ICY BOX Powerline Network Adapter Kit Review

Network devices are a fairly common addition in most households. As the numbers of devices requiring internet, such as Phones, Tablets, Laptops, Games Consoles, Smart TV's etc expands, we are all looking for more ways to improve our wireless coverage or to get an internet connection to the other side of the house. The easiest solution tends to be to improve the wireless coverage and signal by adding in a wireless router acting as a repeater, not only giving more range, but giving another set of physical network ports. However, it's not a particularly cheap solution, and is more often than not quite difficult to set-up. Powerline Adapters have been around for years, but are starting to offer impressive connection speeds. They are a device that simply plugs into the mains-circuit and transmits data through an everyday home-electric circuit. In the case of the ICY BOX IB-PL510D they are effectively plug & play and should allow you to have a network set-up in literally seconds. Specifications Gigabit-Connection (RJ45) Up to 500 Mbit/s bandwidth* LAN: 10/100 Base-TX, IEEE802.3 az AES 128 bit encryption Ready for use without software-installation (Plug & Play) Energy Efficient: < 1 watt in standby mode Compatible to all popular 200/500 Mbit/s adapters Very small dimensions * The indicated transfer rate is a maximum value and the achievable data transfer rate will be lower and is among others dependent on the structural environment of the building. The ICY BOX Powerline Network Adapter Kit ships in a black box with a good splash of yellow and white on top. The front shows the key features, being 'Pre-Set Security', 'Multimedia Stream', 'Multiplayer Games' and 'Easy Installation' as well as showing a simple wiring diagram. The back of the box has the specifications in 8 different languages (the English specifications are on the right-hand side of the box). Opening up this box we found two identical boxes with a remarkably similar theme to the original. We were starting to think this was a set of Russian dolls. Each of these boxes has a simple internal packaging with a User Manual sat on top. The User Manual is very simplistic and has 3 diagrams showing you how to install the kit. It is literally a case of just plugging them both in to the mains and connecting the network cables to either a router or your device (i.e. Computer or Games Console). Each adapter also comes with a 1.8m long network cable, perfect for most scenarios. The adapter is only a little bit larger than a standard plug and has 3 LED's on the front; the top one is for power, the second for Ethernet Link/Activity and the third for Powerline Link/Activity. As such it should be very easy to quickly see if there are any faults with the adapter or set-up. On the bottom of the adapter is a RJ45 port, a Group button (for pairing) and a Reset button. The bottom of the adapter tells you the model number and MAC address. To test the ICY Box Powerline network adapter kit, we plugged one adapter directly into our Buffalo AirStation Nfiniti Dual Band Wireless Router (WZR-HP-AG300H) and connected our test system directly via a wired Gigabit Ethenet connection. We then used a SONY Vaio VGN-NW21Z Laptop as the receiving device which was connected in a number of ways, either connected directly to the router, using its wireless N connection or plugged into our powerline kit. This should allow us to be able to compare the transfer speeds over the 3 connections. As our test system, laptop and router all use Gigabit Ethernet any compromise will be from the connection type used (i.e. wireless or Powerline). Our test comprised of transferring a single .zip archive, which was 474,144 KB in size. We performed all tests in both directions and 3 times each to gain a reliable average time. For the first set of tests both powerline adapters were in the same room, but we also repeated the test with one powerline adapter plugged in downstairs (in our lounge - approx. 10 metres away) to show how distance affects the speed. Same room Gigabit - Gigabit: 5.48 (86.5KB/s) Gigabit - Wireless: 28.75 (16.5 KB/s) Gigabit - Powerline kit: 42.5 seconds (11.2 KB/s) Distance of 10m: Gigabit - Wireless: 58.75 (8.1 KB/s) Gigabit - Powerline Kit: 51.51 (9.3 KB/s) The results of the testing are quite interesting, firstly when the powerline units are in the same room as each other, the data transfer speed was 2/3 slower than our wireless speed. The transfer speed of the powerline kit didn't however slow down much when we were downstairs in our lounge, but the wireless speed had slowed down considerably. Of course, a direct gigabit network is clearly the way forward, but this is often not practical. If you have a large distance to cover with several walls in the way, the powerline kit becomes more favourable than a wireless network connection, as it is more likely to offer good performance. The ICY BOX Powerline Network Adapter Kit is extremely easy to use; it is as simple as plugging in both adapters and linking up the computers. We were very impressed with the speed at which each adapter locked onto the network they were connected to, something that Windows 7 seems to take forever with. In terms of design, they are very small, in fact not much larger than a plug. They even fit next to each other in a double socket, but they won't fit together in a multiple socket extension lead. The 3 LED's on the front are useful as you can instantly see why the network isn't working. The adapters do get quite warm but as the socket features grills on 3 sides, we suspect ICY BOX were more than aware of this. Even after leaving them running for several hours we could still unplug them without any problems. The performance of the ICY BOX Powerline Kit is not brilliant when compared with Gigabit networking, but this isn't exactly a surprise as you just can't beat a good wired Ethernet connection. However, in the same room, our wireless signal was 50% faster than this powerline kit. When we moved to a larger distance of around 10 metres (with several walls in the way), the powerline kit was over 1 KB/s faster than our wireless connection. In this instance it seems a good solution, but only if you cannot possibly get a wired connection to that point. Of course a wireless router can be connected to by several devices and as such may be more favourable in certain scenarios. We now turn to price, and Powerline kits have never been cheap. The ICY BOX IB-PL510D has a retail price of £38.99. Their closest competitor on the market is the ZyXEL PLA-4201 which retails at the same price and offers very similar specifications. Pros: Plug and Play network Solution. Small footprint both in terms of energy usage and size. Features AES 128-bit encryption. Gives adequate performance in hard to reach network areas. Cons: Less freedom than a wireless connection. Could buy a good wireless repeater for this price. Performance is easily beaten by a good wired connection. Can't be used in a multiple socket extension lead. Kitguru says: A very simple product that works effortlessly