TRENDnet TPL-430APK WiFi Everywhere Powerline 1200 AV2 Wireless Kit Reviewed

[thiggins]

TRENDnet's TPL-430APK WiFi Everywhere Powerline 1200 AV2 Wireless Kit is an inexpensive way to light up a Wi-Fi dead spot with surprisingly good throughput.

Read on SmallNetBuilder

 

[andykn]

So I bought this and a pair of TPL-421E adapters and have just set them up to replace the excellent Billion 500 series adapters I’ve been using. My main aim in writing this is so you can avoid the pitfalls I fell into; the devices, while purporting to be from a US firm, have manuals that appear to be written originally in Chinese, I found them quite confusing, the TPL-421E manual made more sense.

When they say “seconds”, I found that “count” was better. So to set a new random sync key, hold down the sync button for a count of 15 until the lights go out, it takes about 7 seconds. If you keep it held down too long it doesn’t seem to work. Similarly, a count of 2, but less than two seconds is about the right time to hold down the sync button to start the sync sequence and the join on the next adapter.

One last gotcha, the wireless access point management page IP address is only 192.168.10.1 until you connect it to your router via Ethernet/Powerline. It then picks up a DHCP address from the router that you’ll need to find and use for management of the access point. You can’t fix this in the access point, if you want to keep it unchanged you’ll need to reserve it in the DHCP management of the router or whatever you use for DHCP.

My initial first impressions are that the Powerline speeds aren’t noticeably more than the old Billion 500M units they replaced. This is on U.K. mains, all 3 wire, and about 10 years old.

 

[andykn]

6 months on they’re rock solid, not had to touch them since install but wireless range is not enough to go through an external brick wall so I bought another TPL-430AP. If like me your WPS doesn’t work that reliably it’s easiest to connect wirelessly to the new AP first using the code on the plastic wrapper they come in, change the SSIDs etc to suit then sync it up to the other powerline units.

 

[andykn]

One of the TPL-421E powerline ethernet adapters failed and TrendNet in the UK not only replaced it under warranty but posted me a twin pack of TPL-421E. Other than that they've locked up and had to be restarted no more than twice since I've had them.