Linksys Powerline AV Wireless Network Extender (PLWK400)

The entertainment devices in my living room all have wireless capability, but none of them can get stable and reliable wireless connection at their location. I needed to hard wired all of them, but my house doesn't have network patches like in the office. And so of course, network powerline kits are what I turn to. I helped a couple of clients setup with powerline kits, so I have already done my research in the past on which kit works best. However, most of the network powerline kits have only one ethernet port. Sure, I can use a switch with it, but that is just additional cost that I want to avoid. I came across this Linksys powerline kit after doing a bit of research to see if kits with more than one port exist, and it turns out they do exist. This Linksys powerline kit has 4 ethernet ports. The only downside is they are 10/100 ports, not gigabit. But then again, I haven't seen any powerline kit with true gigabit yet, and all my living room devices have 10/100 ports anyways.Most of the powerline kits need to be paired by having the transmitter and the receiver plugged into the same wall outlets in order for them to connect properly. However, this Linksys kit doesn't require you to do so. I simply plug the transmitter in the outlet of the room where my router is located and the receiver in the living room wall outlet, where I can plug my Apple TV, Android TV box, security camera, etc... into it. The setup was like less than 5 minutes to plug everything in place, and after a few more minutes, all my devices are connected to the internet without problems. I had it for over a year now, and it is still up and running. It does have occasional hiccups once a month or so, but that's because I have 4 devices plugged into it and two of which (my 2 security cameras) constantly draws bandwidth. I am putting it under heavy workload and stressing it near to its full potential, so hiccups are to be expected. This kit has done wonders to my home network, and also cost effective considering its affordable price and capabilities. I get great decent download speed, and streaming HD on Netflix is very smooth. My Apple TV runs smoothly when using AirPlay, with no drops or lag. Streaming movies from my computer with my Android TV box is also smooth with no lag. I'm very happy using this powerline kit for my living room entertainment setup. Also, this is the powerline kit that you can plug the adapter on the bottom outlet, and still have the top outlet accessible for plugging in other things (most powerline kits are too big, and block the top outlet, rendering the top outlet useless); I used the top outlet for my 12 plug surge protector for plugging in all my devices.For anyone looking to hard wire your devices, but just don't want to run long cables, I recommend this Linksys powerline kit. It is the simplest powerline kit for those who are not too tech savvy. A simple plug-n-play setup. Just make sure you plug both adapters directly to the wall outlet, it should not be plug into a surge protector or an extension cord cable. Even if you are lucky enough to get them paired, the data speed will be significantly limited when you plug them into anything other than the wall outlet. Also, this is the only powerline kit with a 4 port switch available as of this review. And you think 4 ports are an overkill for you, a one port kit is also available.P.S. In case you are wondering about the 200Mbps speed that this kit is advertise to have, basically, you will need a smart switch with port trunking (link aggregation, LACP 802.3ad) setup to achieve that. How else would a 10/100 get 200 right? LOL Most people will never need it. And those who need link trunking, we mostly will never use it on 10/100, because gigabit has already been invented.

I have been dealing with networking in our household for years, and I think this is the very FIRST product that simply worked right out of the box--no configuration necessary. I had considered getting a wireless network extender (Linksys RE1000), but decided against it, given the uneven user reviews it received. Since I really only needed to get better network connectivity in one small area, this alternative made sense.I connected the one piece of the PLSK400 to my Linksys E4200 at one corner of our house and plugged the other piece into an electrical receptacle at the opposite corner on a different floor. My son's Xbox connection is now much improved, even better than the wireless connection he experienced playing it in the same room as the router. Now he can keep his Xbox with the big screen TV and get great performance. And since I bought the model that has four ports, I can also connect the Wii and the Blu-Ray player as well, with one more port left for something else in the future.I don't usually review stuff, but felt compelled to submit a positive review for a product that made it so easy to extend my network to the furthest corner of our house.EDIT: I built a new computer, and wanted to put it down in our family room, where I also had placed the 4-port portion of the kit. Unfortunately, the desk is in a part of the room where I can't connect to the 4-port powerline adapter I'm using to connect the Xbox. I searched for information on whether buying another kit would extend the powerline network using the same unit that was hooked up to my router. After not finding anything, I finally just decided to go ahead and purchase the Linksys Powerline AV 1-Port Network Adapter Kit (PLEK400), which is the same as this kit but with only 1 port in each of the two units. I couldn't find any source where I could simply buy one unit alone.After receiving the PLEK400 kit, I plugged one of the units (they seem to be identical) into an outlet near my new computer, hooked up the computer, and it connected to my existing unit next to my router with no problem. Since the kit came with 2 1-port units, I use the other 1-port unit to connect my laptop from a different area, when I don't feel like using the wireless network. All worked flawlessly together, again with no configuration necessary!Now that I have owned both the PLSK400 and the PLEK400 kits for several months, I can again affirm that these have worked beautifully for our family. However, I have found that every once in a while (maybe every 2 weeks or so?), I need to unplug them and replug them to "reboot" the powerline network. The powerline network seems to slow way down or quit working altogether if it hasn't been restarted for a while. Instead of waiting for that to happen, though, I usually simply restart it (by unplugging and replugging all units) when I find it necessary to restart our router and cable modem. The router or the cable modem need to be restarted more often than the powerline units, so the slowdown that sometimes had occurred never happens anymore. Because this is easy to do when the rest of the network needs to be restarted anyway, I don't feel this should detract from my initial 5-star rating.