Powerline adapters: Which one is regarded as the "best"/highest quality? And other questions...

[Vitalius]

Hi guys,

So in my perusal of the various options regarding possible installation of powerline within the domain that is my homestead, I have happened upon the knowledge that every powerline adapter I have seen has a 10/100Mb ethernet port for connectivity.

Considering the advertised speeds are 200-500Mb/s (depending on each adapter), I don't understand how it could be true that these speeds can be obtained if limited by such a simple bottleneck. As for the questions alluded to in the title, here they are:

• Are there any adapters that actually have 10/100/1000Mb ports to actually use all of their potential bandwidth?
• If not, is there actually some way through use of voodoo magic that these speeds can truly be obtained, preferably on a consistent basis?
• Of those, assuming they do exist with 1000Mb ports, are there any that have built-in wifi as well? As I wish to make use of such things if given the option. 
• If they do not exist, then what would you all suggest I do to optimally make us of what options I do have in regards to powerline? 

I know 100Mb/s is 12.5MB/s which honestly is more than enough for the basics, such as connecting to the internet (Particularly since my internet connection is 675KB/s download), but I own a NAS and would like to be able to manage streaming movies to multiple locations at once. These would be Blu-ray quality (1080p, some as big as 11GB on their own), so I can see 12.5MB/s becoming a bottleneck in regards to that if I were to stream multiple ones. 

Any help deeply appreciated.

Thank you very much,

Vitalius

[Vitalius]

Oh, one other thing:

Are they "mix and match"? Can I buy 2 different brands and types of powerline and they communicate fine? I'd imagine so, but I'm not certain. 

Also, I found a Gigabit pack. Unfortunately, they lack wifi modules. I'll have to see if I can get one of these and a Wifi pack. It seems they don't sell them in 2 Wifi modules or just single Wifi modules. It's either 1 Wifi + 1 Wired, or no Wifi. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833181158 <--ZyXEL's Gigabit powerline adapters.

Edit: 

Found a single wireless adapter that seems good: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G1722911

While it is not 1000Mb, I don't think I need that for anything but the connection to the router. As that's the one that has to handle everything traveling through it. The rest can be 100Mb. 

But this leaves open my above question: Will they talk to each other, or will it not work unless they are the same brand? Can I mix and match?

 

After some more research, the answer to this question: "Can I mix and match?" is more complicated than "Yes." or "No."

Powerline adapters use different standards. If I get a 500Mb/s adapter and also get a 200Mb/s adapter, they are going by two different standards, which will essentially create 2 different powerline networks in my house. It will also force the 500Mb/s adapter to operate at 200Mb/s at all times, regardless of whether or not the other adapter is 500Mb/s or 200Mb/s. 

So it is best to put same speed adapters together, but you can mix and match different brands. Awesome. 

Sorry that I made a thread that I essentially answered for myself. The questions are still open to what you guys think the best powerline adapters are. However, I answered the rest and will mark my original post as Solved with these quoted. Hopefully this thread will answer someone else's questions one day.

I'm ultimately going to go with these if I don't find something better in the mean-time:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833181169 (4-port, all 1000Mb/s, 500Mb/s standard single adapter for $55)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833181271 (2-port, 100Mb/s, 500Mb/s standard single Wireless N extender for $81)

[Vitalius]

Just read above.