Actiontec MegaPlug 200 Mbps AV Powerline Ethernet Adapter and 4-Port Hub Kit

by Actiontec

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2.9 x 1.4 x 3.9 inches ; 2.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002AMW2WA
• Item model number: HLE20043-01KP
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #38 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Networking Products > Network Adapters > Powerline Network Adapters
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 8, 2009

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

How does it work?

It's simple. The 200 Mbps Powerline Ethernet Adapter and 4-Port Hub Kit uses your home electrical lines to create up to a high speed network throughout your home, giving devices like Blu-Ray players, TiVO or DVRs, gaming consoles, and computers access to the Internet.

Why better than wireless

"Why don't I just use wireless networking instead? I'm more familiar with it."

Because there are some great advantages to powerline technology.

• Powerline products have more consistent transmissions. You won't see the kind of fadeouts and connection drops as you do in wireless.
• Powerline works in places where wireless can't. Powerline will give you a strong connection throughout your electrical system, whether connecting into a concrete basement or throughout a large home.

The 200 Mbps Powerline Ethernet Adapter and 4-Port Hub Kit contains everything you need to create your Powerline home network, and it's very easy to install.

What's in the box?

The 200 Mbps Powerline Ethernet Adapter and 4-Port Hub Kit contains the following:

• One Ethernet 4-port Switch
• One Ethernet adapter
• Two Ethernet cables
• Quick Start guide

Actiontec's Powerline products

Actiontec has a full line of powerline products, each slightly different depending on your needs

Good     Better     Best					Best for ...
	Actiontec Product	Kit	Includes 4-port Ethernet hub	Speed	Extending Wireless Network	Computers/ Gaming/ Blu-Ray/ VoIP	Video/ Home Theaters
	200 Mbps Ethernet Adapter & 4-port Switch	Yes	Yes
	85 Mbps Ethernet Adapter twin-pack	Yes	No
	200 Mbps Ethernet Adapter twin-pack	Yes	No
	85 Mbps Ethernet Adapter & 4-port hub	Yes	Yes

Setup Instructions

STEP 1: Plug first adapter into available port on router.

STEP 2: Plug first adapter into wall.

STEP 3: Plug second adapter cable into the Ethernet or LAN port on the desired product (e.g. Xbox 360) and the 4-Port Hub. Then plug the second adapter into the wall.

Are all of the lights GREEN? Congratulations, your Xbox360 is now connected to the Internet.

Product Description

Powerline ENET 200MBPS HUB and Adapter Mega plug

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Easy to set up if you had all the instructions., August 27, 2009

By 

Chris Zee Shutterbug (Baton Rouge La) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Actiontec MegaPlug 200 Mbps AV Powerline Ethernet Adapter and 4-Port Hub Kit (Personal Computers)

(What's this?)

ActionTec plug Av

Very Easy to set up if you had all the instructions.

A quick review and as typical for me an update will follow. I had everything set up and truly believed the Quick Start Guide when it said no configuration required. Unfortunately.... I first disabled my wireless card in the Windows Control Panel just so I would not have any conflicts. Then I plugged in the two devices as described above. The LEDs on both boxes were green and red, sometimes green and yellow. The Guide said "Make sure both lights turn solid green". The guide warns you not to plug the devices into any outlet that is surge protected or filtered, which I did not. Oh well I said, I started moving both boxes into different outlets and could not get both "link" lights to turn green unless they were plugged into the same outlet. Rats I said. There is no explanation in the guide at all as to what to do when the lights are not both green. NO troubleshooting guide at all. I tried to hook up to the Web, but nothing happened.

Here I will save you the trouble of the hour long process that followed, and just tell how you can save yourself the trouble I had

1. It does not really matter what color the "link" light is. It is only the quality of connection indicator. Please go to the [...] website and download the user manual for the HPE400AVP. There is no manual and no CD with the box you buy and in my case it was the critical missing step. Here is the lights portion of the manual

Red means the condition is poor and less than 50Mpbs,
Orange indicates a fair line condition of 50-100Mbps,
Green means the line is in good condition with over 100Mbps throughput.

Of course since I was using wireless previously in a remote location with a 18 Mpbs transfer speed, even a Red light meant a vastly improved connection. The connection speed varies for me between yellow and red, and always is better than the wireless. My wireless was a Linksys WRT54G with the power setting at 75mw, the distance involved was about 50ft with 3 walls in between.

2. There are small black buttons on both boxes, but NO explanation in the User Guide as to what they do. You have to download the manual for that. They are the security enable keys, and you have to go thru a sequence of four timed presses to set it up. In my trials of various outlets in the house, I must have pressed one or both, but in a wrong sequence and must have messed up the communications, hence even with the connection established, I could not connect to the web. At the time I still thought that it was because I had red lights and they needed to be green. I had to reset both boxes using a pin.
3. At this point following the reset, even though the link light on both boxes was red, the Internet magically appeared. So the setup is truly plug and play, unless like me you believe the dreaded step #13 in the quick setup guide "Make sure both lights are green " or you accidentally press the security buttons.

Finally when set up, and even with my troubles it only took an hour. The connection speed to the web as judged by [...] was 50% faster than my best wireless connection and 3 times better than my worst connection. Great product, and only a one star downgrade for no packaged in manual or CD.

Lastly you may also try the following steps to improve your speed at lower costs.
1. Get an antenna with gain for the router and your wireless card (10-30$, 50% improvement)
2. Change the wireless channel in the router utility (G networks conflict with 2.4 ghz cordless phones)
3. Move the antenna even slightly for possible improvement, Use a utility like network stumbler to fine tune the position
4. If available for your wireless router, get an open source custom firmware for it which will allow you to fine tune the antenna transmit power (I use Tomato).
UPDATE
5. Get an inexpensive N standard router with multiple antennas (used to be called MIMO multiple in multiple out). I have picked up one recently and now all my remaining computers have a better signal as well. While you will not get speds higher than G standard of 54mb, you will get closer to nominal. You would ned a N adapter in the pc as well to get all the benefits.

Happy Powerline and Wireless networking.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, but not what it could be, October 2, 2010

By 

MAB (WA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Actiontec MegaPlug 200 Mbps AV Powerline Ethernet Adapter and 4-Port Hub Kit (Personal Computers)

Well folks, any of the Actiontec products based on the HomePlug AV standard work great out of the box (either the kit with two one-port adapters, or the kit with a one-port adapter and a four-port switch). As you can see in other reviews, the average user who just buys one kit and plugs them in to an outlet will find they work as advertised. But there are some things to keep in mind:

(1) While the HomePlug AV standard is listed as 200 Mbit/sec, this is nowhere near what you'll actually see. With two systems on the same ethernet hub, normal transfer rates are around 11 - 12 Mbit/sec. Two HomePlug adapters in the same room, on the same electrical circuit, may see around 7 Mbit/sec. When you plug them in further apart, the actual transfer rate averages around 5 - 6 Mbit/sec. Please note this is still faster (and arguably more secure ) than a 802.11g wireless connection, and a big improvement over the previous HomePlug 1.0 "turbo" standard (which averaged out at around 1.5 Mbit/sec).

(2) Unlike NetGear, Actiontec does not provide any software utilities for monitoring and configuring the adapters; instead, you end up using a cryptic set of button pushes on the actual adapters. This is really only an issue if you have more than two of these adapters on your network, but then it becomes kind of a pain.

(3) Which leads to the biggest issue with the Actiontec products specifically: Unlike similar HomePlug-compatible devices made by other manufacturers, these are apparently sold paired to each other, even prior to establishing an encrypted network. That means that the two in the box will talk to each other, but if you buy a second kit, the pair in the second kit won't automatically connect to the pair in the original kit. This can be fixed, but the technique for doing so is NOT listed in the instruction manuals, nor is it even listed on the manufacturer's web site for these products. The default process for setting up an encrypted network won't fix this, and I was on the verge of returning both sets before I discovered a one-sheet "readme" in one of the kits which covered the procedure for adding new adapters to an existing setup. This vital set of instructions was only included in one of the kits (and I'm not sure which it was: the kit with the two one-port adapters, or the kit with the four-port switch) so I'm guessing there are people out there who bought two of one kit type, only to be mystified why only two of their adapters don't work.

Overall, I would recommend you find a manufacturer other than Actiontec to buy your HomePlug AV-compatible adapters from if you need to set up more than two of them. Many other companies include an optional configuration utility which makes the process so much easier.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Plug it in and it works. High-speed Internet now available in a remote corner of my home, August 26, 2009

By 

Tom D. "Opportunity is limited only by imagin... (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Actiontec MegaPlug 200 Mbps AV Powerline Ethernet Adapter and 4-Port Hub Kit (Personal Computers)

(What's this?)

I've tested the Actiontec MegaPlug with a desktop PC, a Slingbox and also an Xbox 360 (which I use to play online games) and its performance has far exceeded my expectations. It's like having a second router/internet connection in the far corner of my home where my wireless network does not reach. I don't notice any difference in terms of bandwidth compared with a direct connection to my downstairs router.

I was a little concerned that I'd have to configure settings in each device in order to get it to work. To my great relief this wasn't the case. Connect it and it works. Period.

I simply plugged the base unit into an outlet (a wall outlet is recommended -- the directions warn that it probably won't work with a surge-protector) near my router and then connected the two with the included Ethernet cable (it comes with two Ethernet cables).

Next I plugged in the bigger piece of the Actiontec set -- the one with the four Ethernet ports -- into an outlet in the area of my house where I wanted to place my desktop PC, my Xbox and my Slingbox. I then connected all of the devices with Ethernet cables and they were instantly connected to the Internet. It was a wonderfully elegant customer experience.

Two thumbs up for this product.