Which Mac should you buy? You need the USB-C to USB Adapter and the USB ethernet Adapter ($29 on the Apple Store). Touch Bar models were released July 2018.
Hi, how are you? My name is Nick! I am here to help you find the best Usb Ethernet Adapter products. With my article I would like to assist you in making the right decision to buy Usb Ethernet Adapter. You can rely on my advice, because I have done a lot of research on this topic and I know very well which Usb Ethernet Adapters are good. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to leave me a comment and if you liked my article, share it. See you around. Nick.
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Contents
- 2 10 Best Usb Ethernet Adapter
Furthermore, it is possible to connect different adapters without a special base station by means of an ad hoc mode. The variants of the adapters are very versatile. Here the wireless network card, which is built into the PC as a PCI card, is very common. The PCMCIA card is more likely to be used for notebooks with an internal antenna or a socket for an external antenna.
Smaller variants are the CF Type II as wifi cards, which work according to the CompactFlash standard, but are by far none other than the PCMCIA cards and are particularly suitable for notebooks. These cards can still be used in a Pcmcia slot. Another variant is the mini PCI card, which is always permanently integrated in the notebook with a wireless adapter. USB adapters are almost always available in two versions. Once as sticks for a USB slot. On the other hand, large devices with high performance and large antennas are also used, which are visually very similar to the Wifi routers.
Today, an adapter is usually seen as a one-piece and external hardware element that is connected to the laptop via a US connection in order to use the power of a wireless connection. An adapter is very small in both installation and handling and as an accessory is very small. Connections to the Wifi can be established quickly and easily using adapters. This means that the Internet is no longer just stationary, but can also be used anywhere on the move. The adapters can be used independently of the operating system used.
Fire TV Stick and Fire TV usb Ethernet adapter
For all Fire TV Stick and Fire TV users who have problems with the WLAN, there is finally an official solution. Together with the new Fire TV with 4K Ultra HD, Amazon has also presented an official Ethernet adapter that provides a stable cable connection.
WLAN is a great thing, after all, you can access the Internet wirelessly and easily almost anywhere with the technology. Especially with streaming, the wireless network has its drawbacks, but fast and above all stable Internet connection is necessary when calling up movies and series in Full HD or even 4K quality. Especially in rooms that are far away from the WLAN router or on other floors, wireless Internet can become a problem. If you are using a new Fire TV Stick (Fire TV Stick with Alexa voice remote control) at home or want to use the new Fire TV Stick with 4K Ultra HD in the future, you can now access Amazon’s new official Ethernet adapter and connect the streaming devices to the Internet with a cable.
The Amazon Ethernet adapter for Fire TV and Fire TV Stick with Alexa voice remote control is simply connected directly to the Micro USB port. On the one hand, there is space for the power cable on the adapter and on the other hand, there is an Ethernet connection for the direct cable connection to the router. In this way, the new Fire TV with 4K Ultra HD or the new Fire TV Stick can easily be connected to the Internet via a LAN cable. Amazon emphasizes, however, that the adapter is only compatible with the new Fire TV and the new Fire TV Stick. Owners of an old Fire TV stick still have to use WLAN while the old Fire TV models come with a LAN connection.
Usb Ethernet Adapter Bestselling, Newest and Best Offers
- Connects a USB 3.0 device (computer/tablet) to a router, modem, or network switch to deliver Gigabit Ethernet to your network connection
- Supported features include Wake-on-LAN function, Green Ethernet & IEEE 802.3az-2010 (Energy Efficient Ethernet)
- Supports IPv4/IPv6 pack Checksum Offload Engine (COE) to reduce Cental Processing Unit (CPU) loading
- Compatible with Windows 10/8.1/8/7, and Chrome OS with latest system updates; does not support Windows RT or Android.
- UGREEN USB 2.0 to RJ45 Network adapter connects your computer or tablet to a router, modem or network switch for network connection.
- USB 2.0 Ethernet adapter is a good solution for adding a standard RJ45 port to your Ultrabook, notebook, or MacBook Air for file transferring, video conferencing, gaming, and HD video streaming.
- Full 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet performance over USB 2.0'S 480 Mbps bus, faster and more reliable than most wireless connections. Link and activity LEDs. USB powered, no external power required.
- USB to Ethernet supports wake-on-land (WOL), full-duplex (FDX) and half-duplex (HDX) Ethernet, Crossover detection, backpressure routing, auto-correction (auto MDIX). support IPv4/IPv6 protocols and 10baset-t and 100baset-tx networks.
- Nintendo switch, Wii and Wii U supported, widely compatible with Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, Mac OSX 10.6/10.7/10.8/10.9/10.10/10.11/10.12, Linux Kernel 3.X/2.6, and chrome OS. Does not support Windows RT, Android.
- WHAT IT IS: Ugreen USB 3.0 male A to RJ45 female ethernet adapter connects your computer or tablet to a router,modem or network switch for network connection. It adds a standard RJ45 port to your Ultrabook, notebook, Nintendo Switch or Macbook Air for file transferring, video conferencing, gaming, and HD video streaming.
- PROTECT OR REPLACE A BROKEN ETHERNET PORT: USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter is a good accessory to protect the RJ45 Lan port in your expensive computer, or replace a broken Ethernet port.
- SPEED UP TO 5GBPS: Full 10/100/1000Mbps gigabit ethernet performance over USB 3.0's 5Gbps bus, faster and more reliable than most wireless connections. Link and Activity LEDs. USB powered, no external power required. Backward compatible with USB 2.0/1.1.
- COMPATIBILITY: This USB to Gigabit Ethernet adapter work with Windows 8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, Mac OSX 10.6/10.7/10.8/10.9/10.10/10.11/10.12, Linux kernel 3.x/2.6, and Chrome OS. DO NOT SUPPORT Windows RT and Android. Compatible with IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.3u and IEEE 802.3ab. Supports IEEE 802.3az (Energy Efficient Ethernet).
- LIFETIME WARRANTY: Ugreen USB Gigabit Ethernet adapter is backed with lifetime warranty and customer service support.
- Instantly adds 3 extra USB 3.0 SuperSpeed ports and 1 x RJ45 gigabit ethernet port to your ultrabooks, notebooks and tablets featuring USB interfaces and enjoy data transfer rates of up to 5Gbps, backwards compatibile with 10/100 ethernet or USB 2.0/1.1 devices .
- Compact, lightweight, portable, Tecknet USB 3.0 hub ensures a neat and uncluttered arrangement of all connections making sure that plugs and cables do not interfere with each other. Perfect as an external extension solution.
- Supports IPv4/IPv6 protocols, dual channel transfer mode, auto transfer and data stream reversing regulation.
- Supports Hot Swap and Plug & Play on all USB ports. Built-in surge protection keeps your devices and data safe. Blue LED indicates normal operation.
- What you get: 1× TeckNet 3-Port USB and Ethernet Hub, 1× User Manual. Enjoy 18-month warranty, free lifetime technical support and friendly customer service.
- Easily add 3 USB 3.0 SuperSpeed ports to your PC and enjoy data transfer rates of up to 5Gbps for faster sync times.
- 1 gigabit ethernet port gives access to superfast network speeds, backward compatible with 10/100 ethernet.
- Lightweight 'power-bar' design effectively saves space. Green LED indicates normal operation.
- Built-in surge protection keeps your devices and data safe and supports hot swapping.
- Package contents: Anker 3-Port USB and Ethernet Hub, 1.6ft / 50cm USB 3.0 cable, welcome guide, 18-month hassle-free warranty.
- USB 3 TO ETHERNET ADAPTER adds network connectivity to a computer with a USB 3.0 port; The USB to Gigabit Ethernet adapter supports SuperSpeed USB 3.0 data transfer rate up to 5 Gbps for 1000 BASE-T network performance with backwards compatibility to 10/100 Mbps networks; Connect the USB NIC adapter with a Cat 6 Ethernet cable (sold separately) for the best performance
- WIRELESS ALTERNATIVE USB to RJ45 adapter for connecting to the Internet in Wi-Fi dead zones, streaming large video files, or downloading a software upgrade through a wired home or office LAN; USB 3.0 to Ethernet adapter provides faster data transfers and better security than most wireless connections; Ideal solution for replacing a failed network card or upgrading the bandwidth of an older computer
- DRIVER-FREE INSTALLATION with native driver support in Chrome, Mac, and Windows OS; The USB Ethernet adapter dongle supports important performance features including Wake-on-Lan (WoL), Full-Duplex (FDX) and Half-Duplex (HDX) Ethernet, Crossover Detection, Backpressure Routing, Auto-Correction (Auto MDIX)
- LIGHTWEIGHT ETHERNET to USB ADAPTER weighs less than 1 ounce for easy portability in your laptop case; Add a standard RJ45 port to your Ultrabook or MacBook with a USB 3.0 port for file transfers, video steaming and gaming with this USB network adapter
- CHROME & MAC & WINDOWS COMPATIBLE USB Lan adapter for Windows 10/8/8.1/7/Vista and macOS 10.6 and up; The Ethernet USB adapter does not support Windows RT
- WIRELESS ALTERNATIVE for connecting to the Internet in Wi-Fi dead zones, streaming large video files, or downloading a software upgrade through a wired home or office LAN; USB 3.0 to Ethernet adapter provides faster data transfers and better security than most wireless connections; Ideal solution for replacing a failed network card or upgrading the bandwidth of an older computer
- USB 3.0 TO GIGABIT ETHERNET ADAPTER adds network connectivity to a computer with a USB 3.0 port; Supports SuperSpeed USB 3.0 data transfer rate up to 5 Gbps for 1000 BASE-T network performance with backwards compatibility to 10/100 Mbps networks; Connect with a Cat 6 Ethernet cable (sold separately) for the best performance
- DRIVER-FREE INSTALLATION with native driver support in Chrome, Mac, and Windows OS; Network adapter dongle supports important performance features including Wake-on-Lan (WoL), Full-Duplex (FDX) and Half-Duplex (HDX) Ethernet, Crossover Detection, Backpressure Routing, Auto-Correction (Auto MDIX)
- LIGHTWEIGHT USB TO ETHERNET ADAPTER weighs less than 1 ounce for easy portability in your laptop case; Add a standard RJ45 port to your Ultrabook or MacBook with a USB 3.0 port for file transfers, video steaming and gaming
- CHROME & MAC & WINDOWS COMPATIBLE with with Windows 10/8/8.1/7/Vista and macOS 10.6 and up; Does not support Windows RT or Android
- Portable USB to Ethernet adapter connects a USB 2.0 equipped computer or tablet to a router, modem, or network switch to bring Fast Ethernet to your network connection; Driver-free for most computers; Driver can be downloaded from Cable Matters website
- Leveraging the high bandwidth of Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interface, this USB 2.0 to Ethernet adapter guarantees a reliable network connection with 100 Mbps Ethernet
- This lightweight USB to network adapter is a perfect accessory for adding a standard RJ45 port to your Ultrabook, notebook, or Macbook Air for file transferring, video conferencing, gaming, and HD video streaming
- Supported features include Wake-on-Lan (WoL), Full-Duplex (FDX) and Half-Duplex (HDX) Ethernet, Crossover Detection, Backpressure Routing, Auto-Correction (Auto MDIX). Supports IPv4/IPv6 protocols and 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX networks
- Wired USB Ethernet connection is more reliable than wireless network. This Ethernet to USB adapter is compatible with Windows 8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, Mac OSX 10.6/10.7/10.8/10.9/10.10, and Chrome OS. Does not support Windows RT and Android
- Upgrade to wired gigabit speeds via USB. Fastest USB 3.0 + Gigabit solution. See product details
- Automatic driver installation via Windows Update on Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7 and XP
- macOS driver download available for 10.6 and newer (system restart required). Functionality built into Linux kernel from 3.9 onward (compile required for 2.6 - 3.8). Compatible with Nintendo Switch when using the dock or in handheld mode with compliant USB-C to A solution
- Not limited by USB 2.0 bandwidth. Practical speeds over 600Mbps on USB 3.0 and Gigabit network. Not recommended for use with Lenovo Yoga 2 or 3 due to issues with their USB 3.0 controllers. IPv4/IPv6 checksum offload engine, crossover detection and auto-correction, TCP large send offload and IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet. Max 4K jumbo frames
- We love our Plugable products and hope you will too. All of our products are backed with a 1-year limited parts and labor warranty and Seattle-based email support
- ★Not working with Nintendo Switch★ Gold Plated USB 3.0 male to rj45 female Ethernet adapter adds a standard RJ45 port to your ultrabook, notebook, supporting 10/100/1000 Mbps. with safe and stable REALTEK IC Chipset ( RTL8153). Backward compatible with 2.0/1.1 standards
- Supports crossover detection, auto-correction and Wake-on-LAN (WOL). Supports Windows (32/64 bit) 8 / 7 / Vista / XP, Mac OS 10.5 /10.6/10.7/10.8/10.9/10.10/10.12. Does not support Windows RT or Android
- Plug and Play after one time driver installation; Supports backpressure routing and IEEE 802.3x flow control for full-duplex (FDX) and half-duplex (HDX) systems. Compatible with IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.3u and IEEE 802.3ab. Supports IEEE 802.3az
- High-bandwidth of Super Speed USB 3.0 interface at up to 5 Gbps, the USB 3.0 to Ethernet adapter future-proofs your network connection with 1000 Mbps Ethernet while maintains a backwards compatibility with 10/100 Mbps Ethernet
- CableCreation 24-month product replacement warranty and lifetime friendly technical support.
- Upgrade to wired gigabit speeds via USB. Fastest USB 3.0 + Gigabit solution. See product details
- Automatic driver installation via Windows Update on Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7 and XP
- macOS driver download available for 10.6 and newer (system restart required). Functionality built into Linux kernel from 3.9 onward (compile required for 2.6 - 3.8). Compatible with Nintendo Switch when using the dock or in handheld mode with compliant USB-C to A solution
- Not limited by USB 2.0 bandwidth. Practical speeds over 600Mbps on USB 3.0 and Gigabit network. Not recommended for use with Lenovo Yoga 2 or 3 due to issues with their USB 3.0 controllers. IPv4/IPv6 checksum offload engine, crossover detection and auto-correction, TCP large send offload and IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet. Max 4K jumbo frames
- We love our Plugable products and hope you will too. All of our products are backed with a 1-year limited parts and labor warranty and Seattle-based email support
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*Last update on 2019-08-25 / Affiliate links(we get a commission when you buy on amazon) / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Your guide
Jim Salter
We spent over 30 hours testing nine powerline kits and we’ve found that the TP-Link TL-WPA8630 V2 is the best for most people. A powerline networking adapter transmits an Internet signal over your home’s electrical wiring, so it’s a good way to get Internet access to a distant part of your house without running additional cables or using a Wi-Fi extender. The TL-WPA8630 V2 is well-priced and has good performance, lots of ports, and dual-band Wi-Fi.
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Our pick
TP-Link TL-WPA8630 v2
TP-Link’s TL-WPA8630 V2 has good powerline speed and a decent 802.11ac Wi-Fi extender built in, plus three Ethernet ports for wired connections.
Buying Options
Mac Usb To Ethernet Adapter
*At the time of publishing, the price was $120.
The TL-WPA8630 V2 is built on the HomePlug AV2 standard, so it’s compatible with a huge array of powerline networking kits from many vendors, making it easy to expand your network in the future. It has three Ethernet jacks on the far end, a dual-band 801.11ac Wi-Fi radio to extend your wireless network, and it’s fast enough to stream 4K video with bandwidth to spare. It also has a handy Windows-only utility that lets you manage and monitor your powerline network. Unfortunately, it doesn’t include a passthrough power outlet, and it’s bulky enough to block both plugs in a standard two-socket power outlet.
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Also great
Extollo LanPlug 2000
Extollo’s powerline adapter, when paired with the Una wireless extender, is faster than anything we tested, at a great price—but the company’s sparse documentation and not-yet-built firmware-update process kept it from being our main pick.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $48.
Extollo Una
Master of orion 2016 cheat for mac 2018. The Una wireless extender paired with the LanPlug 2000 wired adapter is faster than anything we tested.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $80.
If you want the absolute best performance and don’t mind sparse documentation and iffy support, the Extollo LanPlug 2000 paired with the Extollo Una is for you. This kit uses the G.hn powerline spec rather than the more common AV2, so it won’t mix-and-match with other vendors’ adapters. Its Web interface also doesn’t include many Wi-Fi configuration options and Extollo’s site doesn’t offer documentation or firmware updates like more established vendors—as of this writing, the website hasn't been updated in several years. For most people, the TP-Link will be fast enough, and the support and documentation that TP-Link provide are more important than raw speed. But if you're comfortable being very hands-on with your networking equipment, it’s hard to argue with 150 percent of the performance of the fastest AV2 kit we’ve ever seen (TP-Link’s wired-only PA9020P) at a lower price and with solid Wi-Fi.
Also great
TP-Link TL-PA9020P KIT
If you don't need a Wi-Fi extender on your powerline kit, you can get 60 percent more speed for less money with the TL-PA9020P.
Buying Options
TP-Link’s TL-PA9020P is the best-performing AV2 powerline kit we’ve ever tested—60 percent faster than the main pick. It’s not as fast as Extollo’s G.hn kit and doesn’t offer Wi-Fi, but it costs a little less and can interoperate with other AV2 gear.
If your goal is to connect a big pile of game consoles and streaming devices attached to one TV over powerline, the TL-PA9020P (plus an inexpensive network switch) will give you much better performance than a bunch of individual Wi-Fi connections to one of our main picks for about the same amount of money.
Budget pick
TP-Link TL-PA7010P
The TL-PA7010PKIT doesn’t offer top speeds, but it gets the job done reliably.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $55.
TP-Link’s TL-PA7010P is much less expensive than the TL-PA9020P, and it is still more than fast enough for 1080p video streams or simple Web browsing, though we wouldn’t recommend it for streaming 4K video. Most people should pay a little more for one of our faster picks, but if you only have $50 or so to spend, the TL-PA7010PKIT is your best option.
Everything we recommend
Our pick
TP-Link TL-WPA8630 v2
TP-Link’s TL-WPA8630 V2 has good powerline speed and a decent 802.11ac Wi-Fi extender built in, plus three Ethernet ports for wired connections.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $120.
Also great
Extollo LanPlug 2000
Extollo’s powerline adapter, when paired with the Una wireless extender, is faster than anything we tested, at a great price—but the company’s sparse documentation and not-yet-built firmware-update process kept it from being our main pick.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $48.
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Extollo Una
The Una wireless extender paired with the LanPlug 2000 wired adapter is faster than anything we tested.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $80.
Also great
TP-Link TL-PA9020P KIT
If you don't need a Wi-Fi extender on your powerline kit, you can get 60 percent more speed for less money with the TL-PA9020P.
Buying Options
Budget pick
TP-Link TL-PA7010P
The TL-PA7010PKIT doesn’t offer top speeds, but it gets the job done reliably.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $55.
The research
Why you should trust us
I’ve been a professional system administrator and IT consultant for more than 20 years. More specifically, I’ve lived and breathed networking and Wi-Fi for the past couple of years writing for Ars Technica and Wirecutter. As a consultant, I deployed and maintained models of nearly every brand of network gear under real-world conditions; as a technical writer, I obsessively test them and listen to readers’ concerns to make sure I’m testing the right things.
This is our fourth round of powerline networking testing. We tested sixteen separate kits between 2014 and 2016 in the first three rounds, and this year we revamped our test model entirely, including taking Wi-Fi into much greater consideration. We applied this new and improved testing model to seven newcomers and two picks from the last version of the guide (TP-Link’s PA9020P kit and Zyxel’s PLA5456).
Who this is for
Powerline network adapters extend your home network by using your home’s electrical wiring instead of an Ethernet cable. This makes powerline a great way to get a high-quality connection to distant parts of your house while relieving stress on your Wi-Fi network. None of our powerline picks are as fast as a single device on the fastest, close-range Wi-Fi connection, but they’re all much faster and higher-quality than Wi-Fi connections at the edge of your router’s range.
You should consider a powerline kit if you have an 802.11ac router from the past year or two that covers most of your space well but doesn't get a strong, high-quality signal to somewhere that needs it, like a home office or an entertainment center on the opposite side of the house. You should also only consider it if you have a relatively modern, midsized home —say, less than fifty years old and less than 2,500 square feet—since powerline performance can vary depending on the quality of your home's electrical wiring. If your home is larger or older, or if your router is due for an upgrade anyway, you should probably consider replacing it with a mesh networking kit instead.
A single pair of powerline adapters will typically have much lower latency than a device would see on a busy Wi-Fi network. This makes a powerline kit potentially a great option for a gamer who complains a lot about “lag” on their Wi-Fi connected console or PC but doesn't have an available Ethernet connection nearby. Powerline can also serve as a useful bridge across a set of walls or a foundation that kills Wi-Fi signals, allowing you to extend your house’s network to places Wi-Fi alone couldn’t take it.
What you should know before buying powerline
A powerline kit contains two adapters which plug directly into your home’s electrical outlets, each with at least one Ethernet port. One adapter plugs into an outlet near your router and connects to that router with an included Ethernet cable. Then you plug in the other adapter where you need an Internet connection, and connect a device (laptop, game console, etc) to it with another Ethernet cable. A network switch can add more Ethernet ports if you need to hook up a lot of devices—this will get you better performance and lower latency than using Wi-Fi to connect all of these gadgets. To add more rooms to your powerline network, you only need one more powerline adapter in each room—the same router-side adapter services your entire powerline network.
Recover deleted items on mac. Despite its limitations, powerline is a useful and affordable way to extend your network to areas where Wi-Fi doesn’t reach and running an Ethernet cord would be impractical (like a garage, attic, or faraway bedroom). Powerline can be great for getting network connections throughout a multi-story structure where building materials like brick or lath-and-plaster block Wi-Fi signals, though the quality of the powerline signal depends greatly on the quality of your electrical wiring, and old buildings tend to have old wiring.
Many powerline adapters have Wi-Fi extenders on the far end. These can work better than traditional wireless extenders because they don’t rely on Wi-Fi for the connection between the router and extender. However, if powerline networking doesn’t work well with your house’s wiring, you’re almost certainly better off upgrading to a Wi-Fi mesh kit instead of messing around with extenders.
Best Ethernet Adapter For Mac 2018 Update
I failed to encrypt a powerline connection last year and had to introduce myself to a neighbor with “Hi, I live next door, and I accidentally hacked your router.”
The good news is, powerline doesn’t interfere with Wi-Fi, and vice-versa—and walls that stop Wi-Fi cold don’t matter a bit to a powerline connection. The biggest problems powerline networking face tend to be the overall quality of the wiring in the house, followed by the electrical distance—not the straight line distance—between two powerline adapters. The more circuit breakers a signal crosses from one adapter to another, the lower the bandwidth and sketchier the connection. And, like Wi-Fi, the more powerline adapters you have, the worse they all perform, since powerline networking is subject to collision and congestion in the same way Wi-Fi is.
You also must be careful to encrypt the connection between your powerline adapters, using the physical “pairing” button on each adapter. If you forget this step, you can end up merging your network and your neighbor's, with unexpected and awful results—I failed to encrypt a powerline connection last year and had to introduce myself to a neighbor with “Hi, I live next door, and I accidentally hacked your router.” It was awkward.
Other factors can affect powerline performance. You don’t want to connect a powerline adapter to a surge protector or power strip, or outlets that are behind AFCI circuit breakers. (These will be labeled as “AFCI” or “Arc Fault” in your breaker box.) SmallNetBuilder noted in its testing of powerline adapters that some brands of AFCI circuit breakers cut transmission rate in half, though others barely impacted throughput at all. Finally, although it’s technically possible to mix-and-match the older AV standard devices with the AV2 standard devices we tested here, you really shouldn’t—the older devices will slow your entire powerline network down to their speed, which is half (or less!) what the modern devices are capable of. AV and AV2 devices also can’t be used at all with powerline adapters that use the competing G.hn standard.
You don’t want to connect a powerline adapter to a surge protector or power strip, or outlets that are behind AFCI circuit breakers.
Powerline networking kits can be susceptible to interference from other devices (particularly poorly-constructed phone or laptop power supplies) on the circuit. Appliances on the line can also interfere with powerline signals. According to this knowledge base article from TP-Link, “Electrical equipments with electromotor, like washing machine/air-condition, can generate interference [and] may even cut off your powerline connection.”
It’s also possible, though somewhat unlikely, to get interference from a powerline kit showing up in other devices. In 2016, we tested for interference from a floor lamp with a dimmer switch and three 13 W LED bulbs. We didn’t see any speed drops on any of the kits we tested then, but we did get a light show when we benchmarked a Zyxel PLA5405KIT with the lamp plugged into the same outlet and turned off at the dimmer switch.
How we picked
Much like any network connection, what we’re really looking for here is the most speed and reliability we can get for the best price. Unfortunately, just like Wi-Fi, the big numbers on the box can be misleading—not only will you never get 2 Gbps out of an AV2-2000 kit, one AV2-2000 kit can easily be slower than another AV2-1200 kit. So we directly tested each kit, using the same techniques employed in our Wi-Fi router, Wi-Fi mesh, and Wi-Fi extender guides.
When deciding which devices to test, these were our criteria:
- Throughput: This is the kind of speed that’s important when downloading a large file. We used AV2 throughput ratings as a guideline when picking which kits to test—those numbers aren’t always indicative of real-world performance, but newer and better kits do generally have higher AV2 numbers.
- Latency: This is the kind of speed that makes most of what you actually do on the internet—Web browsing, game playing, etc—seem fast or slow.
- Wi-Fi capabilities: Plugging in with an Ethernet cable is the highest performance way to connect to powerline, but most people really want another room or two of good Wi-Fi.
- Price: A pair of Ethernet-only powerline adapters shouldn’t be more than $100; a kit with a Wi-Fi radio on the far end shouldn’t be more than $150.
- Power passthrough: This wasn’t a dealbreaker, but we prefer powerline kits with 110 V passthrough outlets on the front. Powerline adapters should always be plugged directly into the wall—not into a power strip—and kits without power passthrough will block one or both of your wall outlets.
We only tested modern-generation powerline devices, and we recommend you don’t consider older non-AV2 devices. The modern AV2 standard brings much faster real-world speeds, better reliability, and mandatory push-button encryption.
The AV2 standard (and the G.hn standard the Extollo kit uses) requires modern, three-prong electrical wiring. If you only have two-prong outlets, powerline networking is probably not for you—but if you want to try it anyway, your best bet is the TP-Link AV600 Powerline Adapter Kit.
How we tested
To test coverage and performance, we connected each kit to a Netgear R7000P (our current Wi-Fi router pick) in a challenging home environment. The two-story, 3,500-square-foot house we used is built into a hillside, and while its top floor opens onto the front yard, its bottom floor opens onto the backyard. What makes this such a tough house to cover is the location of its network closet (where the Internet connection comes in), plus the foundation slab underneath half the top floor. For most of the bottom floor, a straight line to the router in the networking closet goes through the foundation slab—and in some cases, through several feet of packed earth underneath it—greatly degrading or outright killing any direct Wi-Fi signal.
Our router went in the network closet, a coat closet by the front door. The first piece of each kit was also plugged in inside the network closet, with its Ethernet port connected to one port of the router. We initially configured each kit by plugging the second adapter into the outlet just outside the closet, then pressing the “encrypt” buttons on each adapter to make them pair up securely. Afterward, the second adapter was unplugged and plugged in again at each of our test sites.
Adapter placement
We didn’t test our powerline adapters where they would get the absolute best performance, a few feet away in the next room. That’s because nobody would, or should, use them that way in the real world. We picked two spots that we know are very difficult to reach with a single router: the far corner of the upstairs master bedroom, and the far corner of the downstairs master bedroom.
The upstairs master bedroom has four interior walls between it and the router, which are an even bigger problem for Wi-Fi than the 40 feet or so of straight-line distance. The downstairs master bedroom is in even worse shape, with about 70 feet of distance and a thick concrete foundation slab getting in the way of Wi-Fi from the closet upstairs. These are exactly the sort of places powerline is best-suited to reach.
Test device placement
All of our powerline adapters offered wired gigabit Ethernet ports, and we tested those wired connections with an Intel gigabit network adapter on a Fujitsu Lifebook laptop. Placement of the actual laptop doesn’t really matter when you’re wired; we tested with a 7-foot Ethernet cable, but the results wouldn’t have looked any different on the other end of a 100-foot Ethernet cable.
A few of the kits also offered Wi-Fi connections on the remote adapter; we tested those using a Chromebook with a Linksys WUSB-6300 USB 3.0 adapter, about ten feet from where the powerline adapter was plugged in.
Test protocol
We tested our powerline adapters using Netburn, an open-source tool that tests networks with the same HTTP protocol your browser uses to read webpages. This allows us to test the network the same way we actually use it and minimize the likelihood that we’ll pick a device that’s better in testing than it is in the home.
We used an Intel NUC with an i7 CPU, a solid state drive, and 16 GB of RAM, running Apache as the back-end server for our tests. The NUC was plugged directly into the R7000P in the router closet, and the test laptops had to connect to it by way of the powerline adapters.
Each laptop was tested for download performance and for Web browsing performance. The download test simply downloads a 1 MB file repeatedly as fast as possible. The Web browsing test is considerably trickier; each webpage consists of 16 parallel 128 KB downloads, and the next webpage can’t be downloaded until the last one finishes. Problems with the reliability of the connection—or the speed of the adapters’ CPU—get uncovered more quickly on the browsing test than they do with a simple full-speed download.
Finally, for those kits offering Wi-Fi connections to their far adapter, we put them through the same whole-network test we use for routers, mesh kits, and Wi-Fi extenders. In this test, four Chromebooks are connected to the network; one simulates a completely unthrottled high-speed download, another (roughly) simulates a video call, a third simulates a 4K video stream, and the last one simulates normal use of a Web browser. For this test, the “Web browser” is the Chromebook connected by Wi-Fi to the remote powerline adapter—and we’re not only testing how well it works, we’re testing how well it works compared to the R7000P router without the powerline kit. This is a great way to get an idea of how much improvement you could really expect to see by adding powerline to your own network in its toughest-to-reach spots.
Our pick: TP-Link TL-WPA8630 V2
Our pick
TP-Link TL-WPA8630 v2
TP-Link’s TL-WPA8630 V2 has good powerline speed and a decent 802.11ac Wi-Fi extender built in, plus three Ethernet ports for wired connections.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $120.
The TP-Link WPA8630 V2 is the best powerline adapter kit for most people not because it’s the absolute fastest, but because it’s the most well-rounded. The remote adapter offers three gigabit Ethernet interfaces, which might be enough to save you from having to buy a network switch if you’re wiring up a bunch of game and video consoles in one place. It also offers good 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi on the far end, allowing you to significantly expand and improve your existing Wi-Fi network. TP-Link’s two-year warranty, good software, and support make it a better choice for most people than some faster devices we tested.
The TL-WPA8630 V2 is a set of two HomePlug AV2 1300 adapters. The router side connects to your router using its single Ethernet port. The other side has three Ethernet ports, and a dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi radio. Both are a little bulky and may partially block the outlet above them, unfortunately, and they don’t include passthrough power outlets to make up for it. Two well-constructed six-foot Ethernet cables are included with the kit.
Each adapter has Power, Powerline, and Ethernet connection LEDs, and a Pair button on the right side. The Powerline LED lights up green, red, or off, indicating a good connection, poor connection (in which case you should try a different outlet), or that no other powerline adapter can be detected at all. The remote adapter also has Wi-Fi indicator LEDs for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz; these may be on, off, or blinking—off indicates that you’ve disabled the Wi-Fi, blinking indicates that it’s in the process of cloning your existing Wi-Fi network’s settings.
As with most AV2 powerline kits, there’s no obvious way to tell whether the TL-WPA8630 V2 kit is using an encrypted connection. Its Power LED blinks rapidly when it’s in pairing mode—but after pairing, it’s still lit solidly in the same color whether the connection is encrypted or not. These devices should really feature a separate LED for encryption or a different color when encryption is active, since you could accidentally merge your network with a neighbor’s if encryption isn’t working. It happened to me!
The TL-WPA-8630 V2 kit scored solid, middle-of-the-pack results in our wired browsing throughput tests, offering about 35 Mbps both upstairs and downstairs. Despite having a wide range of AV speed ratings, from Netgear’s AV1000-rated PLW-1010 to Zyxel’s AV2000-rated PLA5456, there’s very little difference in real-world wired performance for most of these kits. Netgear’s PLW1010 is a little slower than most, and D-Link’s DHP-701AV is a little faster, but you don’t really see a big jump until you hit TP-Link’s TL-PA9020P (our wired-only pick) and Extollo’s Una, which practically leap off the chart.
When we ran the same tests over Wi-Fi (for the kits with Wi-Fi radios), we got smaller numbers—which should be no surprise; wired beats Wi-Fi every time. The overall ranking of each device stayed about the same. Best writing software for mac 2018. The downstairs test site is about twice as far away from the router as the upstairs test site, and most of the kits tested a little slower there. All kits were definitely usable in both sites, though, which is a refreshing change from Wi-Fi–only tests in the same locations, where routers and even some mesh kits struggle to reach.
But for the Wi-Fi enabled powerline kits, we have an even better set of tests. Just like we do for Wi-Fi routers and mesh kits, we simulated an entire home network—with one high-speed download, one 4K video stream, one voice-over-IP call, and one Web browsing session happening all at once. By using the R7000P router’s performance as a baseline, we can see how each powerline kit improves the performance of the entire Wi-Fi network.
Powerline extenders make a big difference. Even the worst results on the chart—Netgear’s PLW-1010 and TP-Link’s WPA-7510—load a web page much faster than the router alone. Our main pick and the Extollo gear improved page-load times by three quarters of a second or more.
The TP-Link’s management experience is also better than its competitors’. TP-Link offers both a management utility (Windows-only) and a Web interface on its kits that lets you configure the Wi-Fi, add and rename adapters, update firmware, modify QoS settings, and even turn off the LEDs. It can show the signal strength, let you check your encryption settings, and even show third-party adapters. This is one area that TP-Link shot past the significantly faster Extollo kit, which has a much more primitive interface.
TP-Link offers a two-year limited warranty covering parts and labor along with Web and phone support and a knowledge base on its website for help.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The adapters are a bit on the bulky side, even for powerline adapters; the top socket in a duplex outlet is exposed, but just barely. You can fit normal three-prong plugs in, but forget about the kind that have the cable sprouting out of the plug flat from the wall instead of straight out. And unlike some other models, our pick doesn’t include a passthrough power outlet, so you’ll almost certainly need to sacrifice a whole wall outlet for each of the two adapters.
I’m also unhappy about how difficult it is to tell whether your powerline connection is encrypted. There’s no way to tell just from looking at the LEDs; you have to get into the Web interface or run the Windows-only management utility to be sure that the physical pairing-and-encryption procedure worked. To be fair, everything we tested but the Extollo kit shared the same problem… but it’s a bad problem.
Also great: Extollo LanPlug 2000 + Una
Also great
Extollo LanPlug 2000
Extollo’s powerline adapter, when paired with the Una wireless extender, is faster than anything we tested, at a great price—but the company’s sparse documentation and not-yet-built firmware-update process kept it from being our main pick.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $48.
Extollo Una
The Una wireless extender paired with the LanPlug 2000 wired adapter is faster than anything we tested.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $80.
Extollo Communications’ WLANXtndr powerline kit—the LanPlug 2000 paired with the Una wireless extender—offered slightly better Wi-Fi performance and significantly better wired performance than all the other kits we tested; it beat the PA9020P kit for performance while offering 802.11ac Wi-Fi expansion for less money than the TL-WPA8630 V2. The downside is that Extollo’s site doesn’t (currently) offer online documentation or firmware updates, and the kit’s Web interface is also significantly more limited than our main pick’s. It also doesn’t include power passthrough outlets or as many Ethernet ports. The Extollo kit’s stock can be irregular, but you can buy the wired powerline and the wireless extender separately.
One other potential drawback is that the Extollo kit uses the G.hn standard instead of the more common HomePlug AV2 standard that our other picks use. You can’t mix-and-match AV2 and G.hn on the same network, so if you pick this kit, you need to stick with G.hn hardware if you decide to buy more adapters later.
The Extollo fell short in its management interface and software support. You can’t set different SSIDs (network names) for the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radios, you can’t disable the 2.4 GHz radio if you don’t want your devices to use it, and you can’t manually control which Wi-Fi channel each radio uses. Extollo’s engineers argue that this is a feature, not a bug—most consumers will see the best performance with the Una’s band-steering feature enabled, since it automatically communicates with devices using the radio that will perform the best. Changing things manually is more likely to reduce Wi-Fi performance than improve it if you don’t split up your devices correctly. We don’t necessarily disagree with them about that—but it will definitely annoy more advanced users who are accustomed to being able to set things up exactly the way they like it.
Although these kits have been available on Amazon for a while now and come with good documentation in the box, there’s also still no information about them on Extollo’s own website. We’re assured that an entire new site design is on the way that will include information on the new G.hn devices, but as of this writing, it’s impossible to look up any support information or manually download firmware updates if you need them.
With all that said, we love the performance and we love the price. If you don’t mind the missing features and you’re okay with being on the bleeding edge, the Extollo kit is a compelling choice.
Wired-only pick: TP-Link TL-PA9020P
Also great
TP-Link TL-PA9020P KIT
If you don't need a Wi-Fi extender on your powerline kit, you can get 60 percent more speed for less money with the TL-PA9020P.
Buying Options
If you don’t need a Wi-Fi adapter on your powerline kit because you’re connecting a bunch of devices with Ethernet ports, you should get the TP-Link TL-PA9020P kit. Its powerline throughput is almost 60 percent faster than that of the TP-Link TL-WPA8360 V2, and it costs about a third less.
One of the better uses for a wired-only kit like this one is feeding data to gaming and video consoles under your TV. Most of them offer wired Ethernet connections, and if you’ve only got the kit’s two powerline adapters in your house, they’ll present an uncongested internet connection that greatly decreases latency and improves online gaming experiences compared to Wi-Fi. You can also connect an inexpensive network switch to the PA9020P and have enough ports to hook up your entire entertainment center. Although those gadgets are all connected at once, usually only the one you’re actively using is doing anything—and the Ethernet side aggregates and manages the traffic across the powerline link back to your router anyway, making things much more predictable and responsive than the same number of devices connected by Wi-Fi (or by separate powerline adapters).
One downside is that the PA9020P is a little chubbier up top than our main pick—it covers the ground plug of the power outlet above it; you can probably connect a two-prong plug to the top outlet, but any three-prong plug won’t fit. Thankfully, there’s a passthrough adapter on the front, so you can plug a device (or power strip) directly into the PA9020P itself.
Budget pick: TP-Link PA7010P
Budget pick
TP-Link TL-PA7010P
The TL-PA7010PKIT doesn’t offer top speeds, but it gets the job done reliably.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $55.
With no Wi-Fi and no passthrough outlet, TP-Link’s PA7010P kit is light on features and its performance is toward the bottom of the pack. However, its performance is still in the pack—it’s nowhere near as fast as the Extollo or our wired-only pick, but you’d be unlikely to notice any real difference between it and the majority of the powerline adapters we tested, and it costs less than half the price of our main pick. (We tested and photographed the TP-Link PA7010 kit, which lacks a passthrough AC outlet but is otherwise identical to the PA7010. We've never seen a performance difference between passthrough and non-passthrough versions of the same powerline kit, and the utility of the AC outlet is worth the $5 price difference for most people.)
We found the physical design of the PA7010P kit a little harsher and uglier than most of the other kits—but if you don’t share our taste, or will be plugging it in to an outlet behind a desk or cabinet anyway, that shouldn’t matter.
The PA7010P kit shares the same management interface as the bigger TP-Link devices, and makes a good, no-frills choice for those who don’t need Wi-Fi and who want to spend as little as possible while still getting a solid, serviceable powerline kit.
The competition
We tested all devices listed—including our picks from 2018—using new protocols in 2018. Any devices that we previously tested that aren’t listed here should be considered very inferior to anything listed, even down here in the “competition” section—powerline networking has come a long way in the last several years.
TP-Link’s TL-WPA8630P kit is our previous main pick. It’s a slightly older version of the TL-WPA8630 V2 with a passthrough power outlet. In practice it’s around the same speed as (or very slightly faster than) the TL-WPA8630 V2, but it’s been discontinued; if you can still find the TL-WPA8630P for around the same price as the TL-WPA8630 V2, it’s a good buy, but we don’t expect it to be consistently available going forward.
TP-Link’s WPA-7510 is a decent kit, but didn’t quite fit any of our pick categories. It offers Wi-Fi for less cost than our pick, but with no passthrough outlet, only one Ethernet port per adapter, and noticeably less performance. We didn’t think the money saved was worth it.
D-Link’s DHP-701AV, the first AV2 2000 kit we tested (and one of the kits we retested in 2016), is only slightly faster than TP-Link’s AV1200 and AV1300 devices, and nowhere near as fast as TP-Link’s AV2000 kit or Extollo’s G.hn kit. It has no passthrough outlet, doesn’t offer Wi-Fi, and is usually priced far too high.
Zyxel’s PLA5456 kit is another AV2000 kit that just doesn’t hit the mark. It costs a little less than the DHP-701AV, and it does offer a passthrough power outlet, but there’s still no Wi-Fi and it’s even slower than the D-Link kit.
Netgear’s PLW1010-100NAS offers Wi-Fi capabilities at a decent price, but there’s no passthrough outlet, only one Ethernet port, and the performance is nowhere near what it should be.
Sources
Dong Ngo, labs manager and editor for CNET, Interview
Powerline Charts, SmallNetBuilder
Dong Ngo, A fast, easy, and cheap way to extend your network, CNET, March 6, 2014
Joan Engebretson, Akamai: Average U.S. Broadband Speed Climbs to 9.8 Mbps, TeleCompetitor, January 29, 2014
Tim Higgins, HomePlug AV2 Head-To-Head, SmallNetBuilder, July 22, 2013
Tim Higgins, How We Test Powerline Products, SmallNetBuilder, November 14, 2011
Tim Higgins, How To Troubleshoot Your Powerline Network, SmallNetBuilder, July 6, 2015