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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 34 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 found the following review helpful:
 Whole House Networking Without All The Cables Feb 17, 2007
By Jason Krohn
I've been looking for a way to avoid running network cabling around my entire home. I tried the wireless route, and did not find the technology quite there yet for VoIP, Online Gaming and HD Streaming. When I stumbled upon the new PowerLine HD products. While this technology has been around for a while, this was the first time it looked mature enough to be "acceptable" in my network. After a little research I settled on the NetGear HDX101's.
This product has performed marvelously. I am using them to bridge various local LANs (PC/Gaming, 360/Entertainment Center)I have in my home to the broadband router. At each HDX101 I am getting at least 100Mbs tx and rx. I then use a switch for each local network to connect all of the networked devices at that location. VoIP, online gaming and normal web surfing all going on at the same time worked great. Streaming media to the 360 from the PC, flawless.
I heartily recommend this product to anyone who wants a fast network and doesn't want to bother running cable through the house.
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
A great product if you have bandwidth issues May 11, 2007
By D. Politis
I have been using Wireless-G for my home network for the last 2 years. As far as connecting to the Internet, Wireless-G works great (including playing online games like World of Warcraft). However, the weakness of wireless started being apparent when I bought a SlingBox so that I could watch my Digital TV on my computer. Wireless-G was alright for this, but I could not use some of the more sophisticated features because of the bandwidth.
The real problem occurred when I recently bought my XBox 360 Elite. I was all excited about the XBox 360 because you can watch things from your Media Center PC on your XBox 360. From the moment I tried to run Media Center from the XBox 360, I noticed that performance was horrible. Media Center itself ran sluggish. When I tried to watch a program I recorded on my Media Center PC, I noticed the picture was fuzzy and that often the sound and picture were out of synch. Sometimes, the picture froze for a moment. When I ran the performance tuning utility on Media Center, I was only getting 2 bars which was way below what was needed to stream standard TV.
I started to look for solutions. At first, I considered Wireless-N, but dismissed it since I could not find any Wireless-N to Ethernet Bridge products available. I noticed the Netgear HDX101 Powerline HD at the store. It claimed that it could possibly reach 200Mbps. That rate intrigued me, but I knew that I probably would not get that (my Wireless-G with Speedboost never got beyond 54Mbps even though both the router and the card in my computer from the same company had that feature). I checked online to see reviews. They were mixed. I was especially concerned since I live in a home built in the 1930s with older wiring. I decided to try the Netgear product figuring I could return it if it didn't meet my needs.
Installation couldn't have been simpler. Plug the adapters in a power outlet. One adapter I connected to my router. The other adapter I connected to my XBox 360. When I went into Media Center, I noticed that it worked normally (no sluggishness). I watched the video and it played back perfectly. The picture was much better. I was even able to watch Live TV from Media Center and it worked perfectly (something I couldn't get to work when I was using Wireless-G). When I run the performance utility now, I get all the bars which mean I can even stream HD videos. Now that I get such excellent bandwidth in my house, I really enjoy using Media Center on my XBox 360.
Also, I am now able to use all the fancy video feature on my SlingBox. It looks great!!!
An added bonus to this solution is that I do not have to worry about security like I did with wireless. My Wireless-G to Ethernet bridge supported only WEP security (which I don't trust anymore since I read an article that said WEP can be hacked in minutes). Only people inside my house can connect to my network now.
I am so very pleased with this product. Thank you Netgear for making a product that is easy to install and works right out the box. I would highly recommend this to anyone who does a lot of streaming inside their home network.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
 Great option for non-networked houses Sep 08, 2006
By D. Bestor
I would give this product 4 stars if it weren't for Netgear's abysmal customer support.
I get 20 - 30 mbps from one side of my house to another (across circuits), which is much better than I get using wireless routers, and plenty of bandwidth to stream standard def video. I would NOT count on these to stream HD content!
The routers defintely get HOT. I would make sure there's some air-space around them.
Finally, the Tech Support. I had a technical question regarding the ability of these devices to support half duplex operation. Netgear's response was to "elevate it to Level 2 Tech Support, please wait 24 - 48 hours for a level 2 Tech."
Bottom line, never got to a Level 2. Submitted 4 responses over 4 weeks, and each time was told "Sorry, let's try again."
I gave up.
If these routers were offered by any other company, I'd avoid Netgear at all costs. (I hear D-Link is coming out with their own version soon - get those). If at this time, Netgear is your only choice, then yeah, go ahead.
Oh, and to answer the question below, I'm assuming the claim to 200mbps is because of full-duplex operation, (100mbps each way simlutaneously), which adds up to a 200mbps connection. (Lies, lies, and then there's statistics).
-Dan
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Exceeded expectations Mar 05, 2007
By N. Burgess
I've tried a number of powerline carrier products. None have worked very well for me - likely because the wiring in my house isn't the best. Before climbing into the attic to run three long cat5 drops, I thought I'd try these out. I plugged them in and they immediately worked and they had much better throughput than wireless. I highly recommend the HD models. I don't think I've added anything hi-tech to my house that was easier than these to install... completely exceeded my expectations.
7 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Good for basic connectivity Oct 18, 2006
By Gadget Dad
I've used this product in a variety of home applications. It is very good for reaching rooms where Wi-Fi doesn't reach and the self-configuration works as expected. The status lights are helpful. These nodes do not require IP addresses so they are relatively invisible to the routed network. Compared to rewiring my home with Cat 5 or 6, this product offers very good value.
On the other side of the ledger, in my home (built 1990) I'm unable to achieve more than 9 Mbps peak node-node throughput with these products on a WinXP-based LAN. More importantly, average performance is approx. 2-3 Mpbs with high variability. This performance doesn't support the advertised application of watching DVD-quality, let alone HD-quality, video over a PowerLink HD LAN. Music and light file transfer works just fine. The diagnostic tool is very rudimentary and not quite ready for use by anyone without technical background. Seems like more of a released lab tool than an end-user application.
I'm not quite ready to give up trying to make these products work for high quality video over a LAN. If successful, I'll amend this review with the good news.
See all 34 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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