The wired test speeds peaked at 95Mbps up and 96.7Mbps down, whilst our wireless tests delivered equally as impressive speeds of 91.7Mpbs up and 86Mbps down. We did however measure very fast speeds, close to the maximum 100Mbps top speed achievable, during our review.
The 500Mbps quoted speed combines both the uplink and downlink speeds, so the theoretical best you would ever see is 250Mbps but due to the inclusion of 10/100 Ethernet ports, you won't get more then 100Mbps. As we have noted previously, we found the speed claims of 'Up to 500Mbps' for Ethernet and a new 'Up to 300Mbps' for Wireless to be rather misleading, as these speeds will never be achieved.
If you want to delve more deeply into the settings you can download the free Powerline Utility software from TP-Link which allows you to change various basic settings and check the speed of your network. With Homeplug AV compliance, expanding the network is as easy as plugging your new device in and pressing the pair button on one of your existing devices and then on the new one. No messing about with settings or configurations but remember to make a note of the wireless key before plugging the adaptor in. Allow up to a minute (although barely 10 seconds in our experience) and the setup is complete. You simply plug one adaptor in with an Ethernet cable to your router, press the pair button, then plug the second (Wireless Extender) adaptor in and press the pair button on that. Barely a minute will have passed before you have a fully enabled Powerline network complete with a fast wireless access point filling in those hard to reach areas that even a standard Powerline adaptor cannot access. With a price of £89.99 (available for less than £70 if you shop around), the Wireless Extender package is very competitively priced and during our testing certainly appeared to comfortably tick all the boxes.Īgain, we found the setup time to be minimal. Based on our experiences with the WPA4220 Powerline adaptor kit with Wireless Extender, we can safely say that it's the latter. We were therefore curious to see whether this was a fluke or indicative of TP-Link products in general. Our recent review of TP-Link's Powerline Adaptor PA451 kit with AC Pass-through found a product that performed very well, with an almost instant setup, and at a very keen price point. We've been impressed by the Powerline Adaptors from TP-Link we've reviewed to date, so let's see if the inclusion of the Wireless extender feature can continue their winning streak. Features include the standard wired 10/100 Ethernet connections, one button security, instant plug and play setup and a pair of Ethernet cables. The kit aims to extend Wireless access to those hard to reach places that even a standard Powerline adaptor can't reach.
The WPA4220KIT from TP-Link is widely available for under £70 (RRP £89.99) and contains two adaptors, a 'nano' sized main Powerline adaptor and a Wireless Extender Powerline adaptor. There are plenty to choose from, with many manufacturers such as Netgear, D-Link, TP-Link and, what is currently regarded as the cream of the crop, Devolo, all producing various shapes, sizes and styles, with useful features such as AC Pass-through. However, many older properties might not be Wi-Fi friendly, so the rise in the use of Powerline Adaptors certainly doesn't appear to be slowing down. Everything seems to be network connected these days, from your Blu-ray player right up to your Fridge/Freezer.