ZyXEL 1200 Mbps Powerline AV1200 Gigabit Adapter, Starter Kit - 2 Units (PLA5405KIT)

If you want speed and reliability, stop looking elsewhere and buy this.

I have a detached garage office that was getting spotty wi-fi from our house and decided to try these. I wasn't expecting much since I had tried a similar type product for a telephone line a few years ago with no results. What a surprise! These work great and far outpace my internet connection even though I'm not getting the top speed from them due to the extreme wiring they have to go through. To give you an idea of the wiring situation...my house is 30' by 30'. The internet modem and wall socket that the first module is plugged into is on the southeast corner of a 2nd story bedroom. The house wiring then goes to the breaker box in the opposite northwest corner of the basement. The separate 240 volt garage wiring then goes 30 feet across the basement to the other side of the house, then 30 feet underground to the detached garage's separate breaker box, then another 30 feet to the outlet on the back end of the garage. The speed light is glowing orange, meaning even through all of that I'm getting speeds of 20-80 Mbps out there. Considering our DSL speed is a paltry 3 Mbps (rural Maine...worst internet speeds in the country!!), this gives me more than enough download speed and even enough for transferring large files between computers. Best of all, it's been a rock solid connection, unlike the wi-fi! It worked so well I bought another set to hook up to our TV downstairs instead of using wi-fi and it's getting even faster speeds (again, limited by our so-called broadband)! Even though they're plugged into the wall outlets all the time, when the computer or TV connected to them is off, they go into a "sleep" mode until the computer/TV is turned back on. Then they automatically "wake up" so they're not running all the time. After having them about a month, I've had no issues with them dropping the signal that some reviewers have mentioned. If these work in my fairly extreme situation, I would think they'd work for anyone looking to replace a spotty home wi-fi signal with something more reliable. Delivery through Prime was right on schedule. Highly recommended!

Works great, very easy installation. I use it for streaming tv, gives a more stable connexion.

This review is for the ZyXEL 1200 Mbps Powerline Adapter, Starter Kit - 2 Units - model number PLA5405. I bought a used set from Amazon Warehouse Deals because at the time, it was cheaper. Followed the instructions to the "T", which are nothing more than pictures with few words. Got both units plugged in and synched and was getting 33 Mbps on my 45 Mbps AT&T U-verse service. Not bad at all for "internet over your existing electrical wiring", mine which is 60 years old. The problem came when I pressed the Reset/Encrypt button for 2 seconds on the first unit and then did the same on the second unit. They stopped working. Could never get them to sync again. The picture instructions say to hold the Reset/Encrypt button for 2 seconds on one unit and within 2 minutes, do the same on the other unit. I did this, again, to the "T". From that point, all I had was solid power lights on both units. They'd never sync again. Immediately got on Amazon - same day - to begin the return process and see that a brand new set - NOT USED - was cheaper than the used set I bought. So I went through the process to return the first set I got and then I ordered a new set. Well, once this second set arrived, I encountered the same problem. I again followed the instructions to a "T". Once I tried to encrypt the units, they stopped synching and working. So AGAIN, I returned them and AGAIN I ordered a new set. Got the new set in today. Have them set up and they are working great. However I did NOT try and encrypt them by holding down the Reset/Encrypt button for 2 seconds on each unit within 2 minutes as instructed by the instructions. Instead, I called ZyXEL's tech support. The guy was clueless. Basically told me to do what the instructions said. Yeah well, all that got me before was in the position of having to return them, TWICE! So for now, I'm leaving them as is until someone who figures it out can tell me how to actually encrypt them. Anyone?

The units arrived in good condition, but are a nightmare to install, despite the expected simplicity. First, the enclosed manuals are useless, following the instructions does not work. The printed materials refer you to the "enclosed CD", which was not enclosed. After searching for the manufacturer's web site to find a manual, I discovered that the web site, while it exists, is broken. Clicking on the product number on web site loops you back to the page with the list of product numbers on it. After some additional searching, a search engine link led me to a different product selection page on the manufacturer's web site. After browsing through a long list of product numbers in a drop-down menu, I was able to find this model. After selecting the model and hitting the search button, (and waiting for a few minutes) the web site returned a product page with links to manuals. The manuals are PDFs, which are formatted in such a way that they do not render in my PDF reader (PDF Complete). I was finally able to view the manual by loading it into Chrome. After reading the manual, I discovered the the time duration for holding down the RESET/ENCRYPT button to enable encryption was incorrectly stated in the printed instructions. It also turns out that you need to download and install a configuration utility to fully configure the product. I also learned that you can clear failed configurations by holding the button down for between 10 and 15 seconds. This was not stated in the documentation that shipped with the product.It turns out that the front panel LEDs turn themselves off after a period of time unless you have a live Ethernet connection to the RJ-45 jack. This misfeature wasted about a half hour to figure out, and if the instruction had mentioned this, I would have that half-hour back.There doe not seems to be any visual indication that encryption is enabled - unless I have not discovered this in the manual yet, or unless it has not worked yet.I am now two hours into trying to make these units talk to each other, and I may finally have enough information to get started. It looks like they may actually work, but I'm so frustrated at this point that I'm going to put this project away and try again another day. These might be good products once in use, but the user experience would make a nice case study for a course in human factors design - providing extensive examples of easily avoidable design and execution mistakes in the product, leading to extremely frustrated and unhappy customers.