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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Buy TWO routers instead of router+PLA-401 access point, January 9, 2009
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.)
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Works as advertised and solid service--will stick with XyXEL going forward, August 24, 2008
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.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I am glad that I bought this router., March 6, 2008
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.
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