NETGEAR XAV2501 Powerline AV+ 200 Adapter Reviews
I bought the NETGEAR XAV2501 to go along the NETGEAR XAV1004 so I could get internet to my AV system. I bought the XAV2501 because the combo package that includes the XAV1004 was out of stock and I was in a hurry. The XAV1004 works with several of the NETGEAR Powerline adapters (see their website for full details).br /br /I have a two-story brick home which is about 60 ft wide. The cable modem and and NETGEAR router reside upstairs at one end of the house while the main AV system resides downstairs at the other end of the house. Thus, I have a worst-case condition here as there are several walls for which wireless signals to pass. I had been using simple 802.11g to connect to the TIVO using the TIVO adapter, but that solution doesn't work for blu-ray and other devices which can use internet access. Also, and more of a problem, the wireless signal to the TiVO would frequently drop out forcing me to reboot the router. I got tried of that after several months.br /br /I also tried the NETGEAR dual band router (802.11n) at 5GHz talking to a wireless bridge (DLINK). This solution, while sounding good on paper, doesn't work very well. The 5 GHz signal was very weak through several walls and from floor to floor. For file transfers from the TiVO to the PC, the transfer times were slow.br /br /Finally, I got around to powerline AV from NETGEAR. It's a simple hook up. You plug the XAV2501 into a socket near your computer and run an ethernet cable to it from your router. Then plus the XAV1004 (in my case, anyhow) into a socket near where your AV equipment is (in my cause, downstairs at the other end of the 60 ft house I live in). Then run ethernet cables from the XAV1004 to the TiVo, Blu-ray, Xbox (I don't have this) and TV. This gets you a 100 Mbps connection (not 200 Mbps).br /br /This works great! I have a laptop down there and I can move a 11 GB file from upstairs to downstairs with transfer speeds from 5.83 to 6.5 MB/s (that's megabytes per second, not megabits per second). So that 11 GB file is transferred in about 35 minutes. Downloads to the TiVo from Amazon or NetFlix are much slower, but they are limited by my broadband connection, which is about 25 Mbps at best (that's megabits per second).br /br /The XAV1004 has 4 ports that you can use to connect your internet-ready devices. They appear to be metered some how, with one for your device that requires the highest bandwidth (I presume this would be for streaming video), and the second for the device that requires the next highest. The last two appear to be about equal. From what I can tell, file transfers from the laptop downstairs to the PC upstairs go at the same rate using either of the two highest speed ports. This might change if I actually had two devices using both ports at the same time, but so far I don't really have a need for it. I have the TiVo on the highest speed connection, and the PC on the second highest port. The transfers still go as written above.br /br /I am very pleased with this powerline connectivity in my house, which was built around 1988, so the wiring is not exactly new. I have been testing now for several weeks. I have not had a drop or a significant slow down yet, even though the file transfer speed does vary in the range of 5.83 to 6.5 MB/s. I'm not sure why there is that variation.br /br /The picture here on Amazon.com for the XAV2501 (at the top for the product) is not what I got in the box. I think there are different versions of this device. The version I got is what is pictured in the written description, but I think there are different versions of this device.br /br /Highly recommended if your home is not pre-wired for networking. More reliable than wireless and you can still use that too. My 2.4 and 5 GHz wireless bands are free for other connections (upstairs in other bedrooms and downstairs for Wifi phones and laptop/iPad, etc).
NETGEAR XAV2501 Powerline AV+ 200 Adapter Feature
- Powerline AV+ Enet Adapter
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It works, really well - Brad Bortner - Somerville, MA United States
My router is on the second floor, and this adapter is in the basement, in a finished basement which required a jumper box to be installed off of the main circuit breaker. The adapter works simply and well, as opposed the the wireless adapter which mostly worked, but sometimes did not, and varied wildly in speed. Highly recommended.
Nov 04, 2010 17:50:06
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