Customer Reviews

Phonex Broadband QX 201 NeverWire 14

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If your wireless doesn't reach the rest of your house (like mine...) powerline is a great solution and these PhonEx units really are pretty much instant plug and play. I was amazed and relieved it was as simple to use as the ads on their site touted and you really can be up and running in less than 2 minutes like they say. (Unless your house is really large and it takes you longer than that to get to the room where you're putting the other extension...) In over 7 months use I have never had a failure with the boxes, speed has been pretty good with a DSL connection, and the best thing is it absolutely completely PC and Mac compatible. I use it in a home office situation where I have PC's, half the people I work with have Macs. You don't need to load anything -- you just plug in, boot up, and you're on. Which is great becuase most of the people I work with just want to turn it on and have it work. They don't wanna load a CD, configure their system, etc etc. My only complaint about the units are they're ugly. Maybe it doesn't matter because they just sit on the floor but still, in this day and age of tech design, they could at least make 'em look a little nice! But kudos to them for making it work so well at least. These are a great, simple, reliable solution to extending your network range. Plug it in (note that you need a minimum of TWO units; one on your router, and one on the other end where ever you are plugging in.) Turn on your computer. Everything works. It's that simple.

I've used the Phonex NeverWire system for 8 years to connect a laser printer 2 floors away from my office computer. You cannot use a surge suppressor with them because a suppressor interferes with the signal, and not every plug will work. Most electrical panels have an A side and B side and, without a phase shifter, both outlets have to be on the same side of the panel. So some outlets in my office didn't work to make them connect but others did.
However, once I found a working pair of outlets, the connection has been pretty seamless. A couple of times, due to prolonged electrical outages, I've had to reset the connection between the two units, but I've had no complaints with the units. I'm thinking of getting another (you can have up to 16) to provide direct ethernet connection to the computer that controls my Internet TV. My wireless has been a bit spotty from time to time.

This is a great idea that has not yet come to be a fully working product. Phonex Broadband (makers of NeverWire14) neglect to advertise that each of the modules need to be on the "same electrical circuit" within the home for this to work. Just because you plug each module into separate wall outlet locations does not mean it will work. I have 14 different circuit breakers in my home...the chances that the area that I wanted to cover was on the same circuit with the cable connection were pretty slim.