Netgear his a home run with this product. I opened the box and it had three sheets of instructions, one of which was in English. It was a pictograph on installation and a chart to read the colors on the LEDs. I followed the pictograph and BINGO, I plugged in my laptop and got onto the Internet. It took me longer to get the product out of the box and unwrapped than it took to install the product. I am impressed! Plug and Play should really mean plug and play not plug and pray. Too much gear is touted as plug and play and really is far beyond the average user’s ability to install correctly. That is not disparaging the average user that is criticism of the vendor for labeling a technical product as a consumer product. If the end user knows he is going to have to have a technician do a house call to install a product, said end user may have second thoughts about purchasing. If the vendor touts the product as “any idiot can install”, then you feel worse than an idiot when you can’t get it to work. Kudos to Netgear, this worked out of the box and connected through my house electric wiring to the Internet. The $69.99 price might be a put off but when it works out of the box, it is a bargain and much, much easier than pulling wires through walls.
A note though, once you get it installed you can do more advanced set up, including setting up security. I did find another “page not found” link which I complained about in the last Netgear review. The products are fine but Netgear needs to get it’s act together on the links on their web site.
From Netgear:
The NETGEAR Powerline 500 Adapter extends your Internet access to any electrical outlet for the most demanding applications. It offers easy, plug-and-play setup and faster speeds for the most demanding applications, all in a convenient small design. Perfect for connecting HDTVs, HD setup boxes, HD/3-D videos, Blu-ray players, DVRs, PCs and Best-in-class performance and reliability
Features
Extend your network – Extend Internet access throughout your home to any electrical outlet for desktop PCs, gaming consoles and set-top boxesHDTV & 3-D HD – Speeds up to 500 Mbps enable applications such as HDTV, multiple HD/3-D video streams, streaming mulitmedia, and multiplayer gaming
Compact design – Convenient nano-design blends in nicely with any surrounding
Plug-and-play – Sets up in minutes, no need to configure or install software
Push-and-Secure button – Secures the network connection with the touch of a button, no need to remember passwords
Pick-a-Plug LED – Automatically tests the connection at any electrical outlet to ensure the highest possible performance
Energy-saving features – Automatically powers down when not connected or not in use, disable LEDs, less than 0.5 Watt in stand-by, packaging manufactured with at least 80% recyclable material
Expand your existing Powerline network – Backwards compatible with Homeplug AV including NETGEAR Powerline AV products
If reviewing a product, it may have been received free of charge. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.
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