TRENDnet 500 Mbps Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit TPL-401E2K
by Mohamed Bhimji on January 14, 2012
in Technology
The problem with wireless networking is that if you’re having to download large files of the Internet – it’s slow. If you live in an area that is saturated with other wireless networks you end up having issues. Not to mention that most wireless networks are still G which is what most cordless phones and other devices run on.
If you don’t have the option of running a hard wire to your router or your home isn’t roughed in for Ethernet you’re stuck. Well not really. You can pick-up this life saver from Amazon.
The TrendNet 500mbps Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit (TPL-401E2K) allows you to access the internet over your existing home power.
Simply plug one adapter close to where your router is, connect the Ethernet cable from router to adapter. Plug the second adapter wherever your computer is, connect the Ethernet cable from the adapter to your PC – and you’re done. You’ve got (or should have) fairly high-speed Internet access without running cabling all over the place.
When I initially saw this product, I was skeptical. Will it work? The reviews were mixed, and the tech I spoke with said it was merely OK.
Although my PC was WiFi and my router supports WiFi, the router (plus cable modem) is not very configurable as such I can’t change a lot of the settings on the router/modem. The only solution was to live with the constant wireless outages and slow transfer speeds, or run a cable from cable modem to PC (not a popular option with the wife, not to mention unsightly) or try the TrendNet 500mbps Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit (TPL-401E2K). Given the opportunity to try it out how could I say no?
Seriously – simple plug and play. I upgraded the firmware on the kit and I was connected. I installed the TRENDnet Powerline Utility to monitor the plugs. I consistently get between 176mbps to as much as 198mbps – I’ve never seen anywhere near 500mbps, but that is perfectly fine. I never saw these speeds wireless!
Screen shot of the TRENDnet Powerline Utility.
MAIN TAB provides you with the screen above, the ability to see all the adapters currently connected and in-use, plus the transfer rate on each.
PRIVACY TAB allows you to change the name of the private network. I had a lot of issues when I changed this, as did many people who purchased this product (based on reviews). I left mine AS-IS and have not had any issues.
DIAGNOTICS TAB allows you to see system information on the adapters, plus remote device history. If you’re not a techie, you won’t care about this.
I don’t get 500mpbs but didn’t try moving the plug to different outlets and the distance between my rout
er and laptop is about 20 feet.
If you want a quick solution try this product – it works and it’s not expensive. TrendNet 500mbps Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit (TPL-401E2K) can be purchased on Amazon for around $100.00 US, worth the money (and peace and quiet in the house).
You can buy the TrendNet 500mbps Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit (TPL-401E2K) right now on Amazon.
Key Features
- Includes two TPL-401E adapters
- High speed building-wide networking over an existing electrical system
- 1 x 10/100/1000Mbps Auto-MDIX Gigabit port
- Connect one 500Mbps** Powerline AV Adapter to the Internet and then plug in up to 15* additional 500Mbps** Powerline AV adapters for instant building-wide connectivity
- One-touch Sync button networks adapters quickly
- Share data intensive files, play games, download music, and more at ultra fast data transfer rates
- Advanced 128-bit AES encryption to ensure total network security
- Power Saving mode reduces electrical consumption by 80%
- Neighbor network support for up to 4 overlapping networks
- Compatible with both 120 volt and 240 volt electrical systems
- Tri-color LED indicator
- Network signal transmits up to 300 meters (984ft.)
- Auto QoS support through traffic classification and multiple priority queuing
- Configuration utility compatible with Windows 7, Vista, and XP (32/64-bit) operating systems
- 3-year limited warranty
UPDATE January 15, 2012 @ 12:01am PST
As I still have a couple of plugs laying around I thought of connecting my HP 6500A Plus wireless printer to one of the plugs as I have issues with the printer when it goes to sleep (doesn’t always wake-up). Well all I can say is “that was easy”. Screen show below showing both devices. Device 2 is my laptop, and device 3 is my printer.
The TRENDnet Powerline Ethernet Adapters are my Gold Choice / Editors Choice. It works, and they are inexpensive. Buy them.
I am tremendously happy with the Trendnet Powerline AV 500. I’ve used it in two houses, a century old converted schoolhouse in Masschusetts and a decade old California house with far newer wiring.
In the Massachusetts location, even with the top Netgear wireless N routers on the 2.4GhZ band, I couldn’t get a consistent signal from the top corner to the bottom corner of the place. The signal strength would report “3 bars” but the connection was spotty at best and would cut out constantly.
With the Trendnet, I can stream video consistently and the setup was as easy as plugging in both adapters into a standard wall outlet. Pushing the “connect” button seems optional. There’s at least fifty feet of wiring between the two locations and the Trendnet handled it amazingly well with Skype video displaying consistently and beautifully.
In the California location, I have about the same fifty feet of wiring although the wiring is far newer and I can stream 1080p video from my PC to my PS3. I’ve never encountered a hiccup and once again the connection was amazingly easy to set up.
I’ve never done a stress test but while streaming video, the stream has gone to ~8MB/sec without stuttering.
The downside is that there’s no power passthrough port. Some reviews complain about the powersaving sleep mode taking too long to respond but I’ve never encountered that.
I got this kit plus one additional adapter to test along with a new Linksys WRT-400n router and a pair of Airlink AWLL6075 Wireless N mini adapters to do comparison testing. I was amazed when I first plugged the two adapters that come with the kit. They were registering a 279Mbs connection between them. I am able to max out my 24Mbs comcast connection consistently on speedtest.net. I am also able to do the same wirelessly, though the connection Tx rate is only 65Mbs and the Rx rate is 117Mbs. However, test results are not consistent using the Airlink AWLL6075′s connected to a Mac Pro tower and PC located less than 30 feet from the router. I have more testing to do with actual video streams but so far the TrendNet adapters are looking very promising. Will update later. Did not do any actual file transfers to measure real world throughput but will get to that next.
—-Update (7/20/11)——
I finally got around to doing a bit of real world testing. I have so many projects going on I have not yet actually put these into production use yet. However, once I finish building my NAS box for I will need them for streaming full time. I did a file copy test of a 3GB disk image from a Mac Pro to a MacBook Pro and measured actual throughput at 68Mbps. Though nowwhere near 500Mbps it is good enough for HD streaming. This was with standard Apple file sharing. The NAS will be sharing NFS mounts so my hope is that the throughput will increase with NFS. We’ll see. Also there is a firmware update available that I have not done. Hopefully that boosts performance also. I’ll add another update when the NAS is online. So far still satisfied with them.
This really was an exceptionally easy product to install.
I didn’t monkey with thier software, since I’m just not that concerned that a close neighbor is also going to have one of these. What are the odds?
Plugged one unit into the wall and the existing router, went to the other end of the house, where wireless is poor, plugged in the other one, and connected the cat6 wire. Presto, internet connection, just as good as being connected to the base router.
I am only getting 80mbps or so of data transmission, but as stated in the product description, much of the available speed is dependent on how the wiring in your house is setup. I have not tried other nearby outlets to see if I can up that any, but Skype is working and that is what I was trying to achieve on my new Skype enabled Panasonic TV.
I think this is a pretty cool device, that delivers on it’s promise, and is super easy to setup. I also like that it is capable of much higher speeds should I end up moving it to a location that has less interfence and that it conforms to the powerline standard.
I purchased two of these kits (4 adapters) as a cheaper way of getting network connectivity installed in my existing 2-story house. (Since everybody has WiFi now, the 802.11g spectrum in our neighborhood is so saturated that WiFi has become slow and unreliable.)
After a small amount of ‘fiddling’, I was able to get all 4 network adapters working perfectly. I’m getting just under 400 Mbps between 3 of the adapters, and just over 100 Mbps to the fourth one. I had some initial trouble, which I believe stemmed from my attempts to lock down security before I had all the adapters working… but when I reset all 4 to factory defaults, they self-configured right away, and I could then use the included configuration utility to lock down security.
All in all, the only complaint I have with the units so far is that I wish they had a power-outlet pass-through. As they are currently designed, you lose the use of one power plug for each adapter. Still, as easy as they were to install and as well as they seem to be working, they still rate 5 stars.