Customer Reviews

NETGEAR XE104 85 Mbps Powerline 4-Port Ethernet Adapter

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Bought two. Plugged in one in my home office with a Cat5 coming from my WRT54G router.

Plugged the other one in on the opposite side of my ranch townhome. Got the blue light sync indicator within 5 seconds. Plugged in my laptop and got an IP from the Linksys five seconds after that..

Works perfectly. No drops. Just like an ethernet cable would be. Since it has four ports, plugged in the Tivo via the USB/Ethernet I already had. That also grabbed an IP and worked perfectly.

Consistent speed of copying WinXP SP2 off my PC in my home office to my laptop in the living room using the two 104s is about 15 Mbps or so as measured by Netstat on my laptop. Is it equal to Cat5? Is it ANYWHERE NEAR 85 Mbps as Netgear advertises? NOT A CHANCE. Connecting the laptop to my LAN by directly connecting into the WRT54G resulted in the same file being moved from the same PC at just over 75 Mbps. So, the 15 Mbps speed of the 104s is about 20% of the LAN's speed moving the same file.

The Netgear software says the two are connected at just about 40 Mbps. So, figure less than half that in real speed.

But overall, it does work. It's more than enough speed for me to avoid the hassles and drops of wireless, not to mention having to use WEP since my Tivo can't currently support WPA.

Clearly, this is a YMMV product. Buy it and take the shot. You might get enough speed. Or you may not even have it sync up. That's why I bought it from Amazon so I could return it if I had too. Could have gotten it a bit cheaper elsewhere, but why risk it?

If I was streaming HD files, it wouldn't work. But for not having to deal with cutting through 19 (!) wireless networks that my 802.XX Site Monitor can see, and fighting the inevitable XP wireless drops, it works fine for me. I was going to go for the Slinglink first but figured I might as well try for faster speeds. I'm glad I spent the extra $$$$ over it and the older Netgear 102s.

5 stars for ease of use. 1 star for the laughable real speed versus Netgear's advertising. Thus, an average of 3 stars.

EDIT TO ORIGINAL REVIEW: I have `SBC/ATT/Whatever they are today' DSL. I tweaked my RCP Receive Window (RWIN) from blank (whoopps) to 17,424 (as well as other settings) per DSLReports.com's suggestion in order to accommodate the new 6.0/764 RT based speed profile I recently received. In doing do, the speed of file transfers referenced above via the 104 dropped from about 15 megs to less than 10. When I removed the RWIN setting restoring it to its state before messing with it, the speed returned to the 15 megs.

So, if you've tweaked your registry settings for maximum broadband download speed and are not getting great results with the 104, you might want to do a little tweaking trade off between the two to get the speeds you're seeking on both the 104 and your broadband access. My results of both speeds is still in 'messing around with' mode and I haven't yet found that perfect blend.

EDIT TO ORIGINAL REVIEW #2 - 06/11/2006: Still working fine. Speeds are consistent with what I originally posted. It's never failed once to work the way it's intended. I've never dropped an IP and I've never plugged in the laptop and not had it work within a few seconds. A good product in my specific enviornment. I'll buy another one so I can plug in the laptop anywhere in my place, even the deck outside and not have to fight wireless drops. Now if they'd only release the 1.6 firmware....

PROS:
=====================================
* Works very well!
* Easy to install and to use
* Built-in 4-port router in each module!
* Reliable 30 Mbps connection, but speed will likely depend on your specific location.
* Includes all the required pieces to install one end point (module, Ethernet cable, software, manual). You need a minimum of two such modules.
* Reasonably good documentation on CD-ROM.
* Bright blue HomePlug network LED is extremely bright--a free nightlight!


CONS:
=====================================
* Never saw 85 Mbps but did reliably see 30 Mbps+.
* You need a minimum of two of these units. No manufacturer seems to make this clear on their web site.
* Optional but highly recommended encryption utility isn't obvious or convenient (you need to record the password printed in small print on the back side of the module). Also, it seemed like I was always setting up the module at the opposite end of the connection.



I purchased two of the Netgear XE104 units (one for the cable gateway, one for the remote destination). While the Linksys WCG200 cable gateway has an 802.11G wireless connection, the power isn't sufficient to reliably reach all locations in my old house (what's in those walls anyway?). I was hoping that the XE104s would reliably deliver > 6 Mbps (Comcast HSI speed) to any point in the house, which it does. Using the Netgear-supplied utility, I'm seeing 30 Mpbs+, which is more than sufficient for my needs.

The unit was easy to install and use. The HomePlug connection established itself within seconds. I connected one unit to the router on the cable gateway via a Cat5 Ethernet cable. This unit connected to a nearby wall-plug (no surge protectors allowed).

I then plugged a second unit upstairs to another wall-plug. The HomePlug light lit up almost immediately. I then plugged this unit into my laptop's Ethernet port and had connectivity within about 30 seconds. At this point, the Netgear reporting utility showed about 45 Mbps (again, nowhere near 85 Mbps but then again, I really didn't expect it either).

The default connection isn't encrypted. Netgear highly recommends encrypting the connection, which I image would be requisite if you live an appartment or condo. The encryption utility isn't obvious. You need to write down the password data written in small print on the back-side of each module. The encryption utility asks for this information. In my case, the utility could only "see" the module at the opposite end of the connection, which made the installation a little more confusing. With a little fiddling, it all worked fabulously.

Each of the modules includes a built-in 4-port hub. Consequently, up to four computers or equipment can share an endpoint.

I'm happy enough that I plan to purchase an additional module.

Works as advertised and easy to set up in minutes. Just make sure you buy two (one for area with PC and one for area you need connection).

I run Xbox LIVE over this and have had no lag or any performance hit. It's great for gaming.

I'd buy this again in a heartbeat. 100% satisfied.

Read some of the negative reviews here after already purchasing the gear and almost canceled my order, but I am very, very glad I didn't cancel. The XE104 is a great product -- easy to set up and fast enough.

Although the speed is nowhere near the advertised 85mbps (more like 35-40mpbs on my network), it is still faster than other homeplug products, and is definitely faster than 802.11 wireless networks. It was also extremely easy to set up. I had things up and running in under 10 minutes: plugged an Ethernet cable from my router into one XE104 and plugged it in a wall outlet upstairs. Took another XE104 downstairs near my Tivo and plugged an Ethernet cable from a USB adapter on the Tivo to the XE104, and I was up and running, just like that. Everything just worked. No other configuration necessary. This is how easy setting up all networking equipment should be. Highly recommended.

I bought two XE104's, and within seconds after plugging in the second, it linked up with the first.

The encryption utility program is a little confusing, and it pegs my CPU with its constant scanning, but it did allow me to change the default network password (think SNMP community) easily. The same program also tells me my power line network is rated at 42 Mbps, not too shabby with the two XE104's at opposite ends of the house with old wiring (I didn't really expect 85 Mbps or whatever the specifications promised). I haven't run any actual throughput tests, but in copying a large file across the power line network, I'm disk speed constrained.

All in all, I'm quite satisfied.

I read something close to a rave review in Walt Mossberg's technology column in the Wall Street Journal, checked the reviews on Amazon. and concluded that it was a good bet to provide extended coverage for my house. It might have been a good bet beforehand, but one can lose a 'good bet' and I did.

Setup was virtually instantaneous and the two XE104s started talking to each other and the roving laptop I was using to test achieved a good internet connection (about 40 MBPS) through its direct ethernet cable connection to the "its" XE104. That was while we were in the same room; then things went downhill quickly. Many of the other outlets in my house barely got a connection with the Netgear utility showing as low as 1.05 MBPS! Like another reviewer, I think Netgear overestimates true throughput; I think actual throughput was much lower than reported given the time to transfer a file from my laptop to my desktop.

After testing a number of outlets, I concluded that this product is not the answer for me. The reviews have been very good ... why did I get such a bad result? I concluded it had a lot to do with my house wiring. Outlets that were close to each other and on the same breaker box seemed to perform acceptably (but not better than wireless G). Outlets that were further away and/or were on the second breaker box in my house did far worse.

My advice to anyone buying this is to make sure you can return it without penalty if it doesn't work out. If your wiring is old and especially if you have more than one breaker box, be wary of the possibility that it won't work for you.

I suspect the Netgear XE104 will work satisfactorily for far more customers than it it will disappoint, but regrettably I'm in the latter group.

I needed a way to for my networked media player to access my desktop. 802.11g bridge was not reliable and using the older HomePlug was not fast enough for streaming video.

I bought the The Netgear XE104 with HomePlug Turbo and it was easy to set up. I had this device for 3 weeks so far and it has been running reliably with no problems. In addition, streaming video from my desktop to my networked media player over the XE104 worked very well. The addition of a 4 port switch was nice touch and put to good use.

I wish all network gear was this simple. I took the units out of their box. Plugged one into my router and the other unit two floors down into my TiVo and it just worked. TiVo was able to see the internet and download the schedules without any problem. Since each unit has 4 ethernet ports on it, I also plugged in my media adapter. This works fine too. In fact, it works so well that I can play my DVDs from my remote server on my media adapter without any stalls or stutters. This is much better than my unreliable 802.11g set up which could not do any kind of video playback because of bandwidth issues.

The network utility claims I'm getting 65MBps. I suspect I'm getting at least 10-15MBps. I know this because I can play all the videos I have on my server except for the 1080i TS streams. These are around 20MBps.

Bottom Line: NOT WORTH ANY $$$ or $170 ($85 * 2)

Since no one has reviewed this device I had to be a pioneer. I am trying to find a solution to stream HDTV to my xbox 360 without running cat 5e wires.

So it appears that Netgear has taken the same position on throughput as they have with WiFi; Lie about it. I read no where that it is a theoritical 85Mbps but that is most certainly the case. I live in a 3 story town home. I am trying to link the 1st floor to the 3rd. The XE104 won't even connect!!! In truth I get a connection every other minute only be dropped. The two outlets are probably 60 wired feet apart.

Test 1: Same floor with outlets 4ft apart: 14Mbps! :(
Test 2: 1st floor to 2nd floor, outlets 30 wired feet apart: .5Mps
Test 3: 1st floor to 3rd floor, constant dropped connections: 0Mbps

Test Setup:
The tests were run with a laptop at each end. One laptop had a ftp server. Throughput was given from the file transer of a 4GB movie file.

Credibility:
BTW, I have a masters of computer science with 15 years experience.

These Netgear powerline adapters worked perfectly, right out of the box. I live in a fairly new two-story home (built in 93), and all of the electrical wiring is up-to-date. My cable modem is on the first floor; I need a reliable means to provide two upstairs PCs with Internet access. I've tried wireless routers and adpaters, but found them to be susceptible to drop-outs and generally spotty service.

These adapters were simple to install (just plug em in), quick to recognize and begin communicating with each other, and have worked flawlessly since they were purchased. I highly recommend them.