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| | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review: ( 12 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 May require firmware upgrade Dec 08, 2007
By Robert S. Parnell
It's true that HomePlug AV nodes cannot intercommunicate with HomePlug 1.0 nodes. ZyXEL and most, if not all, other HomePlug AV hardware manufacturers are derelict in not pointing out that fact. As an engineer who works with HomePlug almost full-time, I know that AV kicks 1.0's tail in terms of bitrate versus SNR. That doesn't excuse ZyXEL's dereliction, but it gives you cause to ponder retiring your HomePlug 1.0 hardware and replacing it with HomePlug AV hardware. Even if you think you won't benefit sufficiently from HomePlug AV's nominal 14x bitrate improvement, you might need AV's ability to reach more electrical outlets in your building with a bitrate that is usable for your application.
There's another compatibility matter to be aware of. When I examined a new PLA-470 the other day, I was disappointed, but not surprised, to find that the version of firmware installed in the HomePlug AV chipset is an old, pre-standard version, 1.4.5, that is not truly HomePlug-AV compliant and, more importantly, that cannot intercommunicate with subsequent firmware versions. I have not checked to see whether ZyXEL provides the means to upgrade the firmware of the HomePlug-AV chipset. The newest version is 3.0.5. For more detail on the topic of HomePlug-AV-chipset firmware, see my review of the Linksys PLE200.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
 Works like it should Feb 07, 2008
By A. Chu
I share a house with a roommate and live on the second floor. My room is big enough for my 46" HDTV but the problem is when I try to connect my Xbox to the Internet, I can't get a clear signal from the Linksys router downstairs that connects to the cable modem. And my roommate who owns the modem and the router likes to change the wireless set up like every two weeks. So I don't have a stable Internet connection.
So I bought a Zyxel Pla400 and a Pla470 powerline adapter and switch. I plugged the Pla400 adapter to the cable modem and used the pla470 switch in my room on the second floor to connect my xbox, desktop and external storage. That's it - I did not have to do any additional setup. The whole process took 5 minutes. Now my xbox and desktop are connected to the cable modem over electrical lines. The connection is very fast and stable.
So now it doesn't matter how many times my roommate changes the settings on her wireless router, I just play my Xbox any time I want in my room with the big TV.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Works better than I could have imagined Aug 12, 2009
By Scott French
"The Rum Trader"
I bought a PLA401Kit, a PLA470 4-port, and a DMA1100 for my home setup. Hooking up the PLA401 near my broadband router was a cinch. To test the system, I ran into the other room and plugged in the 2nd PLA401...five seconds later my ethernet connection was recognized...WOW!
I bought the PLA470 for my media room downstairs. The media room is the farthest spot away from my wireless router and neither my netbook nor my ROKU box (streaming Netflix) could pick up any signal in the room. I hoped the ZyXel system could get me online. This system works so well it literally brought a grin to my face. I chose the PLA470 because of it's 4-port connection. I plan to wire lines for my families notebook connections (yes we're online while watching movies). This setup allows all of us to be online at once downstairs.
I also installed the DMA1100 media server into the media room. This took a little longer to connect because I had to configure Windows Media Server but after about one hour I was listening to my MP3 collection, watching my digital moview and running a digital photo slide-show on my 111" projection screen all from my home office computer upstairs. I am also streaming HiDef movies over my broadband through the powerlines in my house; the whole thing is cooler than I ever could have imagined.
I cannot recommend this system enough. It's so easy to set-up and use and it runs faster than I could have imagined.
4 of 5 found the following review helpful:
 Works for 6 months then you have to RMA it (happened twice!) Jun 19, 2010
By Hellmut Adolphs
"Hellmut"
UPDATE2: OK, I am happy this review has helped some folks out there, its been more than 6 months since I got the V2 from the RMA dept. Since then, no issues, I will keep updating this review, however, since this is for the regular version of the product it doesn't make sense for me to review the V2 here... again no problems so far. I want to upgrade the stars to 2 because I am extremely satisfied with Zyxel's customer service, and at the end of the day, although the product died rather quickly I got the replacements and the service as expected. In other words... I don't "hate" the product... so, 2 stars now :) I am also adding some more detailed attributes rating.
UPDATE: After I RMA'd the product for the second time, this time they sent me a brand new PLA-470 V2 back, I have to say although I am not happy I had to return twice the PLA-470, Zyxel's service is outstanding. Even now they sent me a V2 at no cost, they do acknowledge their issues and stand by their service. Really great, KUDOS for Zyxel service. I am going now to connect my new V2 :) So although I do not recommend the PLA-470 due to the technical problems it came with, I recommend zyxel no questions asked. As far as my experience with the V2, I am just going to start using it :) so we'll see, I'll update this review accordingly.
I bought the PLA-470 through amazon 1 year and 8 months ago. The product comes with a 2 year warranty at this time I still have 4 months worth of warranty. Last year, after about 6 to 8 months of fine operation (I will get to that below) the PLA just stopped working, it would create the link with the home network, but once I connected an ethernet cable to it, the product would start disconnecting every 10 seconds... making the connection completely unusable.
Let me start by saying, this is NOT a cheap product, Zyxel has a reputation for good quality, so I am not sure what went wrong with this but at the time I am writing this review, the product broke again exactly the same way, and let me be clear, the first time this happened, they sent me a new one, completely NEW, yet I have the same problem again? with a different unit? what does that tell you? clearly this line of products have a defect. Interestingly enough, I noticed they now sell a PLA-470 V2, and they don't sell the PLA-470 any more, yet amazon doesn't display the V2 and doesn't clarify if what you buy -today- is the new one or the old one...
Some disclosure: I am systems engineer so you can rest at ease that I have enough networking knowledge to know what I am doing (If I can setup the infrastructure to serve 20 million people I think I can do OK with my home power line connection to my basement...#
So today is Saturday, Zyxel is closed on saturdays, I guess I'll have to wait until monday and see if I can get a new unit that will last again 6 months.
For what its worth: During the 6 months of operation it works fine, is not as fast as advertised and as other reviewers have said it always depends on the condition of your power wires in your house #how old, etc# and the distance. Also it will probably work better if your origin device is part of the same line this one is connected to. I suspects these things cannot handle being -on- 24/7 which is my case #and my need# and probably thats why they are breaking every 6 months. The life period of the products is really short and its extremely delicate, not your average user home quality product. Some numbers, when it was working, I could get between 60 to 90 mpbs. Never really reached the 200MBPS. but it was still more consistent than my N wi-fi downstairs, so video would not lag and would not jump between my media server #upstairs# and my home theater devices downstairs #mac mini, xbox360 and PS3).
I wish this wouldn't break so fast, otherwise I would've given it the 4 stars because when it works, it works not as fast as they claim it does. Too bad you never know when its going to die on you! specially on a weekend..
I don't recommend buying this product unless you are buying it conciusly that you are getting into an RMA game every 6 months... and what happens when your warranty goes? you are left with a piece of junk.
Cheers and good luck
 Great for 8 months than failure on 4 of 8 purchased Mar 26, 2011
By Guitar Player
As other reviewers have said these work as advertised - for a little while. My biggest issue is the quality. These (as well as the various other half dozen Zyxel HomePlug adapters models I have) Homeplug adapters run too hot and to make matters worse the case only provides a minimum of circulation. All they Zyxel products seem to run too hot. The engineers don't seem to know heat rises and put the tiny vents are on the sides meaning heat builds up in the case so unless you mount this vertically it makes a nice heater.
My first unit died after 8 months, then the replacement died after 2 months so I am on my 3rd unit in less than a year. I have had similar issues with the other Zyxel Homeplug products. They are just not reliable.
On paper and price wise they are great but if I had to do it over again I would have bought a more reliable brand. Their software and documentatoin is also bad news.
I would recommend avoiding all Zyxel products until they get their act together. It would be interesting to have the people who reviewed Zyxel poducts do another review after owning them for a year to see home many are still working.
The only good thing about these is that they have a 2 year warranty so I calcualte I can get my hardware swapped out 2 more times before my warranty expires !
See all 12 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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