Product Details
- Color: white
- Brand: Actiontec
- Model: HLE20043-01KP
- Original language:
English - Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 3.90" h x
1.40" w x
2.90" l,
2.25 pounds
Features
- Perfect for high-bandwidth applications like HD Video and audio streaming
- Compatible with any high-speed service provider or equipment
- More secure than wireless! 128-bit AES pushbutton security
- Very easy to install. Simply plug in.
- Uses HomePlug AV standard
Actiontec MegaPlug 200 Mbps AV Powerline Ethernet Adapter and 4-Port Hub Kit
Product Description
Powerline ENET 200MBPS HUB and Adapter Mega plug
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
58 of 60 people found the following review helpful.
Very Easy to set up if you had all the instructions.
By Chris Zee Shutterbug
ActionTec plug AvVery Easy to set up if you had all the instructions.A quick review and as typical for me an update will follow. I had everything set up and truly believed the Quick Start Guide when it said no configuration required. Unfortunately.... I first disabled my wireless card in the Windows Control Panel just so I would not have any conflicts. Then I plugged in the two devices as described above. The LEDs on both boxes were green and red, sometimes green and yellow. The Guide said "Make sure both lights turn solid green". The guide warns you not to plug the devices into any outlet that is surge protected or filtered, which I did not. Oh well I said, I started moving both boxes into different outlets and could not get both "link" lights to turn green unless they were plugged into the same outlet. Rats I said. There is no explanation in the guide at all as to what to do when the lights are not both green. NO troubleshooting guide at all. I tried to hook up to the Web, but nothing happened.Here I will save you the trouble of the hour long process that followed, and just tell how you can save yourself the trouble I had1. It does not really matter what color the "link" light is. It is only the quality of connection indicator. Please go to the [...] website and download the user manual for the HPE400AVP. There is no manual and no CD with the box you buy and in my case it was the critical missing step. Here is the lights portion of the manualRed means the condition is poor and less than 50Mpbs,Orange indicates a fair line condition of 50-100Mbps,Green means the line is in good condition with over 100Mbps throughput.Of course since I was using wireless previously in a remote location with a 18 Mpbs transfer speed, even a Red light meant a vastly improved connection. The connection speed varies for me between yellow and red, and always is better than the wireless. My wireless was a Linksys WRT54G with the power setting at 75mw, the distance involved was about 50ft with 3 walls in between.2. There are small black buttons on both boxes, but NO explanation in the User Guide as to what they do. You have to download the manual for that. They are the security enable keys, and you have to go thru a sequence of four timed presses to set it up. In my trials of various outlets in the house, I must have pressed one or both, but in a wrong sequence and must have messed up the communications, hence even with the connection established, I could not connect to the web. At the time I still thought that it was because I had red lights and they needed to be green. I had to reset both boxes using a pin.3. At this point following the reset, even though the link light on both boxes was red, the Internet magically appeared. So the setup is truly plug and play, unless like me you believe the dreaded step #13 in the quick setup guide "Make sure both lights are green " or you accidentally press the security buttons.Finally when set up, and even with my troubles it only took an hour. The connection speed to the web as judged by [...] was 50% faster than my best wireless connection and 3 times better than my worst connection. Great product, and only a one star downgrade for no packaged in manual or CD.Lastly you may also try the following steps to improve your speed at lower costs.1. Get an antenna with gain for the router and your wireless card (10-30$, 50% improvement)2. Change the wireless channel in the router utility (G networks conflict with 2.4 ghz cordless phones)3. Move the antenna even slightly for possible improvement, Use a utility like network stumbler to fine tune the position4. If available for your wireless router, get an open source custom firmware for it which will allow you to fine tune the antenna transmit power (I use Tomato).UPDATE5. Get an inexpensive N standard router with multiple antennas (used to be called MIMO multiple in multiple out). I have picked up one recently and now all my remaining computers have a better signal as well. While you will not get speds higher than G standard of 54mb, you will get closer to nominal. You would ned a N adapter in the pc as well to get all the benefits.Happy Powerline and Wireless networking.
31 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
Shock, awe...This kit actually works! Costly, though...
By David Pearlman
Years ago, I purchased one of the first through-power-line Ethernet kits on the market. At the time, the claimed throughput was low (say, 10mbps), and the actual throughput was ridiculously slow. Not to mention the fact that the connection seemed to hang inexplicably with great frequency. In a word: Not ready for primetime, not ready for anything, really...Fast forward nearly a decade. By now, wireless Ethernet routers are cheap and easy to use and just about everyone has one.Into this environment, Actiontec has dumped their new MegaPlug "200 Mbps" powerline network kit.Your first question, and it's a good one, is: "What's the point?" And for many people the answer will be "none, really, in your situation."BUT there are two sets of people for whom something like this--if it works--is a godsend.First off, there are those who simply cannot set up something like a wireless router. It's not hard, but there are still a lot of complete tech phobes out there. Think: your Grandparents, or maybe even your parents. Sure, you could go over and set things up for them. But then what happens the first time the router goes down and needs to be rebooted or whatever? Panic calls at midnight are not most people's idea of bonus time.The second set of people who could use something like this, if it works, are those with wireless dead spots in their homes. There are a lot of people like this, actually. No matter where you set up the wireless transmitter, some places just get no signal, or a very lousy one. Now, you can--if you are technically inclined--set up a wireless repeater to address issue. But it's a bit tricky for most people who don't relish spending their Friday night shopping the halls of Frys, Microcenter or BestBuy. This kit offers a simple alternative to a wireless repeater.OK, enough on who might want this. On to the more significant question: Does it actually work, and how easy is it, really, to set up.I'll answer the second question first. It is ridiculously, stupidly, unbelievably easy to set this up. Plug one unit in one wall outlet. Run ethernet cable from unit to your router. Plug second unit into another wall outlet anywhere else in your house. Run either cable from unit to the device you want to talk to router. And you are done. Even if you have trouble figuring out how to open the door of a refrigerator, it can't take you more than 5 minutes to set up.And how does it work? SHOCKINGLY well. In a three story home with about 20 separate circuits (lines on their own circuit breakers), I was unable to find two outlets that could not communicate with each other at a reasonable speed, and without any disruptions. You aren't going to see 200Mbps in the real world, but I saw between 24Mbps and 34Mbps, depending on where I placed the two outlet plugs. Before you sneer, this compares to a normal transfer rate of about 18Mbps for a GOOD wireless G connection. In other words, the Actiontec kit gave transfer rates that were between 33% and 90% FASTER than wireless G!I can recommend this unconditionally to those who need an alternative to standard wireless with one caveat (and it's a big one): This kit is quite pricey. It runs over a hundred bucks at the time of this writing, as compared to a good quality wireless G router, which can be purchased for as little as $30. In addition, this kit is good for connecting only one location to another single location, whereas wireless is...everywhere.But if you can get past the price, this kit is terrific.
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful.
Not bad, but not what it could be
By MAB
Well folks, any of the Actiontec products based on the HomePlug AV standard work great out of the box (either the kit with two one-port adapters, or the kit with a one-port adapter and a four-port switch). As you can see in other reviews, the average user who just buys one kit and plugs them in to an outlet will find they work as advertised. But there are some things to keep in mind:(1) While the HomePlug AV standard is listed as 200 Mbit/sec, this is nowhere near what you'll actually see. With two systems on the same ethernet hub, normal transfer rates are around 11 - 12 Mbit/sec. Two HomePlug adapters in the same room, on the same electrical circuit, may see around 7 Mbit/sec. When you plug them in further apart, the actual transfer rate averages around 5 - 6 Mbit/sec. Please note this is still faster (and arguably more secure ) than a 802.11g wireless connection, and a big improvement over the previous HomePlug 1.0 "turbo" standard (which averaged out at around 1.5 Mbit/sec).(2) Unlike NetGear, Actiontec does not provide any software utilities for monitoring and configuring the adapters; instead, you end up using a cryptic set of button pushes on the actual adapters. This is really only an issue if you have more than two of these adapters on your network, but then it becomes kind of a pain.(3) Which leads to the biggest issue with the Actiontec products specifically: Unlike similar HomePlug-compatible devices made by other manufacturers, these are apparently sold paired to each other, even prior to establishing an encrypted network. That means that the two in the box will talk to each other, but if you buy a second kit, the pair in the second kit won't automatically connect to the pair in the original kit. This can be fixed, but the technique for doing so is NOT listed in the instruction manuals, nor is it even listed on the manufacturer's web site for these products. The default process for setting up an encrypted network won't fix this, and I was on the verge of returning both sets before I discovered a one-sheet "readme" in one of the kits which covered the procedure for adding new adapters to an existing setup. This vital set of instructions was only included in one of the kits (and I'm not sure which it was: the kit with the two one-port adapters, or the kit with the four-port switch) so I'm guessing there are people out there who bought two of one kit type, only to be mystified why only two of their adapters don't work.Overall, I would recommend you find a manufacturer other than Actiontec to buy your HomePlug AV-compatible adapters from if you need to set up more than two of them. Many other companies include an optional configuration utility which makes the process so much easier.
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