The Best Powerline Networking Kit Wirecutter Reviews. The TP Link TL PA9. P was the fastest kit we tested, and it has dual Ethernet ports and a handy management utility. Photo Nathan Edwards. The TP Link TL PA9. Shop for Networking Hardware here. Wireless Networking, Modems, Routers, Switches, Cables more. All the Top Brands. Low Prices Fast Shipping. View and Download ZyXEL Communications NAS326 user manual online. NAS Series Personal Cloud Storage. 3D Statue Model. NAS326 Storage pdf manual download. Welcome to the Oct Dec 2016 catalogue. Mobile. As the year once again begins to draw into the Christmas season, I would like to thank you on behalf of Exertis for. P kit is the best powerline adapter kit for most people because it was the fastest in testing and had the best software, too. Along with the runner up Zyxel PLA5. KIT, its the fastest kit weve ever testedboth devices were twice as fast as last years picks in our testing. It has a passthrough AC power outlet, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, and a two year warranty. Its bulky enough to partially block the outlet above it, but all the smaller adapters we tested were much slower. Thank you Youll receive a confirmation email soon for Wirecutter Weekly and Deals We Love. The TL PA9. 02. 0P is a set of two Home. Lyberty. coms weeklymonthly splash page. Yes, a splash page is old fashioned, but its been a tradition here since 1999. Plug AV2 2. 00. 0 adapters and comes with two 7. Ethernet cables. Each adapter has two Gigabit Ethernet ports on the bottom and Power, Powerline, and Ethernet connection LEDs and a Pair button on the right side. The Powerline LED lights up green if the connection speed is above 5. Mbps and red if its slower or nonexistent. The TP Link offered had the fastest measured performance in all the most important locations. In the two test locations furthest from the router, the TP Link kit had average speeds between 8. Mbps. 4 Thats not as fast as the Ethernet or the Wi Fiagain, you should use those options if you canbut it was enough to beat out the Zyxel PLA5. KIT, and more than twice as fast as the two fastest kits from last year Zyxels PLA5. KIT and D Links DHP 7. AV. All four powerline kits we tested had their best results in the office, with speeds above 2. Mbps. This is because the router side and client side adapters were on the same electrical circuit, and the powerline signal drops every time it has to change circuits. But if youre that close, you can either use Wi Fi or just connect your device to the router using Gigabit Ethernet. Either of those options will be faster. But powerline is getting better. I tested a bunch of AV2 5. PC, router, and test locations, and the best of them could barely hit 3. Mbps in the living room and 1. Mbps in the guest room. Last years best AV2 1. Mbps, and this years pick doubles that. Speeds of 8. 0 9. Mbps are faster than most peoples home internet connections, and thats not shabbyplenty for game streaming, 4. K video, and pretty much anything except transferring huge files between devices in your network. Because the Zyxel PLA5. KIT and TP Link TP PA9. P have two Gigabit Ethernet ports per adapter, we repeated the above tests with an additional laptop a Think. Pad T4. 60s connected to the adapters other Ethernet port, to see how well the kits would handle multiple simultaneous connections. In most cases the adapters split the bandwidth fairly equally, though in a few tests one laptop would grab all the signal, leaving the other cruising along at 0 Mbps for the duration of the test. Mostly, that didnt happen. In the double laptop test, the Zyxel was quite a lot faster the TP Link when on the same electrical circuit, but again, you dont really need powerline in that situation. It trailed the TP Link by 1. Mbps in the living room, and they were tied in the guest room. Home. Plug AV2 kits are all supposed to be intercompatible, so we added one of the Zyxel adapters to the TP Link kit, put one adapter and laptop in the bedroom and one in the office, and ran the i. Perf tests simultaneously. Both adapters did better when they had the router side adapters full attention, especially the one in the office. However, when they were both running full tilt, each topped 4. Mbps, which is enough to for example stream 4. K video to two different rooms in your house. Powerline networking kits can be susceptible to interference from other devices on the circuit. You can have noise coming from bad quality power supplies phone or laptop and incandescent bulb light, according to Netgears Guiot. Appliances on the line can also interfere with powerline signals. According to this knowledge base article from TP Link, Electrical equipments with electromotor, like washing machineair condition, can generate interference and may even cut off your powerline connection. To test potential interference from electronic power supplies, I charged a phone and then a laptop in the socket above each powerline kit while running the 1 MB multi client test. I also tested using the passthrough outlets of the kits that had them. I plugged my media centers power strip into the passthrough outlets, and tested that setup twice once while streaming 1. Netflix via Wi Fi, and once while streaming from the other Gigabit Ethernet port on each adapter. I couldnt run the media center tests on the Zyxel PLA5. KIT, our previous pick, because it has no passthrough outlet and the power strip didnt fit above it. It also has only one Ethernet port. The TP Link outperformed the Zyxel PLA5. KIT in every test here. Both dropped a few megabits per second when I charged my phone from the outlet above them, but both stayed within the 5 Mbps of natural variance in either direction that weve come to expect from powerline networking tests. The older Zyxel PLA5. KIT dropped 1. 0 Mbps when I charged a laptop from the port above it thats a bit more significantnearly a quarter of its total throughput. So if you have an older powerline kit and youve noticed interference, upgrading might help. The new kits seem a bit less prone to drop speed and have more bandwidth to work with in any case. The floor lamp wasnt even turned on, but it went Funkytown when I benchmarked last years powerline kit in the same outlet. This years pick and runner up left the lamp alone. Video Nathan Edwards. I also looked for interference from a floor lamp with a dimmer switch and three 1. W LED bulbs. I didnt see any speed drops on any of the kits, including those with passthrough outlets, but I did get a light show from the Zyxel PLA5. KIT. Its not a passthrough adapter the lamp was plugged into the same outlet, with its dimmer switch set to off. TP Links management utility lets you rename adapters, see your powerline network signal strength, and more, though its not required. Itll even show non TP Link adapters on your network. The TP Links non quantifiable traits are also superior to those of its competitors. Although you dont need it to set up or use the adapters, TP Link does offer a management utility Windows only, so its a good thing its optional that lets you add and rename adapters, update firmware, modify Qo. S settings, and even turn off the LEDs. It can show the signal strength, let you check your encryption settings, and even show third party adapters. Its faster, prettier, easier to use, and more feature deep than Zyxels utility. TP Link offers a two year limited warranty covering parts and labor along with web and phone support and a knowledge base on its website for help.