NETGEAR XAVB5001 Powerline AV 500 Adapter Kit Reviewed
- Thread starter ynohtna
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U
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I already have 4 Linksys PLK300 200 Mbps. Do you think I can add 2 xavb5001 to the network ? thanks.
You can and they will work. But if both kinds of adapters are active at the same time, speed will be reduced for both. See
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanw...ug-five-ways-to-boost-powerline-network-speed
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanw...ug-five-ways-to-boost-powerline-network-speed
U
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MoCa
I was just seconds away from ordering a Netgear MoCa networking kit, as a replacement for my current Devolo av200 setup currently peaking at 3MB/sec.
For av200 kits there was always comparable performance between suppliers, and this review -the perfomance figures between netgear and trendnet - was quite a shocker.
Before this review I already made up my mind to switch to MoCa, but now I need to take a second look at this.
MoCa probably is more predictable and less influenced by noise, but the AV500 seems to outperform in the authors setup. Difficult one.
Price of Netgear AV500 and Netgear MoCa set here is comparable and around € 120,00 so relatively cheap
I was just seconds away from ordering a Netgear MoCa networking kit, as a replacement for my current Devolo av200 setup currently peaking at 3MB/sec.
For av200 kits there was always comparable performance between suppliers, and this review -the perfomance figures between netgear and trendnet - was quite a shocker.
Before this review I already made up my mind to switch to MoCa, but now I need to take a second look at this.
MoCa probably is more predictable and less influenced by noise, but the AV500 seems to outperform in the authors setup. Difficult one.
Price of Netgear AV500 and Netgear MoCa set here is comparable and around € 120,00 so relatively cheap
U
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Thanks. I am not sure if the Homeplug 200 and Homeplug 500 are actually "two different adapter types" like the article says. My idea is to keep my Homeplug 200 network and have 2 Homeplug 500 working in parallel but plugged on the same gigabit switch. What do you think ? If it doen't work, I can sell my 200 stuff on Ebay and have a full 500 Mbps network.
If you don't believe the article, why would believe anything else I have to say?
U
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I believe the article, just don't know if 200 and 500 Mbps have the same difference between 200 and the old 85/14 mbps. Sorry if I made this look like something rude, it wasn't my intention.
U
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latency
Hi Tim,
Using PLK300s I consistently get 63Mbit/7.8MByte in a 20 year old apartment 75ft apart. What's interesting to me is the latency/ping which i don't think you cover in your reviews.
Mine is 4ms on average. Can you tell me if the latency would decrease with the new Netgear kit?
I think this is a very important metric because it shows how much more reliable powerline networks are compared to wireless. I connect to an SQL server via powerline and even 4ms seems to be the bottleneck when many smaller queries are executed. This isn't a concern for most people, but it think the effect on Skype and video streaming is similar.
Thank you for your reviews!
Hi Tim,
Using PLK300s I consistently get 63Mbit/7.8MByte in a 20 year old apartment 75ft apart. What's interesting to me is the latency/ping which i don't think you cover in your reviews.
Mine is 4ms on average. Can you tell me if the latency would decrease with the new Netgear kit?
I think this is a very important metric because it shows how much more reliable powerline networks are compared to wireless. I connect to an SQL server via powerline and even 4ms seems to be the bottleneck when many smaller queries are executed. This isn't a concern for most people, but it think the effect on Skype and video streaming is similar.
Thank you for your reviews!
hungarianhc
Regular Contributor
Thanks so much for the great review! I've been waiting to upgrade my HomePlug AV stuff to the new set of gear, and the Netgear review is a bit more to my liking than the TrendNet. Question, though... have you seen the Netgear XAV5501? This appears to be the exact same product as the one you reviewed, but with a filtered power port for plugging other devices in. Is that what you believe? Is the same chipset also in the XAV5004? I'd likely be buying two of the XAV5004s and one of the items you reviewed. Thanks!
I would not expect significantly better than that.
U
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Hardware comparison with TrendNet...
Thanks for yet another excellent review.
You mentioned that the NetGear is close to the reference hardware design. How far off is the TrendNet from reference? The photographs seem to suggest quiet a different board layout!
Thanks for yet another excellent review.
You mentioned that the NetGear is close to the reference hardware design. How far off is the TrendNet from reference? The photographs seem to suggest quiet a different board layout!
Throughput
I bought a pair of XAV5501 (should be the same as XAV5001?) and have some issues:
According to the powerline utility (2.0.0.8) I have roughly 250mbps both ways, but testing a file transfer from my NAS to my win 7 I only get 1.3 MB/s, according to windows.
The same test using wireless N (300Mbit/s) gives 11MB/s and with gigabit ethernet 30-40MB/s
What could be the issue?
A general observation: The powerline utility doesn´t appear to have a firmware upgrade function, nor a firmware upgrader (for xav5501) on the website, but I´ll ask netgear about that
I bought a pair of XAV5501 (should be the same as XAV5001?) and have some issues:
According to the powerline utility (2.0.0.8) I have roughly 250mbps both ways, but testing a file transfer from my NAS to my win 7 I only get 1.3 MB/s, according to windows.
The same test using wireless N (300Mbit/s) gives 11MB/s and with gigabit ethernet 30-40MB/s
What could be the issue?
A general observation: The powerline utility doesn´t appear to have a firmware upgrade function, nor a firmware upgrader (for xav5501) on the website, but I´ll ask netgear about that
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Use with Slingbox
Hello Tim.
Forgive me if this is a stupid question. I use my 200mbps powerline adapters solely to hookup my slingbox to my network. I have the Slingbox HD box. Will upgrading to the 500mbps powerline adapters improve the performance of the Slingbox when I try to access the slingbox remotely (i.e., away from home)?
Thanks.
Jacob
Hello Tim.
Forgive me if this is a stupid question. I use my 200mbps powerline adapters solely to hookup my slingbox to my network. I have the Slingbox HD box. Will upgrading to the 500mbps powerline adapters improve the performance of the Slingbox when I try to access the slingbox remotely (i.e., away from home)?
Thanks.
Jacob
U
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Is anyone able to comment on the relative Homeplug performance of the XAV5004 (combined 500-AV 4-port router, on a trailing mains lead)? Should it perform identically to a XAV5001?
Three of the XAV5004's around my home would be a much neater option than three of the XAV5001's each with a seperate 4 or 5-port switch, but nobody seems to reviewing the XAV5004...
Also, will the network performance of these Atheros 7400 units degrade with the addition of extra units?
Three of the XAV5004's around my home would be a much neater option than three of the XAV5001's each with a seperate 4 or 5-port switch, but nobody seems to reviewing the XAV5004...
Also, will the network performance of these Atheros 7400 units degrade with the addition of extra units?
They should perform comparably. The switch won't degrade performance.
All HomePlug adapters share the same bandwidth. Adding adapters won't affect performance if they are idle. You'll actually get more total throughput using up to four pair of devices simultaneously. After that, bandwidth per pair will fall off.
U
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Thanks Tim, although I was thinking the flying lead may have been ever so slightly detrimental in terms of performance compared with those that plug directly in to the mains socket.
Good to know that performance should be maintained for up to four units, fair enough that they all share the available bandwidth which should still be sufficient even when my planned three units are all active (one will be hosting a broadband connection and NAS, the other two units will be connected to HD media/streaming devices).
MilhouseVH
New Around Here
I've got two XAV5004 units connected in two different rooms, and I'm just wondering if anyone can explain the following results when testing with iperf:
These XAV5004 units, when they work, do seem to work very well (about 100Mbits/sec TCP throughput) but they are also very prone to regular and frequent drop outs which reduces the performance to zero, seemingly a complete loss of signal for several seconds at a time.
I don't get this problem with Solwise 200-AV units which turn in a solid result of about 60Mbit/sec on the same sockets, with no drop outs (and I'm not mixing 200-AV with 500-AV).
Both the 500-AV units are running the latest firmware, 0.2.0.9CE.
I'm testing with iperf between two FreeNAS 0.7.2 servers each with Intel PRO/1000 GigE NICs.
These XAV5004 units, when they work, do seem to work very well (about 100Mbits/sec TCP throughput) but they are also very prone to regular and frequent drop outs which reduces the performance to zero, seemingly a complete loss of signal for several seconds at a time.
I don't get this problem with Solwise 200-AV units which turn in a solid result of about 60Mbit/sec on the same sockets, with no drop outs (and I'm not mixing 200-AV with 500-AV).
Both the 500-AV units are running the latest firmware, 0.2.0.9CE.
I'm testing with iperf between two FreeNAS 0.7.2 servers each with Intel PRO/1000 GigE NICs.
U
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latency issues
to follow up on my original question.
i got the neatgear adapters, they run twice as fast at 15MB/s, latency 2ms
however!
latency is very inconsistent, sometime i'll get 100 pings in a row at ~2ms then out of nowhere 100 will return at anything at from 10ms to 100ms (same conditions as Linksys)
tim, please, consider reviewing this aspect of peformance. going from 4ms to 100ms on a newer adapter is not exactly an upgrade. if only there were reviewa to let us know of such things in advance.
to follow up on my original question.
i got the neatgear adapters, they run twice as fast at 15MB/s, latency 2ms
however!
latency is very inconsistent, sometime i'll get 100 pings in a row at ~2ms then out of nowhere 100 will return at anything at from 10ms to 100ms (same conditions as Linksys)
tim, please, consider reviewing this aspect of peformance. going from 4ms to 100ms on a newer adapter is not exactly an upgrade. if only there were reviewa to let us know of such things in advance.
