Powerline Network Adapter Shootout
Powerline Adapter Shootout The Contestants
First up is the Belkin Powerline AV500 (Model F5D4085) which is a pretty sleek-looking box that is designed to connect your home network with speeds of up to 500 Mbps. Like every device we tested for this review, the Belkin is specifically designed to connect your HDTV, Blu-ray player, or gaming console to your network at speeds to allow fast file sharing, gaming, and streaming of HD video.
D-Link, like every other Powerline adapter manufacturer, designed their adapter to work with your existing house electrical wiring for a theoretical maximum network speed of up to 500Mbps. The D-Link DHP-500AV adapter also supports 128-bit AES Encryption for network security and QoS Support that helps to prioritize internet traffic.
The TRENDnet TPL-401E2K Powerline Adapter is yet another Ethernet adaptor that is designed to work at 500Mpbs (with up to 2 Gbps with Full Duplex mode). At $179, it is the most expensive adapter in our shootout, but you can find the TPL-401 for much less on the street. Measuring just under 4-inches tall, and 3-inches wide, the TRENDnet is also one of the smallest adapters in our catalog…it’s also the most plain looking adapter in our shootout – a small white box with three small LEDs on the front. The Ethernet port and encryption button is located at the bottom of the unit.
capability including being Gigabit Ethernet capable, 128-bit AES
encryption and QoS support, and the ability to connect up to 16 adapters
to a network device. TRENDnet delivers their Powerline with a 3 year
limited warranty.
Unlike the other Powerline adapters we looked at the Netgear XAVB5004-100NAS AV 500 Adapter kit not only extends your internet access to any electrical outlet, but is designed for specifically for home theater use allowing up to 4 Ethernet devices to be connected at the same time. The 4-Port Powerline AV 500 adapter that was packaged was model XAV5004 a small glossy box that with Push-and-Secure AES protection and support for HD streaming. The 4-port adapter also contains a power switch which was unique for the contestants in this lineup.
Now that we have taken a quick look at the Powerline adapters lets look at the performance numbers.
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