Review on Powerline Pass Thru Homeplug Ethernet PLA6456KIT by Chris Hunt

For the past eight years I've had a trusted pair of NetGear Powerline AV200 adapters that have been very reliable. However, we're considering cutting the cable from our cable provider, and while Netflix is streaming to our TV through these old adapters, I figured it was time to switch to a higher definition stream without delay. NetGear stated that these older adapters had data rates of "up to 200 Mbps with real-world throughput in excess of 80 Mbps." Before replacing them with Zyxel adapters, I ran some speed tests. With a 100 Mbps downstream and 5 Mbps downstream connection from my cable provider, I got a consistent 8.8 Mbps downstream and 5.2 Mbps downstream with these old adapters. I know, I know . You're wondering how the heck I could ever stream anything, but the 8.8Mbps download speeds seemed to work pretty well when watching Netflix on our 55-inch LCD. It's enough to provide a pass-through plug on the adapter so you don't lose sockets. As mentioned, installation was quick and easy (just like my old adapters) and I was connected in just a few minutes. These Zyxel Gigabit AV2000 powerline adapters claim that I "enjoy speeds of up to 1800Mbps," or nine times the speed advertised by my old NetGear powerline adapters. Using the same Cat 5e cables I used with the NetGear AV200, my new Zyxel AV2000 adapters consistently delivered data rates of 51Mbps and 5.2Mbps. a noticeable improvement over my old adapters, they only offer half the 100Mbps transfer speed that I use for other wired devices. Overall I am very happy with these new adapters and they are well worth the money for the speed increase. I'm just a little disappointed that I couldn't get the full 100Mbps out of an adapter that claims to be capable of up to 1800Mbps, and wonder where the manufacturers come up with the "real throughput" and those from their advertised top speeds.