NETGEAR XAVB5001 Powerline AV 500 Adapter Kit Reviewed

[hungarianhc]

I took the plunge, and I bought two XAVB5004 kits.

I was on the Linksys HomePlug AV products previously, and I felt that the bandwidth left something to be desired, but I'm sure that had to do with the fact that the home is so large (around 4000 sq feet). I'm hoping these will be much better, and from the testing results, it seems like they hold up better at longer distances. Anyhow, I don't need them to be amazingly fast, but hopefully they end up being twice as fast as the old ones. I will report back! I need these to perform better so my slingbox works better .

 

[MilhouseVH]

to follow up on my original question.
i got the neatgear adapters, they run twice as fast at 15MB/s, latency 2ms

however!

latency is very inconsistent, sometime i'll get 100 pings in a row at ~2ms then out of nowhere 100 will return at anything at from 10ms to 100ms (same conditions as Linksys)

tim, please, consider reviewing this aspect of peformance. going from 4ms to 100ms on a newer adapter is not exactly an upgrade. if only there were reviewa to let us know of such things in advance.

See my previous post - you're probably experiencing something like the regular, frequent losses I'm seeing. Not sure how to explain this behaviour, but it's not good.

 

[headrat]

So I'm using the XAVB5001 successfully upstairs on one ring main, the problem I've got is when I plug in downstairs the try and connect to the ones upstairs and the throughput is terrible.

Lounge (Ring 1)
XAVB5001 (Lounge, wired connection)
XAVB5001 (Lounge, XAVB5001 plugged in to other site of room)

Upstairs (Ring 2)
XAVB5001 (Bedroom 1, wired connection)
XAVB5001 (Bedroom 1, XAVB5001 plugged in to other site of room)
XAVB5001 (Bedroom2)
XAVB5001(Bedroom 3)

is there any way to logically separate the adapters so they can't see each other over the house wiring.

I basically want Lounge/Upstairs not to "see" each other, I've got wiring to facilitate the communication between upstairs and the downstairs lounge.

Thanks HEADRAT

 

[thiggins]

Just set different security codes on the separate pairs.

 

[headrat]

I've tried that and it seems to make absolutely no difference

When I get a chance I'll post a screen shot from the "Windows Powerline Utility".

Cheers

HEADRAT

 

[hungarianhc]

Hello All,

I just replaced the old Homeplug AV equipment at my parents' house with the new netgear 500MBPS stuff. I used to have two Linksys PLS300 devices and one Linksys PLE300. This was used to connect the primary router to the home theater in the house as well as to a room where I had an old tivo series2 and a slingbox. It's a pretty large house. I didn't feel like doing extensive testing, but I decided to do a equip file transfer test. I had an Ubuntu ISO, and I figured I would just try to copy it to the disk on the time capsule. I timed that, and after it copied, I deleted the file on the time capsule, and I went about replacing the networking equipment with an XAV5001 and two XAV5004s. It was very quick to replace them.

Anyhow, before I did the swap, the file transferred in 3m41s. After the replacement, it took 2m35s. 221 seconds to 155. That's a 42% increase! That may not seem like much, considering that it is advertised to be over twice as fast, but I wasn't expecting anywhere near twice as fast, just knowing how they advertise this stuff, how big my parents' house is, etc.

Anyhow, my tests aren't very scientific, but I didn't feel like running a battery of tests, and it's just another data point!

 

[thiggins]

Thanks for the post, hungarianhc. HomePlug AV has come of age and more people really should try it instead of pulling their hair out trying to get an all-wireless solution to work.

If your parents' home is a newer one in the U.S. it might have AFCI breakers, which could also limit throughput. See Slow HomePlug? Five Ways To Boost Powerline Network Speed - AFCI, Noise

 

[Unregistered]

Filter speed impact

Does the version of these with an extra filtered extension socket (XAV5501) provide higher speed in case of 'noisy' power consumers plugged in nearby?

I want to get 2 units and plug one of them in next to my 50" Plasma / PS3 / Xbox etc, and the other one upstairs next to my server and iMac desktop.

If I power the TV and other devices through the filtered socket on an XAV5501 rather than using an XAB5001, am I likely to see any speed / reliability improvement?

My question boils down to whether the 'filtered' extra socket is there for convenience only or to improve performance. If it makes no difference I'd prefer the units without an extra socket as they're more compact.

 

[thiggins]

Does the version of these with an extra filtered extension socket (XAV5501) provide higher speed in case of 'noisy' power consumers plugged in nearby?

The filter affects only the devices plugged directly into its outlet. Its effect on filtering noise from anything else will be minimal.

Its effect depends on how much noise the devices generate.

 

[Unregistered]

lavely entrompl

The filter affects only the devices plugged directly into its outlet. Its effect on filtering noise from anything else will be minimal.

Its effect depends on how much noise the devices generate.

I am planning to plug an extension into the XAVB5501's filtered outlet and use this to power all nearby devices at both locations. By doing this I'm hoping to avoid noise from devices impacting network performance, compared to plugging in an XAVB5001 'next to' all the other devices (50" plasma TV, games consoles, 2 large PCs, etc).

Is this a good idea, and what the filtered outlet is intended for? I assume it is, but I've not seen any explicit statements in reviews or Netgear's specs to this effect...

 

[Unregistered]

The noise filter on the adapter is only good for filtering anything else plugged into it.

You can find out if noisy appliances are affecting your powerline network by unplugging everything in your house except for the powerline adapter and whatever is connected to them. Then transfer a large file. Then, one by one, plug in your appliances and check your transfer rates.

I found out that my cell phone charger and my tabletop hot water kettle was killing my transfer rates and I had to filter them.

 

[sugarbear]

I got these and they work well, other than the fact that iTunes sharing and AirPlay don't work over them. Is there something I can do to remedy this?

 

[stevech]

I'd think that the filtered outlet would block noise produced by things plugged into the filtered outlet's receptacles.

Seems too like HomePlug AV data signals would be attenuated while passing through the filtered outlet.

Guess it depends on the filter's bandpass.

 

[sugarbear]

Belkin had a similar AirPlay issue but remedied it with a firmware update. NetGear doesn't seem to be responding to a call for the same...

 

[thiggins]

The powerline filter would not be the culprit. It is just there to filter line noise from devices plugged into it.

First thing I'd do is leave the adapters where they are, plug computers into both and run a long ping to check for dropped packets and intermittent connections.

If that is ok, the only thing I could think of is something wonky in the code that provides the bridging function. WAY back in the early days I remember an issue where a pair of powerline adapters would only support connection to ONE device, i.e one MAC address instead of many.

Is there more than one device plugged into the far end adapter where the iTunes client is? If so, unplug both adapters, plug in a single device, then power both up and try.

 

[sugarbear]

Thanks for the suggestion.

My setup is both HP Envy 17 (running iTunes) and Apple TV2 --> DIR-655 router --> downstairs AV500 powerline unit --> upstairs AV500 --> DAP-1360 wireless access point --> iPod Touch (wireless).

I'm a noob in many respects, though (for example, I'll be googling "run a long ping")

So, if I understand your suggestion, it's unplug both adapters, power down the access point, restart the access point and then plug in the adapters?

 

[thiggins]

So, if I understand your suggestion, it's unplug both adapters, power down the access point, restart the access point and then plug in the adapters?

Thanks for the additional details.

I'd first use a different iTunes client that is Ethernet-connected to the upstairs AV500 and see if that works. This way you're making sure that you're debugging the powerline connection and not some combination of powerline and wireless. If the wired client also has a wireless adapter, make sure it is shut off when you run the test.

If that works, then you can add the DAP-1360 and Touch back in. But assign a different SSID to it so that you can ensure that the Touch is connecting to it and not the DIR-655.

 

[ynohtna]

I'm annoyed that I can't get the adapters to sync at or near 500. Not even 200. Too bad I wasn't able to test these at the same house I was at that had the 200mpbs kit syncing 180/190.

The place I'm at now is only 3 years old. I thought for sure it would be really good. But I guess there's a lot of variables. Haven't had time yet to do any actual data transfers, just moved in and plugging adapters in everywhere trying to find a good high sync rate.

 

[kdsouza]

Does this work between 2 different apartments in the same building

I read a few reviews on Amazon.com from users who mentioned that they tried this between 2 apartments in the same building and it worked.
Me and a friend stay in 2 apartments in the same building and want to share the same internet connection. Please let me know if this would work in my scenario.

 

[thiggins]

I read a few reviews on Amazon.com from users who mentioned that they tried this between 2 apartments in the same building and it worked.
Me and a friend stay in 2 apartments in the same building and want to share the same internet connection. Please let me know if this would work in my scenario.

Depends on a lot of things. Both apartments need to be within 300 ft of each other and on the same side of a distribution transformer. The only way to know is to try.