TRENDnet 200 Mbps Powerline Ethernet AV Adapter Kit TPL-303E2K (White)

by TRENDnet

• Includes two TPL-303E adapters
• High speed building-wide networking from any electrical outlet
• Seamlessly stream videos, play games, and download files
• Use one unit to transmit, and up to 15 additional TPL-303Es to receive a network signal
• IPv4 and IPv6 network protocol support

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6 x 4 x 9 inches ; 5 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00392CI7E
• Item model number: TPL-303E2K
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (126 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #61 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Networking Products > Network Adapters > Powerline Network Adapters
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 15, 2010

Product Description

Size: 2 Adapters (Kit)

Amazon.com

The 200Mbps Powerline AV Adapter Kit uses any electrical outlet to create a secure high speed building-wide network. Connect one adapter to your network and plug another adapter in to any outlet on your electrical system for instant high speed network access.

Connect adapters quickly using the convenient one-touch connect button. Use up to 8 adapters to network devices in different rooms without running new cabling.

Power Save mode reduces power consumption by up to 70%. LED displays convey device status for easy power management and troubleshooting. Quality of Service technology prioritizes video, audio, and online gaming. Advanced AES encryption secures your network. This adapter is ideal for use in buildings that interfere with wireless networking signals.

Key Features

• High speed building-wide networking over an existing electrical system
• Plug and Play support
• Connect one 200Mbps* Powerline AV Adapter to the Internet and then plug in up to 7 additional adapters for instant building connectivity
• One-touch connect button networks adapters quickly
• Windows based configuration utility for a quick and simple installation
• Share data intensive files, play games, download music, and more at ultra fast data transfer rates
• Advanced encryption (AES) ensure total network security
• Power Saving mode reduces electrical consumption by 70%
• IPv4 and IPv6 network protocol support
• Supports Wake-On-Link when in Standby mode
• Neighbor network support for up to 4 overlapping networks
• Network signal transmits up to 300 meters (984ft.)
• Auto QoS support through traffic classification and multiple priority queuing
• Configuration utility compatible with Windows 7, Vista, and XP operating systems
  
• 3-year limited warranty

*200Mbps is the maximum theoretical data rate. Actual throughput will vary depending on environment.
* Networked Powerline devices need to be plugged into power outlets that are on the same electrical system.

What's in the Box
2x TPL-303E, Multi-Language Quick Installation Guide, CD-ROM (Utility & User’s Guide), 2x Cat. 5 Ethernet cable (1.8m / 6ft)

Warranty
3-year limited warranty

Full Specifications

Hardware: Standards IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.3u, IEEE 802.3x, HomePlug AV Interface 1 x 10/100/1000Mbps Auto-MDIX RJ-45 Port, Power Prong Modulation OFDM, QAM, QPSK, BPSK, ROBO Dimensions 63 x 38 x 102mm (2.5 x 1.5 x 4in.) each unit Weight 140g (5 oz.) Temperature Operating: 0° ~ 40°C (32° ~ 104°F) Storage: -10° ~ 55°C (14° ~ 131°F) Humidity 5% to 95% (non-condensing) Certification FCC, CE Coverage Up to 300m (984ft.)

Utility OS Compatibility Windows 7 (32/64-bit), Vista (32/64-bit), XP(32/64-bit) Frequency Band 2 ~ 30 MHz LED Power, Powerline, Ethernet Power Source 100~230V AC, 50~60Hz Consumption Active mode: 3.5 Watts (max.) Standby mode: 0.93 Watts (max.) Encryption 128-bit AES Speed Powerline: up to 200Mbps* LAN: 10/100Mbps Nodes Up to 8 client nodes

Product Description

The 200Mbps Powerline AV Adapter Kit uses any electrical outlet to create a secure high speed building-wide network. Connect one adapter to your network and plug another adapter in to any outlet on your electrical system for instant high speed network access. Connect adapters quickly using the convenient one-touch connect button. Use up to 16 adapters to network devices in different rooms without running new cabling. Power Save mode reduces power consumption by up to 70%. LED displays convey device status for easy power management and troubleshooting. Quality of Service technology prioritizes video, audio, and online gaming. Advanced AES encryption secures your network. This adapter is ideal for use in buildings that interfere with wireless networking signals.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

99 of 99 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid product that works very well. July 21, 2010

By KA

Size Name:2 Adapters (Kit)|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have not been following powerline networking technology since the mid 1990's, when it was a relatively new technology and there were a bunch of proprietary, non-standard products from many different brands. I recently had a networking problem that required me to take another look, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the technology had matured beyond my expectations.

I have Cat5 network cabling installed in my house, but it does not extend to the garage. I had a fairly noisy file server that has to be on all the time, and I wanted to move it to the garage. After learning about the available HomePlug AV options, I bought this TRENDnet kit from Amazon since it was one of the most inexpensive options available.

These TRENDnet adapters seem to be built really well. They are fairly plain looking, but you probably don't care how a piece of hidden network equipment looks anyway. Installation was problem-free, I basically plugged one of the adapters to a wall outlet (these have to be directly connected to the outlet, surge protectors interfere with signaling) and connected it to one of the Ethernet jacks that are directly connected to my router. I then plugged the other adapter to an outlet in the garage; and connected my server to the Ethernet jack on the adapter. No drivers are needed.

As expected, the network performance is nothing to write home about. If you've read the reviews of this technology here on Amazon and elsewhere on the net, you probably know by now that the "200 Mb/s" mentioned on the boxing and marketing materials is sort of a theoretical limit and the actual performance is somewhat lower. I took some performance measurements using iperf (a fairly well-known network performance monitoring utility), and the network bandwidth between the two adapters seems to be varying between 46.1 Mbits/s(between a Linux machine connected to the router and another Linux machine connected to the TRENDnet adapter) and 22Mbits/s(between a Windows machine connected to the router and a Linux machine connected to the TRENDnet adapter). For reference purposes, I see a bandwidth of 45-50 Mbits/s between two hosts on my wired Ethernet network (which uses 100Mbps cards); which tells me that the performance of these HomePlug AV adapters is probably about half to sixty percent of that of a wired 100Mb/s Ethernet network. Definitely somewhat faster than a B/G Wi-Fi connection; and certainly more stable with less hassle.

I am fairly happy with the TRENDnet TPL-303E2K kit and HomePlug AV technology, and I strongly recommend it to anyone who needs a home networking solution for stationary devices (desktop computers, network-connected BluRay players etc.) that is more stable, practical and secure than Wi-Fi.

Update: Having been very satisfied with the performance of these TRENDnet adapters, I bought a Zyxel PLA-470 HomePlug AV switch to replace the wireless bridge I have been using with my home theater. I had some concerns about mixing different brands of HomePlug AV devices on my network, but my concerns turned out to be unfounded. The TRENDnet adapters and the Zyxel PLA-470 are working seamlessly together out of the box.

43 of 47 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Very finicky to setup. Works fine afterwards. July 17, 2011

By S. Sliva

Size Name:2 Adapters (Kit)|Amazon Verified Purchase

Net: These TrendNet TPL-303E work after you've gotten them configured. Getting there may be difficult, at least with Win XP. Here are my notes so you can try some additional troubleshooting without contacting tech support.

The first step in configuring the two units to work together is to connect directly to the router the local unit is connected to, and enter a password for the remote unit. At first, the remote unit was detected and I quickly entered the password. It was rejected. Again, and again, and again. I tried switching local and remote. I rebooted the router. I moved outlets. Nothing worked. Password rejected. And that's about as far as the included documentation will get you.

Finally, I realized that the unit had only a few seconds in which the power light wasn't blinking. So, I had the password entered in the software's dialog box, and plugged the remote unit in, and hit enter to try the password ASAP. Finally! Password accepted. Once the password is accepted, you can pretty easily move the unit to other outlets. To get a device working, just plug it into the remote unit and then plug the remote unit in. Reset by unplugging from the outlet and plugging it back in with the ethernet cable already attached.

Do not reset by holding down the sync button!

If you make the mistake of holding the sync button down for 15 seconds to cause a "reset," you may have just destroyed your network settings, and you have to reconfigure everything. This is perhaps even worse than discovering a physically possible way to enter the password on a computer within seconds of plugging in the remote unit.

In my experience, after the reset, neither unit could be recognized as the remote unit. What seemed to fix that was connecting each unit as the local, and using the privacy tab in the software to configure each to the local network. Perhaps the "factory default" network name is not the default software network name? I don't know. But finally, the remote unit was again recognized. At that point, I had to use the password-within-seconds trick to get the remote unit recognized again. And at that point, things worked. Sheesh.

At all points, a short press of the sync button seems to just be a placebo to make the user feel like they've tried something. Doesn't seem to do much.

Performance-wise, wifi-G seems to be giving me 10mpbs and these units are getting 20mbps, which may be what my ISP provides. I'm using them two rooms apart. So, it's at least better than wifi-G. Not sure it would be better than wifi-N, but I had a remote device with no native wifi capabilities, so I decided to give this a shot.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The home network nightmare ends October 6, 2010

By Divakar Rajashekaran

Size Name:2 Adapters (Kit)|Amazon Verified Purchase

Bought it at amazon a week ago got it in time as stated, as usual good packaging. Took it to home and plugged it into two wall outlets and used the cat 5e to connect to fioz router and on the other end to a Trendnet TEW 633GR gigabit switch wireless N router. My desktop/HTPC, PS3 are both connected to the Gigabit port. This thing works like charm, I had a wireless n adapter for my desktop which used to suffer really bad buffering issues on certain sites seems to stream without any issue. And also My PS3 downloads were getting faster as well. So glad it worked as expected, now my test is to see DLNA streaming from desktop to my other laptop to see recorded program. I tested the throughput at different distances from each other this is what I observed.

< 5 meters - 133 Mbps
5-10 meters - 100 mbps
11-50 - 63 Mbps

Currently it's set at the 5-10 meter range and I am loving the steady throughput I am getting. I didn't encounter any issues technically with this and I am really happy with this purchase for $79.