Mix and match question about Homeplug AV 200

[SnakeMan]

I currently have a powerline network that was built using Netgear adapters (XAV2101, XAV1004, and 2-XAV1601). This is hanging off of my wired network connected to a Linksys WRT600N Dual Band router.

My question is can you mix adapters on the powerline network and will they play nice with each other? For example; if I see that the Zyxel adapter has higher throughput and is cheaper than Netgear can I replace one of my Netgear adapters with the Zyxel? I have not been able to get a straight answer from the Tech Support folks at Netgear, but I guess they want you to buy their adapters.

I am just getting acquainted with powerline networking and it has definitely impressed me. I went with Homeplug AV 200 technology because it seemed the most mature and it seemed to be all that I needed to handle HD streaming to my Satellite receiver and Blu-ray player.

 

[thiggins]

Yes, you can mix and match adapters. Just make sure they use the same or higher speed rating, ie if you have 200Mbps adapters, use 200 Mbps or 500 Mbps adapters.

Don't get your hopes up for greatly improved performance, though.

 

[SnakeMan]

Don't get your hopes up for greatly improved performance, though.

Thiggins, Thank you for your reply. I am one of the few people that you won't hear complain about the speed of powerline networking. I started out with the Homeplug AV 200 adapters and they have worked wonderfully for me. Using Lan Speed Test results as my benchmark, I am seeing throughput speeds of 50 to 60 Mbps transfering a 20 MB file and Internet speeds comparable to my wired lan so I am quite pleased with my powerline network performance.

The main reason for my question is availability and cost. NewEgg doesn't seem to carry single NetGear powerline adapters so if I have one go bad I have to buy at least two. If I can mix and match then I can buy single adapters from other companies. Besides, after reading one of the articles here about HomePlug AV 200 adapters the Zyxel adapter seems to have better performance than the NetGear product anyway.

Companies seem to go out of their way to confuse you by saying that their units are HomePlug AV compatible or HomePlug AV+ compatible or powerline AV compatible making you think there is a difference. NetGear has some 200 Mbps adapters listed as Powerline AV 200 Nano (XAV1601) and another listed as Powerline AV+ 200 (XAV1501) making you think that they wouldn't communicate with each other on the same network. Plus if you examine the manual that came with the NetGear XAV2101 it doesn't list the XAV1501 as being compatible while it does list the XAV1601. So knowing that 200 adapters will work with other 200 adapters makes the buying decisions much easier. I don't know why they don't, or won't, make it simple for consumers like me trying to figure things out?

Thanks again,

Virgil

 

[thiggins]

At this point, the different names are just there to confuse the consumer and make him/her think that they are getting something unique.

A few years ago, there were two incompatible powerline networking standards. HomePlug won and now all products are interoperable. See
SmallNetBuilder's Powerline FAQ