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The TP-Link AV500 adapters are supplied in a fairly substantial box which is decorated in a green and white livery. The front of the box details the headline features alongside a reasonably large image of the two adapters which can be found within.
Turning the box over reveals a more detailed breakdown of the features and specification of this particular kit compared to the other options in the TP-Link range. The box itself feels good quality and should provide a decent level of protection for the items within.
Inside the box, we find all the accessories which are required to use the adapter. There is a driver CD, a user guide and a pair of gigabit Ethernet cables.
I have these, and they are pretty good for the money expenditure. The one downside I would comment on is they are stuck on 100Mbps Ethernet connections, when I was expecting 500Mbps. What you end up with is UP TO 500Mbps per second behind the socket depending on your house wiring.
My results differ to those of KitGuru though, as I can reliably get just shy of 100Mbps anywhere in the house. I have a feeling that this may be due to the house I rent only just being re-wired. The longest and weakest connection I can get knocks me down to 88Mbps, which is pretty good considering I get no wireless router signal at all in that part.
My biggest complaint is the area I currently live can offer up to 150Mbps broadband, meaning that now my current connection can no longer take full advantage of downloading files. With faster and faster broadband speeds, I feel like if this technology can not even equip 1Gbps Ethernet ports then it is going to quickly fall behind wireless routers using bridges to expand the signal.
Due to the router I am using, the wireless signal can be flakey on occasion and this is pretty useless if internet gaming, so this is a wonderful substitute to using the wireless. However I am currently looking into one of two upgrades to phase this out after only having it for 6 months for the sole purpose of taking full advantage of the larger internet connection I have here.
Also have a pair of these and my consensus is simple. You could use these for the ease of setup, or get to areas where radio signal dont seem to get; If thats your goal, this is a superb product.
If you use these for getting a higher performance, well, … you are going to have a bad time in most situations.
What i found with the ether-line kit I had, was that not only the performance was not that great when you went over breaker groups. But the ping was not at all stable. for example ping was around 25ms then it could go 400ms or over a second later and back to 25ms again after. And also turning appliances like tv’s, computers or something could effect the performance for a shot time. So its a great product for checking mail or browse the web but gaming is not recommended (nothing beats the wire! Ok fibre does ;))