Customer Reviews

ZyXEL NBG-318S 200 Mbps Powerline HomePlug AV 802.11g Wireless Router

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

UPDATE 1/2011

Both replacement units have failed in their HomePlugAV modules, so I have no HomePlug connectivity. In fact, scanning for Homeplug devices from the managment UI causes both units to crash. Downgrade to one star.
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UPDATE 7/2010

My 2nd unit has failed as well; it began spontaneously rebooting and wouldn't stay working for more than a few minutes at a time. However, I got pretty good service from ZyXel: they replaced BOTH units under warranty. Still working 11/2010.
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UPDATE 5/2010 :

I reduced the rating to 2 stars after one of my two units quit working after about a year. The Powerline connectivity evaporated after about 9 months and the wifi connectivity started to get intermittent after a year or so. Now the unit will only boot sporadically.
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I bought this unit to set up a Homeplug network connection to a home entertainment system that's poorly located for Wifi access, and after some fiddling I'm getting very good performance out of it, nearly 40Mb/sec in real-world circumstances.

When I ordered this router for thirty-nine bucks, it was much cheaper and more capable than the ZyXEL PLA-401 200 Mbps Powerline HomePlug AV Wall-plug Adapter that it's intended to be used with- so I bought two NBG-318S's instead, and configured the 2nd one as an access point. That gave me the benefit of having a 4-port switch as well as a Wifi extender in the access point - why buy the PLA-401? (It's still listed a comparable price.)

Wireless strength was comparable with the D-Link WBR-3210 that it replaced. The router's in the basement and I still have decent signal quality two floors up in our wood-framed house. Plus having the 2nd router configured as a Wifi access point using Zyxel's "roaming" mode (Wifi clients are seamlessly handed off between the two radios as they migrate around the house) has effectively extended our Wifi coverage.

Be forewarned: it takes some arcane BPL voodoo to achieve maximum Homeplug network bandwidth across your A/C circuits, even if it is brand-new shiny code-compliant wiring like at our house. I spent an afternoon juggling the topology of outlets and power strips amongst my appliances while running iperf() between my client and server to monitor the network throughput. I don't think there's any way around the trial and error approach if you want to get good performance out of these things. By some simple, free (but time-consuming) rearrangements of the router, access point and appliance connections the bandwidth at my desired location went from 1Mb/S to 40Mb/S. Here are some tips:

* Homeplug AV performance can be good, but don't believe the 200Mb numbers the vendors throw around; I couldn't even get that bandwidth when the router and access point were plugged into the same outlet next to each other and connected to gigabit Ethernet clients.

* New adopters should be aware that the router and its access points can be on different circuits but pretty much need to be on the same 110V leg of your 220V house service to work. You'll have to check your circuit breaker panel to figure this out for sure.

* The Homeplug network's signal quality (and hence the achievable bandwidth) is extremely sensitive to noisy appliances plugged into the same circuit. For instance, at one point my bandwidth went from 25Mb to 8Mb when I plugged Apple's spiky Powerbook A/C adapter into the same outlet as the access point, and I still take a 5Mb/S hit if someone turns on the dimmable incandescents in our office. I may try putting ferrite chokes on the supply lines of some flourescent fixtures that are still on the common circuits.

* Having the access point plugged into an outlet wired closer to the breaker panel didn't necessarily help. I'm getting the best performance with the access point plugged into a different outlet than the home entertainment appliances, but further in wiring distance from the router - go figure.

* I thought that using surge-protected RF/EMI-filtered power strips on my appliances would help keep noise off the power lines carrying the network signal, but if the noise-filtering power strips were plugged in too close to the access point they actually seemed to filter out the network signal and my bandwidth dropped. Also, some power strip's LED indicators actually put more noisy spikes BACK INTO the line and made the throughput worse; after I quieted them down by clipping out the LEDs, the noise filtering seemed to have some positive effect.

* The Homeplug modems appear to use adaptive signal processing to operate in noisy home environments - the bandwidth can take a big hit when noisy appliances are initially introduced onto the circuit, but then you will see it slowly improve over 30 sec to a minute. (In my experience it was best to reboot the access point in the presence of the noisiest possible signals.) So let your bandwidth measurements settle down before making an evaluation of the benefits of a change to your topology.

* Find a software utility that will allow you to accurately measure data throughput on your network while you are making changes. You'll be chasing your tail if you try to use subjective evaluations of, for instance, how long it seems to take to load a web page. (You'll typically be looking for better LAN performance than your WAN's internet bandwidth anyway.) I used the the iperf utility (Google for it) available for MacOS, Windows and Unix-type systems.

I got good - if not super-prompt - feedback from a customer service technician in response to my prepurchase questions when sent through ZyXel's web site, but haven't heard back from my latest query by regular email. I'm also giving only 4 out of 5 stars because the latest manual available from ZyXel STILL doesn't mention features that are clearly available in the router's standard web-based configuration interface (their Windoze-based configuration "wizard" never functioned properly for me under Parallels) and it took me an hour to figure out how to enable simple WEP wireless security (hint: make sure WPS is turned OFF.)

I purchased this router to replace a XyXEL X-550 (which I had great luck with) because I wanted to be able to use OnDemand via DirecTV (which requires/recommends a HomePlug setup).

Whenever I buy technical products these days, I factor where the company's customer service is based into my decisionmaking process. XyXEL seems to be the only router company remaining whose technical support is both free and based in the U.S. As long as that continues to be the case, I will try XyXEL products first for everything I can. If something comes up and I need help, being able to avoid a call to India is worth whatever dollars extra I have to pay for the device itself.

That said, this product installed easily for me and worked just as the X-550 did. I needed to set up a little wireless home network to share internet and files with a desktop and laptop, while bringing in my DirecTV HD box into the mix via HomePlug. The mission was accomplished with no real surprises or major problems. I am using this with DSL--and all the speed tests I ran came out as expected. I did give XyXEL a call to ask a couple questions about HomePlug installation--as I had no experience with that in the past--and went straight to a representative who spoke english clearly and I was off the phone in less than 5 minutes. Great!

I did have to try different outlets to get the HomePlug portion of this working with the PLA-401. I generally run all my computer equipment through a Belkin Battery Backup unit in case of power failure--and HomePlug would not work when I tried to do that with this router. So I guess when the power goes out my internet connection will go along with it. HomePlug technology really demands you to go direct into an outlet--so I can't fault this product for that--but it's something to know.

As an aside though, I have to say, as of 8/08, DirecTV's OnDemand wasn't worth the trouble right now. I found the selection of things to watch on it to be highly unimpressive--so if that happens to be the reason you're buying this (as it was mine) you could probably skip it and feel just fine about it.

If you do intend to connect this to PLA-401--make sure you buy the bundle though with one included as it's a better deal.

A new wireless router with powerline built in. I save $60.00 right there.

The wireless speed is pretty good. It covers two bedrooms in our apartment with strong signal. I bought another HomePlugAV adapter from the same company and connect to the XBOX in the living room. Streaming HD video to TV is a breeze. The any IP features save me the trouble from re-setting IP on the company laptop when I bring it home. I am glad that I bought this router.

Bought this item on Amazon, along with a couple of homeplug receivers, since I needed to get internet from the source in my basement office, up to the second floor of our house, and the standard wireless range wasnt strong enough.

At first, after a few hiccups trying to set it up, I was able to get it to work great! It did exactly what it said it would do.

A little more than a year later, the homeplug light stopped lighting up, and it wouldnt send internet to any of the homeplug receivers. I spent $10 to send the router in to zyxel. they claimed to have tested it, and said it worked perfectly, and that the problem was with my receivers. I tested both receivers, and they worked perfectly with one another, but nothing was coming from the router.

Long story short, zyxel refuses to admit there is a problem with the router, and the tech support person I spent 30 minutes with on the phone finally admitted that their homeplug items tend to last only 1 year. He very clearly said, dont buy the product if you expect it to last more than that.

So, I give 2 stars since it worked well for a year, but no more than that. If you dont mind spending $100 each year on new routers, go ahead and buy it. personally, I'll find something more reliable.

These units provide great flexibility; 4 port switch (3 LAN and one WAN, or 4 LAN depending on the mode of the unit), 200Mbps HomeLan (electrical wiring), and finally wireless G (yes, I would prefer N, but for less than $30?) Units function well, but do require some knowledge of configuration since they do so much. Also, if you buy more than one as suggested by another in-depth reviewer, they can come with different firmware revisions and version; latest of each type, but one is for US (AR.0) and one is for non-US (AR.2). Despite being the latest of each, the two same units with different firmware installs will NOT connect through HomeLAN wiring. Thank God I bought four to figure that one out (2 were US and 2 were non-US.) Fortunately, the hardware inside is the same, so you can update the firmware to either version and match all units so that they can communicate (I suggest the AR.2 since it allows three modes; simple HomeLAN router, access point (wireless and wired), and full blown Wireless WAN router.) That understanding took about 3 hours to figure out and finsih configuring since I started by opening one US and one non-US (yeah me); not to mention the stab in the dark that could have bricked one with an incompatible firmware during the first test of upgrading to a different firmware. Firmware upgrade is easy download and two prompts in the HTTP configuration screens. Takes about 3-5 minutes.

All in all, I have had little problem with them; other than the firmware issue. Of course, I've only had them from one day. These units do get warm to slightly hot, so longevity is always a question (one reviewer claimed that they failed in some respect after one day.

So far, these work better than the Cicso/LinkSys 85Mbps units that I previously tested. Not much, but better. Streaming Mpeg DVD quality video through them produced some minor jitter occasionally in the playback; especially bright desert scenes (Ironman). The Cisco/Linksys 85Mbps units would pause for .5 - 1 seconds every 5 seconds unless both units were in the same room on the same plug; fine for internet but not streaming video. The Zyxel units worked almost adequately. Considering I got a bargain on the Cisco units @$75 for a one port and a 4 port unit, two of these Zyxel with all the extra features and better performance is a steal! Unfortunately, Powerline just has too many issues with noisy transformers and devices in a typical house. Great for an extra port or a port in every bedroom without rewiring, but difficult to use with video streaming/playing; especially if you are going HD (all my semi-successful tests involved DVD quality). You need to filter everything else to get the best results. For that time and money, I'll just wire the whole damn house. You can alos play the outlet game and move the device from outlet to outlet to hope for bette speed. This can work but negates convenience of an outlet near a desk or TV. However, considering the additional features, the Zyxel pack much more bang for the buck than any other unit that I've seen or used; the Cicso units had no wirless at all. The Zyxel's have great security and are very compact.

You can shut off most anything; the wirless, dhcp server, .... Some of these are set for you based on the unit mode you choose; router (option only on the AR.2 firmware, but same settings can be set manully in the AR.0), access point, or WAN router. I have not had a chance to really play with much of the wirless security and internal address routing features. They look either very good or adequate.

All in all highly recommended, but NOT plug an play.

Update 5/25/09:

These units have functioned without a failure. One major issue is that they do get HOT. In an ambient temperature of 24C (75F), the units running continuosly show a case top surface temperature maximum of 44C (111F) and bottom surface temperature of 49C (120F); that's not the chips themselves but the radiant heat that is warming the plastic. That's not excessive as compared to PC processors and modern graphics cards that peak at 60-80C under full load. However, for this unit, it was the best case scenario with little load. These units have no fan which makes them silent (I love that), but staying at the this temperature without air momvement, other than natural convection through the slits in the two sides, still gives me some concern about longevity. These are the hottest to the touch units of this nature that I've owned. In fairness, the Linksys/Cisco powerline units also got very warm to the touch, but not as hot as these.

The only thing that I miss with this router is a built-in PPTP VPN server and no DD-WRT (open source firmware) support as an alternative. The firmware that's on this unit appears to be robust and stable, so the latter is not a big concern. I have seen at least one person who apparently has done some work getting the DD-WRT project running on a 318S, but I have not seen a simple install bin file with which you can just flash the unit to DD-WRT. The VPN server can always be software base, but that again requires another unit/PC running to handle that task; I prefer one piece of hardware to handle as much a possible. Normally, DDD-WRT added the VPN server feature.

What I love most about these units is that you tell them do something and they just do it. They just work.

I bought 3 of these routers. One is serving as my "main" router, the other two are configured as access points (mucho thanks to the reviewer above who mentioned this in his review - I never would have known I could do this otherwise). I am (or was) a complete networking novice, so configuration was a bit difficult (although if I had known what I was doing I could have done everything in under an hour). Zyxel tech support was very good - they walked me through the setup pretty much step by step after I bungled my first attempt. I made two different calls to the support line - each of which had me talking to a very helpful support person within about 10 minutes.

I am getting about 135 Mbps of throughput on both of the access points. I can now stream video reliably throughout the house - something I couldn't do with my previous wireless setup. Due to the wireless "roaming" feature I now have clear wireless reception throughout the house as well (in addition to the homeplug capabilities).

At the current price ($37) it is hard to imagine a better deal on a router. I think I'm going to buy a few more of these just to have spares.

I bought two of these and have been running them for the last month. They have performed flawlessly during that time. I replaced a single 802.11g wireless router with the two of these because I couldn't get whole house (3 floors) wireless coverage with just the one router. Now I get excellent coverage throughout the whole house. I have one on the third floor connected to my cable modem and VoIP router, the other is on the first floor and connects via the powerline to the one on the third floor. Both are running in Access Point mode. Neither has had to be rebooted in the entire month I've used them. With D-Link or Linksys routers it seemed I had to reboot those a couple times a month. Zyxel makes great network equipment, I've owned other stuff from them and would gladly buy this product again. One thing to note is that there is a newer version of this product (v2) which is not what Big Value is selling. They have the version 1 of the product, not sure what the difference is but for the price I think you can't go wrong.

After searching all over the internet and nearly snatching myself bald, I called support. First the support person was great. Good phone voice, patient and knowledgeable. Definitely not working from a script. My main problem was the fact that the IP of both the ZyXEL and the Westell 6100 were the same. He had me disconnect the Westell then bring up the ZyXEL configuration page and change the third number from 1 to 10. After a refresh I was able to reconnect the Westell and look at both configuration pages.

Ran through the setup, turned the Westell off for about half an hour and then when I rebooted everything the internet came up. Also, I don't know if the problem is with ZyXEL or Westell, but IE 7.0.5 isn't working with this set up. I use Firefox anyway, so it doesn't bother me in the least.

I can't blame ZyXEL for Westell's short fall and the Westell modem/router came with the DSL about 3 years ago. It is out of production so it shouldn't be an ongoing problem for people unattached to their legacy hardware.

ETA: in September 2009 I started having a problem with the wireless part of the network losing connection to the internet. At first I blamed it on all the college kids in the neighborhood running wireless-- it went from about 3 all businesses to over a page of wireless networks in a week. However, when I finally got a chance to troubleshoot, I discovered that some of the settings on the router were changed. I beefed up my password, double checked all my security settings and have my fingers crossed.

I wanted to expand my network at home (Wireless and Wired), therefore Zyxel NBG-318S sounded very good and even better at $35.00 per unit here in Amazon. I bought 3 units. Setup is easy and functionality is not bad, on the other hand the 3 units stop working in less than a year. Reliability is an issue. Go with Linksys, I will stick with them (I had 6 routers at home, 3 Linksys and 3 Zyxel. Linksys are still on forever).

I have 3 of these; after one year two are completely broken and the third is marginal at best. I have no idea how a router can be so prone to failure. DO NOT BUY!!