Cisco-Linksys PLK200 Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit

by Cisco

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 4 x 2 inches ; 4.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000LJ5B8Q
• Item model number: PLK200
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 9, 2006

Product Description

The PowerLine AV Ethernet Adapter lets you turn the existing powerlines in your home or office into a high-speed network. Now you do not have to drill through the walls and climb through the attic or cellar to install network cables -- just use the wires that already run through the building! The PowerLine AV Adapter interfaces Ethernet devices to the HomePlug AV PowerLine network standard. Just plug the PowerLine AV Adapter into the wall, and connect your Ethernet-equipped device to the Adapter using the included network cable, and you have turned your whole house into network infrastructure! Attach more computers to the network by simply plugging them into the wall anywhere in the house, using more PowerLine AV Adapters.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply works!, August 31, 2007

By 

P. Walsh - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys PLK200 Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit (Personal Computers)

I got this because my wireless quality has been declining steadily over time. I live in a large aparment building in New York City and as more and more of my neighbors get wireless devices my signal quality has been dropping. I stream music wirelessly using Apple AirPort and the quality became so poor that I could not listen anymore. Not wanting to run cables all over my apartment I thought I'd give this a try - but buy from Amazon since they have a good return policy in case it did not work.
I just plugged it in and it worked! Simple as that. If you have monkeyed around with wireless you'll appreciate that there is basically nothing else to this. And it is fast! I can now play my ripped music from my PC to my stereo with excellent quality - better than I ever got with wireless. Luckliy the AirPort can stream music using a LAN cable in addition to wireless.
The only hitch that I can think of maybe the wiring in your house/apartment. I was worried about mine living in a aparment building that the circuits may not be linked, but they were. I had no problems plugging in other rooms with different circuit breakers - since they are all on the same control panel. I guess it is possible that this is not always the case - depending on how your house is wired. For example, if you have combined two apartments they could be separate. But if they are then it does not get any easier or much faster than this.

Only downside is the very high price - it is way more expensive than wireless. You can buy a good wireless router for less than $50 and if you have a laptop you are done. This option costs MUCH more than that. For me it was preferable to running unsightly network cables throughout my apartment.
Another option for me could have been trying an 802.11n wireless to see if the signal was better. But since that is not yet a published industry standard, each vendor (DLink, Linksys etc) has they own flavor of it and so they are unlikely to work together well. So I'd probably have to completely retool my existing wireless which may be no better and may have the same problem with interference when my neighbors all move to it in a few years anyway. So I gave this a shot and I could not be happier.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally, powerline networking that can handle HD, February 13, 2007

By 

Brian Steele (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys PLK200 Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit (Personal Computers)

Finally a company has come out with powerline networking that can handle High Definition video. I tried the Netgear HD powerline kit and it was too slow for HD. With this kit I get much better speeds and I can actually watch HD video. I have this connecting rooms on different floors on the opposite sides of my house. The included linksys utility is horrible looking and didn't work with Windows XP x64, but you only need it for the first setup. It reports connection speeds at 120Mb. Actual throughput for me is around 40Mb.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast and Easy, May 9, 2007

By 

J. Floquet "Deal Hunter" (San Diego) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cisco-Linksys PLK200 Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit (Personal Computers)

I got these, plugged one in the same room as my router, and the other all the way across my house next to my XBox 360. No setup needed, just plugged in the ethernet cables, and I was good to go. I can stream high quality video all the way across the house with no problems. I haven't had to touch these since I plugged them in. It just doesn't get any better or easier.