps data rate have been available for years. Just do a quick buy.com or Newegg search and you'll see plenty of identical product from Linksys, ZyXEL, Netgear, and others.
Real world throughput is in the 40-80Mbps range. All the vendors are essentially using the same two chipset vendors (Intellon for Homeplug AV or DS2) so performance is basically the same between all vendors.
That's just it, it isn't a big deal. This is just a new product release in this market segment. Some people (like myself) enjoy hearing about new products, though. Welcome to the world of gadget blogs.
Sorry Scott,
This one doesn't even warrant a mention, it's exactly the same as all the others, except newer models of other makers now have passthru sockets built in. So not really anything new, in fact if anything a step backwards.
Am I the only one that notices the speed differences:
Theoretical Maximum is 200mbps.
Network Interface on these are 10/100mbps.
So, theoretically speaking...you can't achieve the 200mpbs.
Ful Duplex
I have had this at home for maybe just over a year, and i can confirm that this works great.
The best part is that it´s totally plug and play. Just plug each one in and it works instantly. Great product!
I have netgear power line adapters that I have found work well. They are listed to be 100Mbs but the fastest I have gotten out of them is about 80 Mbs. I have gotten a lot lower when I have tried different outlets. Thus for what I needed it for (xbox360) the power line adaptors work well. I dont see any extra lag. And like Neeko above I usally have no problem streaming HD movies via Netflix. I did have some issues at first but so do lots of people with Netflix.... I think these are pretty good if your house's wiring is up to snuf...
I have had a pair of ActionTec powerline ethernet adapters for almost a year and they are exactly as advertised.
I can easily stream HD shows like Lost or House through TVersity with no problem at all.
Forget wireless, powerline ethernet is the way to go.
Well, I haven't had much luck with them, they die. I gave up and went with the Belkin, they look cooler, and haven't died on me yet.
I tried the Belkin version of these up to 200 Mbps powerline adapters. I got 15-18 Mbps in a small house will all copper wiring.
Meh.
I bit the bullet and ran CAT5e
How are these different from the DHP-301s that are already out and already are supposed to hit theoretical speeds of 200 Mbps? I get a solid 15-20 Mbps in a new house.
So what'ts the difference between powerline HD and powerline AV? They both have the same theoretical data rate.
Nothing.
It's like when TomTom released their HD Traffic, it meant bugger all and was just the marketing department talking bollocks again.
these don't work in shitty new york apartments with 3 power grids in the building -_-
I use the Linksys version of these in three locations in the house. One at the HTPC & Xbox 360 in the living room, one connected to my router in the upstairs office, and one in the bedroom attached to a little media server. I stream movies over Netflix without issue...it is a very nice solution for those of us where wireless isn't the right choice.
Okay, I'ma go ahead and play the dumb card here: How do these things work? What's their purpose?
I have the Netgear HDX101s and they work great, even for 1080P.
http://www.netgear.com/Products/PowerlineNetworking/PowerlineEthernetAdapters/HDX101.aspx
Been using them for almost a year now. I don't get anywhere near 200mbps, but I believe my measured speeds we somewhere around 25mbps. More than enough for compressed HD files. Even BluRay is only around 36mbps.
It would also be interesting to see if they mean 200mbps duplex (100mbps in each direction).
Those are the same babies I'm using and they have been going strong. Like you said, no where close to 200mbps but more than enough to stream netflix and HD movies to my 360 which is on the opposite end of the house.
They are pictured plugged in to a wall. Do they have a built in surge protector? They must.
Yes they do IF you get some good ones. Some of the cheaper branded ones are not protected.
I'll just buy one of the receivers, that way I can watch what everyone else in my apartment building is watching. ;)
Looks slightly like a personal alarm, or security door chimes
Herbie555 -- clearly you're living in your mother's basement. If you owned your own house, you'd know that most homes DO have crappy wiring. I've got an earlier incarnation of this and it can take me upwards of 10 minutes to transfer a 700mb file from the second floor to the basement family room.
i've owned the previous versions of this for about 2 years now and god has it been a huge headache. it's such a ridiculous story.
some guy 2 blocks away who uses a CB radio for god knows what starts complaining to us how our house is causing lots of interference and we narrow it down to these d-link bad boys. he keeps coming back every few days and yelling his head off whenever i'm trying to use these to play some xbox live. eventually he calls the Canadian Government Spectrum people and they come and test it out and see that it is indeed causing lots of interference in the air waves. we let them borrow them to test them out but they just give them back to us telling us to get replacements from d-link.
after 2 weeks of trying to explain the situation to d-link, they finally let us send them in for replacements (but we pay for shipping, yay!) the replacements arrive and guess what...CB radio dude comes back yelling about the same problem. we try to tell him there's nothing we can do and that the Spectrum people told us we can use them since they're approved, but that still hasn't stopped him, and d-link still hasn't done anything about it to help.
i wonder if these will have that problem...
funny.
Radio enthusiasts are the biggest losers ever.
Wow...that's a helluva story.
"This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) this device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation."
yeah...it's been going on for over a year now with no real solution in sight. honestly I don't know how or why it's doing it. i'm sure stuff like this is supposed to be tested thoroughly so I don't know how wide spread the problem is, but the replacements did the same thing.
the radio dude just came last week complaining again.. apparently the interference is a lot worse now since we got cable installed.....
I've been using the Linksys PowerLine AV adapters for a few months now and it works great. I could not reliably stream my HD movie collection over wireless, but it's worked a treat over PowerLine, even up two stories from my basement router. I've now got three deployed and were the easiest network deployment I ever had, truly plugged in to the wall, connected the CAT5 to the XBox and was in business.
I use the netgear and it works great. Getting almost 2x the speed my wireless 360 adapter was getting.
Is it just me or is "Supports enhanced network security" not convincing enough?