I saw this Netgear HDXB101 (http://www.netgear.com/products/details/HDXB101.php) and thought it might be a good option for me, if not a little pricey at around $200 for two. I bought it and here is a summary of what I have learned with a little background first:

My network consists of a Dual G5 in an upstairs home-office with an attached SATA Quad-bay hot-swappable enclosure. This is where I use my EyeTV 500 and store all my media. Downstairs on the other side of the house I have a Panasonic 50PHD8UK plasma with a Core Duo mini attached through DVI to the panel. I was originally using a D-Link wireless router and a homemade wave-guide antenna to communicate between the two Macs and while this set-up yielded a very good, for wireless, maximum throughput of about 25Mbps it was inconsistent and very susceptible to interference. I have actually been able to stream an hour or so of 1080i content w/o too many problems but as of late a neighbor seems to be using a Pre-N router that knocks my network down to 5Mbps. I didn't want to run wire and this house is a very old brick on the outside and plaster on the inside style home which is a major pain to run wire of any sort, especially on two opposite ends of the structure as I would need for the two locations.

I got the Netgear HDXB101 Powerline HD Ethernet Adapter kit monday and installed it that night. The kit consists of 2 adapters that look like white lamp timers, basically a small white box with an ethernet port on one side and a power outlet plug on the back. The set-up it pretty idiot-proof. Plug each adapter into a power-outlet and wait for a blue LED to come on. That is pretty much it. The downside of using a Mac is you cannot set up the more advanced features of the adapters w/o Windows. These features include encryption, diagnostics, naming the network and QoS presets to allow the network to guarantee bandwidth to media streams for example. None of these are essential to the functionality of the adapters but they are nice to have. I used Bootcamp to boot the mini into XP to play with the software but in the end all I did was rename the network. Encryption is probably far more important in an apartment building but in a private home it seems unlikely to be necessary, and for someone else to see your network they have to have the same Netgear product.

Initially I had some difficulty getting the two adapters to recognize each other. I attribute this to the ancient wiring in the house. I have 4 power outlets in the room where the G5 resides and only one seems to work well. The one outlet that does work well seems out of place close to another and I suspect it was added years ago in a renovation, the house is almost 100 years old and here in Westchester NY some of the wiring may be almost that old ;) Testing shows that I get a pretty consistent 55-60Mbs which makes me pretty happy. I originally said I would be happy with 1/4 the theoretical maximum of 200Mbps and that is what pretty much what I got. The adapters are entirely dependent on the environment in which they are deployed but I consider my set-up with ancient wiring and in-the-window A/C units all over the house a pretty bad environment. Netgear is a little misleading about the 200Mbs though. The adapters come with 100BT ports which means that they are only capable of 100Mbs maximum anyway. I am not sure if they are sticking to the fact that 100BT can be full-duplex.

How do they work? Very well it seems. I have watched about 4 hours of HD content, mostly 1080i TS's, and not a single dropped frame or stutter. Once set-up the throughput seems fairly consistent. Transferring large files through AFP shows between 6.5 and 7.5MB/s. It is far more stable and less prone to interference than wireless. I had read that powerline based products tended to be susceptible to appliances that put out interference on the building's wiring but I played around with putting dishwashers, microwaves and a washer and dryer to see if it interfered with the network and it was rock-solid. The downside is that Netgear recommends running the adapters only on a wall socket. Powerstrips, especially ones with conditioners, can filter out the signal and degrade performance. I can confirm this to be true on the ones I tried. If you like to protect you components and provide conditioning you will have to send the ethernet cables through your surge suppressor/conditioner provided it has ethernet ports.

So far I am pretty happy with the product. They finally allow me to consistently stream HD to my mini and I already feel like the Netgear Adapters are making it more useful. Another nice thing is future expandability. You want to network that iMac in the kitchen? Just buy another adapter, they come in a kit of two or singles.

PROS: Easy to install
Good Speed
Consistent connection
Easily expandable
Every room has power outlets
Secure

CONS: Price
Dependent on home wiring condition
Possibly exposes rest of system to electrical spike
No Mac software

-Jerry C.

Nice review.. thanks for the information. I have been considering getting these devices to enable a remote HD MythTV frontend. It sounds like these have plenty of bandwidth to support that.

I still think I'll try to find them at a local retailer, so I can easily return them if they don't work well with my power cabling.

I still think I'll try to find them at a local retailer, so I can easily return them if they don't work well with my power cabling.

Yeah that's not a bad idea. It seems like the one major achilles heel with this type of product is you really never know how it will work in your home until you try. In retrospect I might have waited to purchase locally but I was excited to see how well these work. Someone has to be the guinea pig ;)

-Jerry C.

Anyone else try this in a more recently built home. 55-60Mbps sounds decent but 10-15Mbps is necessary for 1 live HD stream. Atleast it's better than that BS 85 Mbps system....

I'm using these in my 8 year old house. I get a pretty consistent 60Mbs from a unit in the basement to a second floor bedroom.

Anyone else try this in a more recently built home. 55-60Mbps sounds decent but 10-15Mbps is necessary for 1 live HD stream. Atleast it's better than that BS 85 Mbps system....

I couldn't get an 85 Mbps system to work so I returned it to Best Buy, went to Fry's and got the HDXB101. I live in a suburban house built 1988-89. All I had to do was plug it in and it worked and my web surfing got way faster than my Airport Extreme system and Dual G5. I haven't done a file transfer yet, so I don't know how fast the connection is.

I have to say that after almost a month it has been working so well I don't even think about it anymore. Not a single dropped frame streaming hours and hours of 1080i stuff from EyeTV archives over the powerline network. I have yet to see the connection interrupt or found any appliances or other electrical devices that cause performance to degrade. I'd say they seem to have made these things much improved but I wish they would drop the whole 200Mbps thing, I think theoretically the max is prob 100Mbps.

-Jerry C.

Jerry,
Have you tried adding another pair into your network yet? If so, I would be interested in reading whether the four units automatically started talking to each other or whether you had to use the set up cd to get them to play together.

So far, no problems, but I've only been using them for about an hour. I'm so glad I don't have to climb around the attic. It has been up in the 110's although today it was "just" in the low 90's.

Okay. I just answered my own question. I liked the first two adaptors so much I ran back to Fry's this evening and got two more. I plugged a third one into a two-pronged extension cord plugged into a downstairs outlet. The first two are upstairs. It took about 30 seconds for the new adaptor to start talking to the other two (or at least the one attached to the cable modem). I plugged an ethernet cable from my PC to the adaptor, and here I am posting this message.

These things rock! Too bad they aren't cheap, but I can rationalize the cost because it saved me from dealing with a hot attic. Moreover, these things can be moved around to suit my arrangement of the week.

I'll also get to remove the wireless card from a PC that needs all the PCI slots I can free up for my MyHD card, sound card, network card and MPEG2 satellite card. I also managed to consolidate two networking cards as I found a SIIG PCI card with firewire, USB2 and fast ethernet all in one! So this may be my last activity using the old ethernet card.

Yeah sorry, I only have the two so I couldn't answer your question. It is good to hear they are easy to expand like this.

-Jerry C.

II have 4 power outlets in the room where the G5 resides and only one seems to work well. The one outlet that does work well seems out of place close to another and I suspect it was added years ago in a renovation, the house is almost 100 years old and here in Westchester NY some of the wiring may be almost that old ;)

Are all of your outlets grounded? Wonder if that makes a difference.

I received my kit yesterday. So easy to set up. The Netgear app said I was getting around 60-80mbps throughput. It was nowhere near this speed, more like 8mbps. I couldn't stream an 350mb xvid file between PC's w/o extreem stuttering.

I live in a failry new condo and one Powerline adapter was in my family room while th eother was in my office, about 30ft away. Tried different wall sockets but it made no difference.

Have you tried changing the password and stuff like that? Maybe someone else in the building has those devices, too.

Are all of your outlets grounded? Wonder if that makes a difference.

Yeah they all have 3 prongs but whether or not they are really grounded is another story.

almostinsane, something must be interfering with them to get that low a throughput over such a short distance. If you can't identify what is doing it you may be out of luck.

-Jerry C.

Have you tried changing the password and stuff like that? Maybe someone else in the building has those devices, too.

Yeah, I made it blank, messed with the QOS etc and nothing changed. I know all the people in my building and the most they have is a wireless AP.

one thing it could be is that the two rooms are on different circuits. I understand that can cause problems with powerline units.

Yeah, I made it blank, messed with the QOS etc and nothing changed. I know all the people in my building and the most they have is a wireless AP.
I wonder if the two outlets in question are each fed from opposite sides of the 220 volt service into the condo.

I would try other combinations of outlets to see if any will work in that condo.

Also, the circuit breaker configuration in your breaker panel may help you understand if the two circuits are on the same or opposite sides of the 220. For example, in my breaker panel, every other breaker in the vertical stack is on the same side of 220. Adjacent breakers are on opposite sides.

This applies to full-size breakers, each supporting only one circuit. The dual breakers (2 in the space of one full size) are both sharing the same bus feed and thus are both on the same side of the 220 line.

I picked up a couple of these at Fry's, but initially it hasn't looked good.

I'm using them in a 15 year old house (single family home, all wiring done when the house was built, no unusual factors that I can think of). The PC I'm trying to connect is on the second floor, and I'm hoping to stream HD video. I initially put the other device in the basement, near the Mythtv backend, and I got about 500 KB/s (~4Mb/s). I have tried a few other outlets, and the maximum I have gotten is 1 MB/s / 8Mb/s -- not fast enough for HD video.

I only have Mac and Linux systems, so I haven't used the Netgear software. Are there any settings in that which would effect performance? Any other suggestions for improving performance? I think next I'll try attaching the two devices in the same room and see what performance I get in that case.

After initially having great results with my powerline adaptors (see above) I tried to do a file transfer from one of my PC's to my Dual Core G5 and had the same results as you. I encountered the same problem when I installed a Simpletech NAS unit, and the PC didn't transfer files any faster to or from the NAS unit than the G5. So when I get a chance, I'm gonna dive into the powerline setup software and see if anything changable makes a difference. This project may be delayed, because I'm gonna be doing last April's taxes this week.

Are there any settings in that which would effect performance? Any other suggestions for improving performance? I think next I'll try attaching the two devices in the same room and see what performance I get in that case.

There is a setting to turn off compatibility with older power-line products which will improve performance when checked supposedly. I do have this turned off.

-Jerry C.

Thanks for the tip, Jerry.

There's also been some talk in some of the Mac forums about the type of duplexing making a difference, but that may be related to the NAS rather than the network.

There is a setting to turn off compatibility with older power-line products which will improve performance when checked supposedly. I do have this turned off.

Thanks, I'll see if I can find a PC to install the software on.. This lack of Mac software sucks.


I moved the second device down close to the first one. They are about 10 feet apart right now, but I'm not sure what that means in terms of wiring.

The performance is faster now, but still not up to HD streaming speeds. In fact, it's not as fast as the 802.11g wireless connection from my PowerBook. In the new position, I'm getting 1.7MB/s (13.6 Mb/s).

I shut off the compatibility with older powerline products and noticed a significant increase in speed, but it's still not fast enough to stream HD. My gut feeling is that my Airport Extreme network is faster, but my adaptors are not very close together. I updated the firmware but that didn't seem to make much difference. I haven't tried any computer-to-computer transfers yet to see if the issue is with my NAS device (Simpletech Simpleshare) My solution might be to connect the NAS device directly to the home theater PC and make it available over the network for file sharing with the other computers, where the speed isn't such an issue.

I ran the Netgear config software, and set the compatibility mode to OFF. It seems to be a bit faster now, I'm getting 3.5MB/s (~28 Mb/s) transfers. That's good, but a bit more head room would be nice. I will try HD streaming later today. I suspect that it will mostly work, but I would not be surprised if there are still hiccups. Doing simple pings, most of the ping times are 1.6-2.5ms, but about every 10 pings, there is one that takes 10-12ms. So, there is some amount of interference that could cause problems with HD streaming.


The utility showed 200Mbps both directions for the local device. The remote device showed 89/54Mbps. I will try moving the remote device around a bit for better performance. What kind of numbers are others seeing. Do the local/remote numbers mean anything (i.e. does the 200Mbps mean that it is in a somehow 'better' socket, or is that simply because it's the local adapter?)

The utility showed 200Mbps both directions for the local device. The remote device showed 89/54Mbps. I will try moving the remote device around a bit for better performance. What kind of numbers are others seeing. Do the local/remote numbers mean anything (i.e. does the 200Mbps mean that it is in a somehow 'better' socket, or is that simply because it's the local adapter?)

That's about what mine showed. I suspect it's because it's the local adapter.

Wilson, where did you get the firmware from? I searched the NEtgear siteand didnt see anything.

Wilson, where did you get the firmware from? I searched the NEtgear siteand didnt see anything.

I've knocked off a few brain cells the last couple of weeks, but my vague recollection (I'm at work right now so I can't check) is that it was an option using the setup software that only comes in a PC version.

I feel so dirty admitting I've got a pc . . .
:rolleyes:

After monkeying around with the "HD" Powerline adapter for a while, and getting no reliable performance capable of HD streaming, I finally gave up on it. $230 is way too much to spend on something that doesn't easily solve the problem.

So, I ran a few dozen feet of Cat5e cable, and now have a nice reliable 100Mbps connection and flawless HD video with MythTV. It was actually pretty easy to do.. I should have went that route in the first place. I was just put off by how difficult wiring a previous location had been. This one was much easier because I could route it through an attic and in through an unused coaxial cable outlet in the wall.

Hey

Before I purchase the HD Netgrear Ethernet adapters, I would like to confirm it would work on my setup, I would be very grateful is someone would give me there thoughts.

I have a 100 year old house with very think internal walls, I have tried various routers, and the new Netgear Pre-N WNR834B finally gives me whole home coverage after years of trying. The problem I have is I do not have quite enough link quality and signal strength in between my PC and my LCD (I cannot move them closer) to stream HD content – only SD content will stream (via my XBOX 360)

Here is my setup:

Lounge:

Sharp Aquos 32” HD LCD
XBOX 360 attached to Netgear Pre-N WNR834B
Cable modem attached to Netgear Pre-N WNR834B

Study:

Fujitsu Siemens Tower, connected wirelessly to my Netgear Pre-N WNR834B (30 feet distance between my PC and my router)

For internet access and SD streaming, my setup is fine. But I now want to stream HD content to my XBOX 360 so need more throughput. If I was to remove the wireless network card in the PC (as it would not be needed) attach a HD Netgear Ethernet adapter to the Ethernet port on my PC, and attach another HD Netgear Ethernet adapter to my Pre-N WNR834B (the same router my XBOX 360 is attached to), would the XBOX 360 then steam via the poweline?

Would the XBOX know to find my PC via the powerline? Can this be configured or would it automatically detect this?

I can see no reason why it wouldn’t, but would be grateful to hear some thoughts.

Many Thanks

The Netger powerline device is pretty much invisible to the computer and any other attached device. It looks like a simple ethernet port to anything attached. When I originally plugged my two Macs into them they just saw them w/o any configuration or hassles. The Xbox should just see it at any other network router. The biggest problem with these devices is not the way other networked devices see them but instead wether or not the particular install location will work or not. I also live in home that prob still has wiring from the original days Edison started offering electrical devices and I get more than enough throughput to stream 1080i. I have also seen reports of brand new homes having lots of problems with powerline products though. The point is not that old or new really matter for this type of product but instead EACH AND EVERY INSTALLATION IS UNIQUE so you don't know how they will work until you try them. As I have stated before in this thread the best thing you can do is buy them in a place with a good return policy and try them. If they work that is great but if they don't you can bring em back. Mine work great and I love them but YMMV.


-Jerry C.

My main concern is that the adapters will work with the xbox. I tried the 85mbps version and it didnt work, the setup was as follows:

85mbps adapter connected to my PC
85mbps adapter connected to my router
XBOX360 to my router

The XBOX connected to XBOX Live, but it couldnt see my PC

Apparently this issue has been resoloved in the new adapters with better firmware, is this corret?

Many Thanks

Just installed the plug - i was streaming HD in seconds! so easy!

I dont know why Microsoft do not endorse these instead of A+G wireless routers - ethernet plugs must be the way forward?

I recently purchased this product and am not satisfied. I was only able to stream at about 10Mbps where I was getting 21Mbps wireless. If I only went through one switch and put the units close together, I got much better results, however that is not why I purchased them. They are going back today.

RE: SimpleTech NAS and file transfers. I've read that the Infrant NAS NVPlus does not support Gigabit Ethernet (with Jumbo Frames) transfer speeds when reading data from disk, but does when writing data to the disk. Similarly, perhaps the SimpleTech has differences in read/write performance, though the last time I checked, it did not support Gigabit Ethernet.

RE: Category 5e RJ-45 Ethernet cable. If you can find it, I'd be buying Category 6 Ethernet cables. Cat6 wiring is the new standard for the fastest Gigabit Ethernet speeds. It's also ideal if you think you ever will want to install Gigabit Ethernet Switches on your home network. The prices on Gigabit Switches finally are starting to fall within reach of mere mortals, and are now being used to replace the old generation of 10/100 Ethernet hubs.

That said, I realize that this Cat6 cable recommendation is not essential for slower powerline devices....

I saw this in a store the other day and was thinking of buying one. So far, I have not been able to stream DVD .iso files from my computer to my XBMC wirelessly over 802.11g. I got a whole lot of stutter although the my XBMC is about 10 feet away from my router (it's a Linksys WRK54G connecting to a Buffalo ethernet converter if you care).

Now there is a lot of talk about how these powerline adapters work and don't work for streaming HD content. What about standard DVD content? What type of bandwidth would I need and do I even need to get the HDXB101 or would the 85 Mb/s XE104G do the trick? I like that the XE104G comes with four ports so I wouldn't have to buy a switch to hook up my other networked A/V components (ReplyTV and a slingbox). Anyone have any luck with DVD streaming over powerline?

Well if you read my original post you will see they can easily stream 1080i so a DVD should be pretty easy. The problem is that the ratings of 200mbps or 85mbps for the older ones is theoretical so you will never see the maximum. The biggest problem with any powerline based product is that they are unpredictable as to how well they will perform in a given environment. They may work wonderfully or not at all depending on your wiring etc. Just buy them at a place with a good return policy in case they don't work for you. The slower 85mbps ones should be fast enough to stream DVD stuff even real-world.

-Jerry C.

The way these things work is the go all the way to the common place, your fuse box, and back to the other wall plug.

I didnt think it would work from a basement, first floor, etc to a second floor. That is not to code for modern homes now. So, two story homes are back to wifi.

May I suggest the Netgear Rangemax Draft N wifi AP and receiver for those in sol land? Someone has 200Mbps with this setup.

I went and bought the HDXB101, hoping it will give me something close to 45Mbps. Unfortunately my fears were true. I got 1Mbps. S-s-s-s-stuttering hh-h-h-hhell. My wifi connection maintains at least 48Mbps and drops less than the HDXB101. So if it works for you, I'd recommend it myself - but if it doesnt you may want to try a wifi solution that includes both the Rangemax N (draft) router and usb adapter.

Might as well wait till MacWorld when Apple will be showing their Pre-N Airport that will work work with iTV. It's not going to be cheap.

I am a noob, so feel free to tell me how dumb a question this is. Is there a way to use these powerline adapters to transfer a HDMI source around the house? I see some expensive gadgets available that allow HDMI over Cat-5 - I was wondering if someone had taken it the next level with these powerline thingymabobs.

I have 4 Netgear HDX101 powerline adapters. Their performance is mixed. The speed is dependent upon where you plug them in. My furthest one out (the one with the Media-Gate MG35) gets the worst performance.

The house I am in is only 3500 feet so the adapters are not very far from each other. I just bought 6 CORINEX line filters to put on the washing machine, treadmill, refrigerators and fans and they helped the speed a little, but not much. The treadmill however did stop my home network in its tracks until I isolated it with a noise filter. I also installed a CORINEX powerline bridge behind the dryer to link my 2 electrical legs together. Again, not much help.

I suppose there is the possibility that I am getting noise from a next door neighbor, or my water well. Oh well, after $600 worth of filters and powerline adapters, I would say that I am 70% satisfied. My advice, use this technology only as a last resort.

I am building my new home now and I will have CAT6 running everywhere, even to thermostats, fridges, etc.

ALSO, ONE BIG PROBLEM!! The minute you install any powerline equipment, all of your X10 modules will quit working.

I purchased these last night and they seem to work great. The configuration utility reports between 45Mbs - 55Mbs consistently and I can stream video from my PC to XBOX360 fine now, as Wireless G wasn't cutting it for HD content.

Question though, Jerry - do your blue LED's ever blink? Mine seem to blink occasionally, although I never see any cutouts in network traffic.

bhummel2001, most of what you say is true and given the choice of Powerline or CAT6 I will ALWAYS take the CAT6 but the fact is sometimes you don't have that choice. You may live in an apartment, rent a house, the wife may demand no holes in the wall or whatever. That is what the Powerline is there for, it isn't perfect and doesn't work everywhere but for certain applications where it works it can be a lifesaver.

yage0832, I see them blink once in a blue moon maybe but not frequently at all. Blue blinking lights means the different modules are having a bit of difficulty communicating AFAIK. If they are working and the connection is stable I wouldn't worry about it though. I have been using mine a while now w/o any real problems so I am pretty happy with them.

I live in a condo with steel studs and concrete floors and ceilings, so hard wire is difficult and Wireless 802.11g did not work well enough to stream video, especially wih several networks nearby. I bought three of these power line units which did improve communications, but I got the blinking blue lights on the units indicating dropouts and saw dropouts every few seconds in streamed video. The problem seemed to be going through the fuse box in the kitchen. When Apple wireless 802.11n came out, I used the Airport Extremes at 5.8 GHz around the fusebox and only use the power line adapters between the bedrooms on the same circuit. This worked great with no blinking blue lights or dropouts and no problems streaming HDTV video.

UNTIL a window popped up saying the power line adapters needed a firmware upgrade, which I dutifully performed -- now the blinking blue lights are back on the power line adapters.

Hi there. We have been working with home networking for over 2 years trying different wireless routers with many of the issues posted here. I read about this and went and bought 2 kits. When I get home today, I will install these. My question is, will this work if I place one of these adapters in my basement and connect a wireless router to it? Will it increase the range of the wireless because our linksys or DLink N routers do not seem to give me enough range to reach all parts of the house.
thanks sd

SpeedyHTPC- I'm using a pair of Corinex adapters, one in my basement that connects to a GigE switch, and the other plugged into an outlet on the second floor of my house. It all depends on whether you have a split panel or not. I get great performance too, about as fast as my hard drive can stream data. I had tried using WiFi (G and N) but the performance was horrible in my house. Too many deadspots.