TRENDnetPowerline 500 AV Nano Adapter Kit with Built-in Outlet, Power Outlet Pass-Through, Includes 2 x TPL-407E Adapters, Plug & Play, Ideal for Smart TVs, Gaming, White, TPL-407E2K

I've never tried Powerline adapters before. Reviews of the first-generation models were all terrible, and I was one of those people who wrote the technology off completely. But fast-forward a few years, and I'm moving into a large apartment with a cable modem in the bedroom and my HDTV in the living room. I can pick up 40 Wi-Fi SSIDs on my laptop, I can't get into the ceiling so I can't do drop cables, and my girlfriend would kill me if I started stringing up cat-5 cable along the walls. I needed something fast, cheap, and largely invisible, and while I was skeptical since this apartment's wiring is so old it still has an honest-to-goodness fuse box, I still figured I'd at least try a Powerline adapter.I settled on the Trendnet brand because they'd gotten some fairly decent reviews on sites like SmallNetBuilder, and seemed pretty fast at least compared to other brands. Installation was simple; basically you plug them both in, press and hold the sync button on the side (I had to do it a few times before I learned how long to hold the button down) on one and then the other, and then wait for them to sync up. Once they do, you're all set! I connected one to my router in the bedroom, and the other to a gigabit switch in the living room, and then plugged all my home theater devices into the switch. AV receiver, Roku, Blu-Ray player, Xbox, they all appeared on the network right away, and voila, Internet access for my entertainment center.Roku does streaming Internet radio, and within minutes I had Pandora playing to my heart's content. The real test, though, was whether I could stream video. I've been using this setup for a couple of weeks now, and let me tell you, Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime all work like a charm. I can stream Bones, Castle, and even Downtown Abbey now in HD with Dolby Digital and I've never had a hiccup.Satisfaction with these really comes down to what you need. The "500 Mbps" claim is a little misleading, because these things only have 10/100 Ethernet and can only connect to your router/switch/Roku at up to 100 Mbps. But like all other Powerline adapters, they're actually slow enough that it doesn't matter; I've read lots of reviews where these "500 Mbps" routers never really work at higher than 50 Mbps in real-world testing. If you're a power user, don't buy these things to connect your workstation and your NAS. But if you're like me, and you have 15 Mbps cable service and want to stream HD video to your Roku, these things may be just what you need.

I built my gaming pc in June, and as a complete newbie to the scene I did not realize the important of an ethernet connection. I've tried multiple different usb wifi antennas, and nothing could provide a stable enough connection for my to play games reliably on. I'd get about 10-15 seconds of gameplay before a random PING spike would interfere. So my $1000 build was effectively rendered useless for online gaming, and since I don't play much single-player on my PC, I was basically only using this computer for school, work, and web-browsing.After months of reading through various Reddit posts, I was on the fence about trying powerline. Boy am I glad I went for it. Let me just say this right off the bat - if you for whatever reason can't use an ethernet connection of any kind and you want to play games online, TRY THIS. I'm only pulling about 75 mbps when I typically get about 150mbps on wifi, but with how stable the connection is, I have no PING issues whatsoever. If any of you play Rocket League, you'd know how annoying PING spikes are that cause your car to start flying all over the field. With my powerline connection, I've put in about 8 hours of online playing without one ping spike, and I'm finally able to take advantage of my hardware.Seriously, if you're on the fence and you play online games, GIVE THIS A SHOT. I've tried so many wifi antennas in all different price ranges, and none have come close to the performance I get here. Yes, the connection is much slower, but the stability is what matters most especially for online games. Don't listen to the Redditors who completely write this off - if you have no other options and can't use ethernet, give this a try and see if it works. Super simple to setup and a true plug and play. If I could give it 6 stars I would. Seriously, I'm so shocked at how well it works, and I'm glad I decided just to give it a try. A true job well done by this company.

Everything you need is in the kit. Mine is plugged in two different circuits, but on the same leg in the breaker box. I knew I would not achieve advertised speeds because of this.This kit replaces an older Homeplug AV adapter kit that was on the fritz. It was plugged in the same outlets and worked for years.Out of the box, the kit did not work. I was careful not to accidentally press the Sync buttons when plugging the adapters. Loosing a star. Plugged and unplugged, went through the 15 seconds and 3 seconds routine to generate a new encryption key. Nothing worked, could not get the powerline light to come on. The power and ethernet lights were lit.I went on Trendnet website and learned there was a reset button. After I pressed this on both adapters, it works fine. I have no idea if it is encrypted or not at this point.Installed the Trendnet powerline utility from the included CD, hoping I could see about encryption, speed, etc. After starting the program, I get an error message that "...this application requires WinPcap v4.1.2 or greater." Laptop is running Windows 10 Home.It is a shame to have an app that will not work without downloading a separate helper program. The error message point to a website to download the program from, indicating its not included on the CD. Loosing another star.After downloading and installing WinPcap, the Trendnet utility is operational. I changed my network name, and learned the connection speed was 315Mbps. Improvement over 110Mbps I had with the older adapter, 2.86x faster. (2-4X improvement over previous HomePlug standards expected).