ZyXEL 600Mbps Mini Powerline AV2 Gigabit Adapter Kit

I looked into powerline networking because I live with my parents who are very tech unsavy and couldn't justify running cat 5e/6 cable through our walls. Plus, I needed to tear through the drywall and paint over it -- although I relish the DIY project, it would have been too much work for me right now.Enter powerline networking.I was cautious at first because I'd read reviews on Amazon of plugs kits that stopped working or had to be reset often. Then there were cases of home electrical wiring systems being difficult so that even good plugs couldn't stop transmission issues.However, at under $100 and without any other choice except purchasing a whole lot of wireless repeaters, I took a chance and bought these.I knew I wanted the 500 Mbit version because that was the newest and fastest one out there. Could I have gotten by with 200 Mbits? Probably, as I'll explain my setup in a minute, but bigger is better, right? Plus these 500 Mbit ones from ZyXEL didn't have as many issues with the faster 500 Mbit speed as competitors' offerings.My setup:The cable modem (some new motorola model) and router (newest apple airport base station) are in our basement. Originally my computer workstation was in the basement and my parents home offices are both in the basement so this configuration made sense. However, wanting to get use out of my decently sized bedroom on the second floor, I relocated all my stuff there, but the wireless connection sucked. I looked into perhaps moving the modem and the router onto the first floor, but there was no place to put it. As I mentioned in the very beginning of this review, I contemplated three different routes for a cat 5e cable to be run - one through the basement from the router to the crawl space under the first floor, outside the house and into my room on the second floor, one through another part of the basement to a room on the first floor where it would be connected to a wireless router serving as an access point, or the last one outside from the basement, up to the attic and down to my room. All of them required a lot of DIY work that I wanted to perform, but didn't have the time to.My solution was the plug the ZyXEL in next to my router in the basement, plug the ethernet in and run it to the router. part 1 done.Then in my bedroom, I plugged the other ZyXEL into an available outlet, ran the ethernet to my second router, and connected my laptop to the router (originally wirelessly, but then settled on ethernet, see why below). part 2 done.Results:Amazing. Using the WiFi Analyzer app on my Google Nexus 7, the wireless network on the upstairs floors was at -30 (smaller negative numbers are better) where it was originally -90 to -100 a.k.a. non-existent.The wireless connection in my room using speedtest.net was 8-9mbit down and 1.5 mbit up. In the basement the connection was 9-10mbit down and 2 mbit up. I'd call that pretty good. The ping was also close, at 200ms in my room and 180ms in the basement.But wait:I decided to connect my laptop (a mid 2010 Mac Book Pro) to my router over ethernet because they were less than 10 feet apart and see what happened. Using speedtest.net, my ping plummeted to an unbelievable 11ms and my upload and download speeds shot up to 21mbits/2mbits. Okay, maybe the upload speed was lackluster, but the download speed jump was terrific! I didn't feel like bringing my laptop down to the basement to see what the pure, "straight from the wall" speed was, but I'm pretty happy with this, and I've left my laptop plugged into the router directly.PROS: - Quick and easy setup - Encryption available for users in areas with possible overlap (e.g. apartment buildings) - No running wires, no mess - Small, easy to conceal - Three blinking LEDs let you know everything's OK, and the middle LED will change color to let you know the quality of the signal - mine's amber so I suppose I'm not even getting the full speed!CONS: - Potential to work entirely dependent on your house's pre-existing wiring set-up... you could be screwed, or have to spend a while figuring out which outlets work best. - Directions said not to plug into a surge protector. I figured out this model of ZyXEL doesn't have a third prong or the "Smart Link" technology which allows powerline network adapters to function unimpeded through surge protectors. What happens is essential the high frequency signals are filtered by the surge protector and the speed/signal is degraded. You can by all means plug the ZyXEL into a surge protector, but it might impede your speed. - Thus, possibility during a surge that the powerline adapters short and you're left with little blocks of plastic.I've only had them for a few hours so I'll edit in the future with any new info should issues arise.Items Mentioned:Cable Modem: Motorola SB6121 SURFboard DOCSIS 3.0 Cable ModemBasement Router: Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station (Simultaneous Dual-Band) (MC340LL/A)Bedroom Router: ASUS (RT-N16) Wireless-N 300 Maximum Performance single band Gaming Router: Fast Gigabit Ethernet, support USB-Hard Drive and Printer and Open source DDWRTEthernet CablingZyXEL powerline networking adaptersMacBook Pro: Apple MacBook Pro MD101LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop (NEWEST VERSION)Surge Protector: APC BE550G Back-UPS ES 8 Outlet 550VA 120V