# Actual Powerline Ethernet Experiences?



## Marconi (Sep 8, 2001)

Most threads I could find about powerline Ethernet adapters are from 2-3 years ago. Certainly things have improved a bit by now, no?

Anyone have powerline Ethernet adapter stories they'd like to share?

I have three HDs plus two Dual Tuner boxes and a couple S2s with no Ethernet. I figure the HDs and DTs could probably benefit from powerline adapters. They all use wireless g adapters currently.

Things I'd like to know:
Seems like the 85 Mbps devices ought to suffice for MRV transfers. The 10/100 ports on the DVRs would never use the capacity of the more costly 200 Mbps devices. Comments?

I know MoCA is nice but with all the splitters and amps scattered around my home, I suspect that signals might not get through. What happens when signals from a MoCA device hit a splitter?

Success stories?

Horror stories?

Please tell us about your success/failures with powerline Ethernet adapters currently on the market.


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

I had two of them that I never could get working reliably. Mostly it was because I have an older house with three breaker boxes, or three distinct zones in my home. Powerline ethernet relies on everything in your home being on the same "circuit" <-- ((I'm prolly wrong about that word)). If everything in your home runs to the same panel you can get 1 - 3 mb via powerline. I think mine were iogear adapters and they came with software that only worked with windows.


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## Gary-B (Jun 4, 2009)

Using the ActionTec 85 Mbps as I type. Actually got the 4 port hub from them also for my two Series 3 and one HD Tivo. No problems but Tivo Desktop transfers are a little slow about a 1/3 of my wired tivo's.


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## fyodor (Sep 19, 2006)

Powerline tends to be very hit or miss - though even the people who have good experiences don't get near the rated speeds (as is the case with most networking technologies), so if you want, say 20 megabits/s, I'd get the 200 megabits/s technology.

I would give MoCA a try-it's actually pretty tolerant of splitters and the overwhelming majority of users still get at least 30-40 megabits/s. You can buy an Actiontec MI424WR router on ebay for 30-35 dollars and convert it to a dumb MoCA bridge.

F



Marconi said:


> Most threads I could find about powerline Ethernet adapters are from 2-3 years ago. Certainly things have improved a bit by now, no?
> 
> Anyone have powerline Ethernet adapter stories they'd like to share?
> 
> ...


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## Videodrome (Jun 20, 2008)

i have had powerline for years , never had an issue, i transfer HD back and forth between machines, without problems. I do suggest a QOS router to keep things in order. I often watch netflix, and surf at the same time, without any problems.


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

Videodrome said:


> i have had powerline for years , never had an issue, i transfer HD back and forth between machines, without problems. I do suggest a QOS router to keep things in order. I often watch netflix, and surf at the same time, without any problems.


I find wireless G provides the same experience and for me is more reliable for reasons already stated.


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## ajayabb (Jan 12, 2007)

I have both Tivo HD's wired via Netgear 100mb Powerline Adapters. My home is over 100 years old and I have 1 circuit breaker. I can utilize MRV and get anywhere from 18 Mb/sec to 23Mb/sec throughput. With PC to Tivo transfers I see somewhere between 6-10 Mb/Sec


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## ceyko (Jan 1, 2009)

For the folks with success, what products are you using specifically? If you don't mind saying.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

Videodrome said:


> i have had powerline for years , never had an issue, i transfer HD back and forth between machines, without problems. I do suggest a QOS router to keep things in order. I often watch netflix, and surf at the same time, without any problems.


I don't think Netflix and QOS in this case have much in common. Netflix is inbound from the internet. QOS effects outbound traffic. Sure, your requests for more stream may get to the Netflix servers with more priority, but the actual stream back is subject only to QOS added by Netflix, which I doubt they do...


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## ajayabb (Jan 12, 2007)

orangeboy said:


> I don't think Netflix and QOS in this case have much in common. Netflix is inbound from the internet. QOS effects outbound traffic. Sure, your requests for more stream may get to the Netflix servers with more priority, but the actual stream back is subject only to QOS added by Netflix, which I doubt they do...


Will QoS improve transfer rates within the LAN? And if so how do you adjust the priority on VLAN and TOS to acheive that?


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

ajayabb said:


> Will QoS improve transfer rates within the LAN? And if so how do you adjust the priority on VLAN and TOS to acheive that?


I honestly wouldn't think so, unless your network was consistently pretty active, and running at capacity.


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## Golfguy54 (Nov 16, 2009)

Longtime lurker here; thought I'd kick in my 2 cents. I recently moved into a rental house and added a second Tivo. Since I plan on streaming Netflix soon and wanted to interconnect everything (also not a computer expert) and wasn't in a position to hardwire everything together, I spent an evening researching powerline adapters. I decided to try the Linksys PLK300 kit (lots of good reviews). I've only been using it for a few days but so far it works perfectly. Decided to go with the 200 Mbps to be as future proof as possible. The 'receiver' end comes with a 4 port hub which works great since I have the Tivo, a Wii, a Panasonic plasma and a BD player that all want an internet connection. Haven't tried out the Netflix yet but all the speed tests I've run show very good throughput. 
Dave


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## ceyko (Jan 1, 2009)

ajayabb said:


> Will QoS improve transfer rates within the LAN? And if so how do you adjust the priority on VLAN and TOS to acheive that?


QoS is a board statement the applies to...

Marking
Queueing
Shaping
Policing
and some other things. Queueing won't take place until you're at capacity. For the purpose of this we'll assume marking is done.

In general on your LAN, you'll really have to be fubar'ed for queueing to help. shaping/policing can on occassion. However, as mentioned QoS on an ingress Internet connection is not going to do anything.


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## Marconi (Sep 8, 2001)

NewEgg.com currently has several NetGear powerline adapters (recertified) available for very good prices. I decided to try two each (they are limited to two per customer) of the ($24.99) XE104-100NAR and two of the ($27.99) XAV101-100NAR. The former have four ports and the latter, while faster, have just one Ethernet port.

I'll post info on the experience once I have received and tried them. I figured that, for the price, it's hard to go wrong.


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## shiffrin (Aug 23, 2000)

I originally used wireless internet to connect my router to my series 3 Tivo. This worked fine until I began to watch Netflix movies which always paused frequently and made it almost impossible to enjoy a movie.

I installed a Linksys PLK300 Powerline AV Network kit and my Netflix problems stopped immediately. I no longer get any pauses even if the movie is in HD quality.


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## Rolento76 (Nov 18, 2006)

My home is about 20 years old, only one breaker box. I thought I would be the perfect candidate for the powerline adapters. I was able to get great throughput from one bedroom to the next on the same floor but horrible throughput when going from the second floor to the first. At the time I didn't rate the speed in terms of actual throughput but I wasn't satisfied unitl I could MRV an HD show and watch it instantly and still skip commercials at the beginning of the transfer. I only experienced that kind of satisfaction when my S3s were hard-wired. Then I went with MoCA (NIM100s) and they were just as fast as my hard-wired ethernet setup. MoCA has no problems going in either direction through splitters as long as your splitters cover the full cable spectrum (5-1000Mhz).


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=428769&highlight=powerline

Some brands have two models (faster and not-as-faster). You better get the faster one for video streaming.


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## Videodrome (Jun 20, 2008)

orangeboy said:


> I honestly wouldn't think so, unless your network was consistently pretty active, and running at capacity.


Well part of the powerline spec, is QOS. Because the rates arent consistent. I have 7 computers, 3 tivos, and 3 VOIP lines. There is a difference, because you could easily flood off a netflix session, or voip session, in a few seconds without QOS. We all know how sensitive, netflix is to internet bumps.


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## TomS (Dec 18, 2009)

ceyko said:


> For the folks with success, what products are you using specifically? If you don't mind saying.


I'm using Plaster Networks adapters. They have some added capabilities that really make a difference in my house for reliable connectivity. I would definitely recommend them.


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## janry (Jan 2, 2003)

Check out today's woot.

http://www.woot.com/

I think this is their older & slower product but that is a good price. Inexpensive way to check it out.


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## convergent (Jan 4, 2007)

I just went through this this week and went the MoCA route. To me it seems more logical that you can get good results via a shielded coax cable than over AC lines, but not sure if thats a real issue. The reviews I read seemed to show MoCA running a lot faster. I bought a pair of Actiontec adapters from Amazon for $150. 

In my house, there is one big splitter outside the house by the power meter that has lines running out all over the place. One of those lines has an amp on it. I had trouble at first getting it to work, until I moved the Actiontec adapter before the amp. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but it worked. My understanding is that the amps don't pass all the frequencies, and MoCA obviously uses frequencies that the cable companies don't. So I don't think splitters cause MoCA any trouble at all, and as long as you get on the inside of the amps, then you should be fine. Unless you have some amps somewhere before the signals reach the outlets, you should be fine by keeping the MoCA adapters as the first thing out of the jacks. 

I'm quite happy with the speed.


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## Marconi (Sep 8, 2001)

Marconi said:


> NewEgg.com currently has several NetGear powerline adapters (recertified) available for very good prices. I decided to try two each (they are limited to two per customer) of the ($24.99) XE104-100NAR and two of the ($27.99) XAV101-100NAR. The former have four ports and the latter, while faster, have just one Ethernet port.
> 
> I'll post info on the experience once I have received and tried them. I figured that, for the price, it's hard to go wrong.


I received these are tried them both. (It turns out that they are not interoperable).

I was looking to improve upon the performance of my existing TiVo branded wireless g adapters. To test these, I transferred the same file from the same TiVo HD multiple times, timing the download each time. For the Power Line Adapters (PLAs), I used the same outlets -- one by the DVRs and one near my router.

Using wireless g as the standard...

Fast PLA -- 'up to 200Mbps' -- (NetGear XAV101) was just 12.7% faster than wireless g.

Slow PLA -- 'up to 85 Mbps -- (NetGear XE104) was less than half the speed, 41% as fast, as my existing wireless g. This was a shocker.

I'd expected that the slower PLA would be a bit faster than wireless while the faster PLA would be significantly faster than wireless. Not even close.

YMMV, of course. My results are for my home, my wiring, my wireless, etc. My existing wireless has the DVR g adapter just 12 feet or so from the wireless router. I typically show a connection (on TiVo) in the high 80s ('Excellent'). The layout of the room does not allow for running Ethernet cable from the DVRs to the router -- it would be across the aisle.

I have not done any comparisons of transfer speeds when the DVRs involved are also recording. It's possible that whether a DVR is also recording at the time can affect throughput.


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## ceyko (Jan 1, 2009)

What have you seen as far as reliability goes? In my situation, I have a couple of workstations that are not doing well wirelessly and I simply need a reliable connection - fast is optional. Does it seem to always be up with no packet loss?


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## fyodor (Sep 19, 2006)

Told you to go with MoCA. Did you listen? No. Like my wife and my dog, you ignored me 

Scoop up some used Actiontec routers and convert them to MoCA bridges. You'll be happy with the results.



Marconi said:


> I received these are tried them both. (It turns out that they are not interoperable).
> 
> I was looking to improve upon the performance of my existing TiVo branded wireless g adapters. To test these, I transferred the same file from the same TiVo HD multiple times, timing the download each time. For the Power Line Adapters (PLAs), I used the same outlets -- one by the DVRs and one near my router.
> 
> ...


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## Marconi (Sep 8, 2001)

fyodor said:


> Told you to go with MoCA. Did you listen? No. Like my wife and my dog, you ignored me


I considered it but my cabling does not lend itself to it. I have a distribution amplifier (1 in, 4 out) that is nowhere near any of the devices to which I need connect. MoCA is not an option for me.


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## Marconi (Sep 8, 2001)

ceyko said:


> What have you seen as far as reliability goes? In my situation, I have a couple of workstations that are not doing well wirelessly and I simply need a reliable connection - fast is optional. Does it seem to always be up with no packet loss?


I have no idea about packet loss. The connections, to the degree that I tested them, were reliable. The file transfers to my Mac came at a steady rate. YMMV.


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## fyodor (Sep 19, 2006)

Pr


Marconi said:


> I considered it but my cabling does not lend itself to it. I have a distribution amplifier (1 in, 4 out) that is nowhere near any of the devices to which I need connect. MoCA is not an option for me.


As long as the moca devices are all connected to output nodes of the amp it should still work (other people have their networks connected this way). Amplified splitters are typically amps and splitters connected serially so devices connected to the output nodes don't need to go through the amp. It is only when devices are on the input side that you have problems.


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

Marconi said:


> I have not done any comparisons of transfer speeds when the DVRs involved are also recording. It's possible that whether a DVR is also recording at the time can affect throughput.


Recording shouldn't affect the throughput because the TiVo is recording the buffers whenever it's not recording.

However, on my wired connection, when transfering from the TiVo to a computer, setting the tuners to channels I don't receive (which prevents buffering) increased transfer rate. 
(Unfortunately I don't have numbers on that, I was judging the rate by the network graph on XP's task manager)

Also watching a previously recorded program decreased the transfer rate slightly compared to letting the TiVo display 'live TV'.

(So the fastest transfers are done by setting both tuners to a non-received channel and letting the TiVo display that grey screen)


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## fyodor (Sep 19, 2006)

Though unless he's topping out the Tivo's transfer speeds, it really shouldn't matter. If you're using a connection like MoCA/Ethernet, you'll see some performance increase by switching to untunable channels, but if he's using wireless G or some equivalent, his network is going to be the limiting factor.

To be honest, in the early days of HD MRV, it made sense to do this, but the combination of performance increases on the Tivo HDs and further reduction of bitrates by providers has made it kind of a moot issue. Most people with a sufficiently fast network connection should be able to transfer fast enough to skip commercials without playing with the tuners.

For computer transfers, like the ones you're referencing, it makes sense, obviously, since (A) they're slower than MRV and (B), you usually want them as fast as possible since you're usually not transferring to watch immediately, but to archive, compress, etc.

F



Jonathan_S said:


> Recording shouldn't affect the throughput because the TiVo is recording the buffers whenever it's not recording.
> 
> However, on my wired connection, when transfering from the TiVo to a computer, setting the tuners to channels I don't receive (which prevents buffering) increased transfer rate.
> (Unfortunately I don't have numbers on that, I was judging the rate by the network graph on XP's task manager)
> ...


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## nickhaas33 (Dec 12, 2006)

Fyodor in your note.........
I would give MoCA a try-it's actually pretty tolerant of splitters and the overwhelming majority of users still get at least 30-40 megabits/s. You can buy an Actiontec MI424WR router on ebay for 30-35 dollars and convert it to a dumb MoCA bridge.
.................end note

I am interested in this because these seem to be cheaper than the Motorola NIM100 on Ebay right now. How do you go about just using these as moca boxes?


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## fyodor (Sep 19, 2006)

Here you go. It takes five minutes. I actually purchased a few of these for locations where I already had moca bridges because it was less cluttery than a separate switch and adapter (I had multiple devices to connect).

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1145636

The posters in the thread are extremely helpful. The only problems people have encountered is successfully streaming very high bitrate sources (30-40 megabits/s ) since live streaming usually requires a lot of overhead above the actual bitrate of the content. I can't think of anyone on this forum or any of the HTPC forums who hasn't been able to get get file transfers working fast enough to top out a Tivo (35 megabits/s). Many people get significantly faster speeds.

This vendor is selling them for 25 per.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ACTIONTEC-MI424...wItemQQptZCOMP_EN_Routers?hash=item4ceca0d082



nickhaas33 said:


> Fyodor in your note.........
> I would give MoCA a try-it's actually pretty tolerant of splitters and the overwhelming majority of users still get at least 30-40 megabits/s. You can buy an Actiontec MI424WR router on ebay for 30-35 dollars and convert it to a dumb MoCA bridge.
> .................end note
> 
> I am interested in this because these seem to be cheaper than the Motorola NIM100 on Ebay right now. How do you go about just using these as moca boxes?


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## srazook (Mar 28, 2010)

I noticed you have two Tivos wired with Powerline adapters. Did you have trouble connecting the second one? I tried to connect two Tivos via Netgear Powerline adapters the first connected fine automatically obtaining an IP address from the router. But the second one kept getting an unusual IP address, like maybe it was communicating with the other Tivo and not the router. Is there a trick to connecting both Tivos??


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

If your ip starts wiTh 169 then it's not communicating with your router. That's an autoconfiguration ip.


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## Marconi (Sep 8, 2001)

srazook said:


> I noticed you have two Tivos wired with Powerline adapters. Did you have trouble connecting the second one? I tried to connect two Tivos via Netgear Powerline adapters the first connected fine automatically obtaining an IP address from the router. But the second one kept getting an unusual IP address, like maybe it was communicating with the other Tivo and not the router. Is there a trick to connecting both Tivos??


Ummm... I was under the impression that powerline adapters communicated with _each other_. You'd need one at each TiVo and one at the router. To network two DVRs with powerline adapters, you need three adapters, no? Do you have only two adapters?

What was the strange IP address? Was it 169.254.xx.xx? That's a self-assigned IP indicating that a DHCP server was not found.


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## srazook (Mar 28, 2010)

I am using three Powerline adapters, the first is connected to the router and the other two or each connected to a Tivo in different rooms. And the first Tivo connected to the router fine, automatically assigning itself a 192.168.1.100IP address. But the Second one assigned itself an IP starting with 169. The green connection light is on all three Powerline units, which I think means they are all connected to each other. Any Ideas?


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## Marconi (Sep 8, 2001)

srazook said:


> I am using three Powerline adapters, the first is connected to the router and the other two or each connected to a Tivo in different rooms. And the first Tivo connected to the router fine, automatically assigning itself a 192.168.1.100IP address. But the Second one assigned itself an IP starting with 169. The green connection light is on all three Powerline units, which I think means they are all connected to each other. Any Ideas?


Try interchanging the two at the TiVos. See which then gets a good IP. It's possible that one PLA is bad, but more likely just not correctly configured. Each has to use the same code or other setting for the house or whatever.

You could try resetting all three and then they should connect but it's best not to leave them in the default state like that (for security reasons).


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

The powerline adapter is too expensive. You can pick up a wireless TIVO adapter for ~$35.


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## veritas01 (Oct 17, 2006)

The TIVO wireless adapters are a lot less than $35 dollar now. I just sold 3 on Ebay and I was lucky to get 20 each (Used). Some went for less for other sellers. Lot of them on the market. Not sure what that means...many people cutting back by getting rid of TIVO. 

I now use Netgear 200mps ethernet over powerline and I get decent results. I was looking for consistency and I got it. With the wireless I have peaks and drops in speed. I am adding a gigabit switch to each of three TIVO locations...I know it won't improve the speed but I have other devices working off my current 10/100 switch (like BluRay Streaming DVD, PCs, Video cameras, etc.). By adding the 10/100/1000 switch I believe I will be be giving TIVO the ability to grab 100 without contention with the other devices. That's my story anyway. Also Netgeat has a utility that you run and it shows you all the speeds of their devices on your Ethernet over powerline network....based on that...it shows all 3 devices running at better than 100 mps..I assume that is potential speed....so I figure if I put in the gigabits I will get that speed for my gigabit enable pcs at least.


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## jilter (Oct 4, 2002)

How would the Tivo wireless adapter speed compare to say a 85Mbps Powerline adapter?
Can someone please educate me:
I would need one adapter at the router, and one at each Tivo I want to transfer from and to?

Thanks,
Jill


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## ajayabb (Jan 12, 2007)

Jill, from my experience with the Netgear PowerLine adapters, I was able to get transfer speeds from 20-20 Mb/s with MRV between my Tivo HD's. With the wireless G adapters I was somewhere around 6-10 Mb/s. Keep in mind, those Powerline speeds are greatly degraded by older wiring and multiple breaker panels. When I moved to my new "old" house the PowerLine adapters were useless.


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## Stuxnet (Feb 9, 2011)

Probably not a major concern for most folks, but, if you're using external storage and a slide remote and a TiVo adaptor, you'll need 3 usb ports... you have 2.

Go with the cheapest solution... I chose powerline because I already had a SlingLink sitting around feeding a PS3 sitting one shelf below my Premiere. Apart from that I already have too many toys sucking my wireless bandwidth.


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## hazelnus111 (Feb 4, 2013)

I have been using the Actiontech 500Mbps Powerline ethernet Homeplug AV2 adapters (PWR511K01) for over a year now. I currently have a Premiere, Roamio Basic, and Tivo Stream. The performance and speed of the Actiontech has been good. I was never able to easily measure throughput, but with kmttg downloads, I would get about 40-50 Mbps.

I decided to try out ZyXel's Homeplug AV2, which based upon reviews seemed to have faster speeds and added a Gigabit ethernet port (but didn't expect it to do much overall for my speed above 100Mbps, given the Ethernet ports on the Premiere and Roamio Basic) I got this product and plugged it in to the same places as my previous Actiontech. The ZyXel utility (I downloaded v7.0 free from their website; ftp://ftp2.zyxel.com/PLA5215/software/PLA5215_7.0.0.zip), showed 90-115 Mbps speeds up and down. However, when I plugged the Actiontech's back in, I got 90-101 Mbps speeds. Not much difference. (I was pleasantly surprised to see that the free ZyXel utility could measure my Actiontech adapters speeds.)

The big problem that I ran into with the ZyXel is that, unlike my Actiontech devices, it would drop the connection while I was streaming with Streambaby or transferring a file from my NAS with PyTivo. So, I returned the ZyXel but feel that all was not lost as the ZyXel utility is now helping me find the best plug combinations for internet speed with my Actiontech adapters.

At this point, though, I am just getting a 50' white Cat 6 cable and connecting my two Gigabit switches (one upstairs and one downstairs) and will just make sure that I have my speed consistently maximized. I may consider MOCA 2.0 once the devices come out if they have good performance reviews.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

hazelnus111 said:


> The big problem that I ran into with the ZyXel is that, unlike my Actiontech devices, it would drop the connection while I was streaming with Streambaby or transferring a file from my NAS with PyTivo. So, I returned the ZyXel but feel that all was not lost as the ZyXel utility is now helping me find the best plug combinations for internet speed with my Actiontech adapters.


My whole 2nd floor is run by multiple Zyxel units with a single in the basement acting as my source for the house, I've never had the issues you describe, so it's a YMMV situation.


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## hazelnus (Nov 3, 2007)

dianebrat said:


> My whole 2nd floor is run by multiple Zyxel units with a single in the basement acting as my source for the house, I've never had the issues you describe, so it's a YMMV situation.


What model ZyXel are you using? The new homeplug AV2?


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## tivoknucklehead (Dec 12, 2002)

I just bought a ZyXEL Homeplug AV2 Gigabit Powerline Adapter for my Tivo. Easily set up, and worked great the first day, but the second and third day it lost the ip address forcing me to reboot the tivo (twice the second time) and modify ethernet settings in the network menu which is obviously annoying and unacceptable. any thoughts?


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## shiffrin (Aug 23, 2000)

tivoknucklehead said:


> I just bought a ZyXEL Homeplug AV2 Gigabit Powerline Adapter for my Tivo. Easily set up, and worked great the first day, but the second and third day it lost the ip address forcing me to reboot the tivo (twice the second time) and modify ethernet settings in the network menu which is obviously annoying and unacceptable. any thoughts?


I also just installed the Zyxel PLA5206 powerline adapter and it has been working fine for about 2 weeks. Perhaps yours is defective? I'm getting about 17 Mbps transfer speeds using kmttg which is about 5 times faster than I got with my old powerline adapter.


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## tivoknucklehead (Dec 12, 2002)

shiffrin said:


> I also just installed the Zyxel PLA5206 powerline adapter and it has been working fine for about 2 weeks. Perhaps yours is defective? I'm getting about 17 Mbps transfer speeds using kmttg which is about 5 times faster than I got with my old powerline adapter.


I'm not sure it is defective because it works perfectly, but then loses the connection. Yesterday I unplugged the adapter connected to my router for a moment , plugged it back it ,redid network settings and it was fine. This morning I connected remotely to it via my slingbox and it says "gateway not found" so I will unplug it again when I get home. Maybe my house wiring is too old, the house was built in 1988. Both adapters always seem to have 3 green lights lit


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

tivoknucklehead said:


> I'm not sure it is defective because it works perfectly, but then loses the connection. Yesterday I unplugged the adapter connected to my router for a moment , plugged it back it ,redid network settings and it was fine. This morning I connected remotely to it via my slingbox and it says "gateway not found" so I will unplug it again when I get home. Maybe my house wiring is too old, the house was built in 1988. Both adapters always seem to have 3 green lights lit


Its noise. And the reason powerline networking is not recommended by Tivo. For some it works fine, for others its a continuous hassle. Some it works for a time and then quits when some new noisy device is in the area.


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## tivoknucklehead (Dec 12, 2002)

jcthorne said:


> Its noise. And the reason powerline networking is not recommended by Tivo. For some it works fine, for others its a continuous hassle. Some it works for a time and then quits when some new noisy device is in the area.


ugh, I was afraid that might be the case. I'll just return it.


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## fyodor (Sep 19, 2006)

shiffrin said:


> I also just installed the Zyxel PLA5206 powerline adapter and it has been working fine for about 2 weeks. Perhaps yours is defective? I'm getting about 17 Mbps transfer speeds using kmttg which is about 5 times faster than I got with my old powerline adapter.


The 5206 is a newer generation than the earlier homeplug AV2 products, so that may be the difference. Or you could just have better wiring. For the price of the 5206 one might as well get a MoCA kit (if there is coax available).


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## tivoknucklehead (Dec 12, 2002)

I returned the powerline adapters and installed gigabit ethernet and it works superbly. My slingbox bandwidth over the internet went from 200-400k typical to 8200k !


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