Linksys Powerline AV Wireless Network Extender

UPDATED ON MARCH 3, 2014: I recently bumped up my internet speed and began running some speed tests to verify this. I was surprised to find out that the throughput over these powerline adapters had dropped by over 50% since I originally reviewed them. I've tried resetting them and reinstalling the firmware, but the problem remains. The only thing that may have changed was the fact that I accidentally pressed the "encryption" button on one of the adapters a few days ago (around the time I increased my internet speed with Comcast), but resetting the adapter should have cleared that. The adapters still push around 90Mbps in the same room, but this number drops significantly as I move the adapters away from each other. Where I was originally getting over 90Mbps with the adapters on different floors, now I'm getting around 40Mbps with the adapters in the same position. Since I now have a 50Mbps internet connection, I'm a bit disappointed in that these adapters are now the bottleneck. I'll look into the issue some more and may contact support, but I won't knock off any stars off my original review until I find a cause. ORIGINAL REVIEW FROM NOVEMBER 19, 2013: This review is for the 4-port Linksys Adapters, and not the wireless extender. Not sure why my review is tagged that way. Just some quick background info that may help some users: There are basically two ratings for powerline adapters: 200Mbps and 500Mbps (a few other speed ratings may be found, but 200 and 500 are the standards). I've used a few different powerline adapters over the years, and believe that currently, the 200Mbps-rated adapters are simply a better purchase than most the 500Mbps-rated adapters. Most of the higher rated adapters are pretty much a gimmick, in that while they are designed to meet the specifications for 500Mbps over the powerline, the adapters are often equipped with 10/100 ethernet ports. This basically means that while they could potentially push data at 500Mbps over the powerline, the bottleneck is the actual ethernet port on the adapter, which is limited to a measly 100 Mbps. I don't know if this is a cost-saving measure or a technical issue, but it looks like most manufacturers design, and market, their powerline adapters this way. I've also found that the 500Mbps adapters are more sensitive to more power-hungry devices on the same circuit. For example, if you have a power hog like a home elevator or a gym-quality treadmill, the 500Mbps may be more sensitive to that when in use. If speed over the powerline is truly what you're after, by all means spend the money and get a 500Mbps+ adapter, but make sure it has gigabit ports (and definitely use Cat 5e or 6 ethernet cables), or else you're just wasting your money. Along with the Linksys, I also considered the TP-LINK TL-PA4010KIT AV500 Nano Powerline Adapter Starter Kit, up to 500Mbps. It has great reviews, an attractive price, and can be purchased with a gigabit port. Unfortunately, TP-Link doesn't sell this model with a 4-port switch as Linksys does, which is why I went with the Linksys. If I only needed a single port, I would have gone with the TP-Link. Now onto the Linksys: I ended up purchasing the 4-port adapter kit. As is usually the case with powerline adapters from most of the big manufacturers, the setup was quick and simple--literally plug and play. As for real-world speed, I ran some iperf tests on my network (two Macs and an Asus RT-N16 router running Tomato firmware)... here are the results: - Both clients wired into the same 4-port powerline adapter (other adapter not used): 93.3 Mbps (my theoretical max) - Both clients wired into different adapters in same room, different outlets: 90.6 Mbps And with the adapters on different floors - Both clients wired, no router: 90.2 Mbps - Both clients wired, with router: 90.0 Mbps The speeds were very consistent in my tests--far more consistent than pushing data over wireless. After reading reviews of some 500Mbps adapters on the market, my test results showed that my speeds usually exceeded the ones reported by reviewers of many 500Mbps adapters. And a side note: don't pay attention to reviews using results from SpeedTest.net or other internet-based speed test service as a good measure of network adapters. Internet speeds have nothing to do with your home network speeds. Overall I'm very happy with the speeds, setup and consistency of these adapters. It's too early to tell if the adapters will keep up this performance over time, but so far it's very promising.