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  Netgear products have a long-standing position in my network. I'm especially fond of their ProSafe line of Ethernet switches. So when Netgear announced the HDX101 200Mbps Powerline solution for bridging unwired rooms in a home, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Unfortunately, it simply doesn't work – unless by coincidence the rooms use the same power circuit in your home. Even then, it doesn't measure up to its own specs or to competitive technologies such as WiFi. For high bandwidth uses like HD video, it's out of the question.
Read more for details.
| Review Category | Score | | Features | 4 | | Performance | 0 | | Ease of Use | 5 | | Installation/Setup | 5 | | Build Quality/Reliability | 3 | | Customer Support | 3 | | Price | 5 | | Total | 3.57/10 | The concept of powerline networking is to use your home's electrical wiring to bridge your network. For example, if you have an unwired room in your home, you can plug a powerline adapter into an outlet in that room and plug-in a powerline adapter in another room that is wired to your network. Powerline adapters are designed to bridge between the two rooms. As you can imagine, this could be really useful in most homes since odds are most homes have an area that isn't connected. Perhaps today you're using wireless to connect that area using a wireless bridge or similar. However, if you want to stream video or desire network speed similar to your wired network, 802.11g WiFi isn't up to the job. In the Package 
On the Netgear site, the HDX101 description includes: "...turn any electrical outlet into a Home Network connection and share a Broadband Internet connection, files and printers with PCs in different rooms without running any new cabling..." When I began my review of the HDX101, that's how I approached it. Rather than test in a lab, I decided to try to connect a bedroom in my eight-year-old home where I currently use an 802.11g wireless bridge to connect to the rest of our network. For video streaming, today's 802.11g WiFi solutions are less than optimal and I was looking for improvement. Setup and Configuration Included in the $249.00 ($199 street) package are two HDX101 adapters, two Ethernet patch cords, CD and user manual. Powerline Networking Diagram  First, I connected one HDX101 to power and the network switch in that bedroom (which is only used for devices in that bedroom such as TiVo and Slingbox) and then connected another to power and the main network in the garage. I installed the Windows-only HDX101 configuration software and immediately saw both devices. Unfortunately, the speed was 2Mbps TX (transmit) and 4Mbps RX (receive) – much slower than 802.11g WiFi. I changed the configuration from "co-exist with HomePlug devices" to "only HDX101." The speed improved to 4Mbps TX and 4Mbps RX. While I never expected 200Mbps, I was hoping for a reliable 30Mbps to 50Mbps. So far, we're not even close. Netgear HDX101 Configuration Software 
Powerline requires a clean power connection between the two adapters. For example, you should not plug powerline devices into power strips, UPS devices, etc. They must be plugged directly into a wall outlet. With such bad performance, I decided to get down to basics. I moved the bedroom adapter to the garage to assure that I had working units. With both of the powerline units in the same room, on the same circuit, the configuration software reported substantially improved results of 174Mbps TX and 200Mbps RX. However, as you'll see in the Real-world Performance section below, those numbers don't reflect real-world results. Support Call HDX101 Side View 
Real-world Performance Still wanting to know the limits of the device for other setups, I started moving the units around my house. What I found is that the performance varied substantially. No setting was as strong as plugging both units into the same garage circuit, but I did see some improvement from the 4Mbps I had in the bedroom.
Wired Ethernet Network – Gigabit
I used my standard wired Ethernet network connection as a baseline. Since HD video was the focus of the product, I decided to use a large (854,537,054 bytes) MPEG4 1920x1080p video file as the benchmark. It took less than a minute to copy the 10 minute video to or from the NAS (network attached storage device). The file also streamed perfectly from the NAS without stutter or error. WiFi – 802.11g (4-5 bars)
I also included a WiFi connection in the mix to use as comparison. I was able to copy the file to or from the NAS in about 6 minutes. Remotely streaming the file exhibited some stutters and pauses, but no failures. Garage-Same
As a best-case baseline, I ran my test using a configuration that wouldn't provide me any value. Both powerline connections in the same room – the garage. Even in this optimal configuration, I didn't achieve even close to the specifications or the Mbps displayed by the configuration software. Remotely streaming the video file from the NAS exhibited a few stutters and pauses – about as good as the average WiFi connection. Garage-Bedroom
As you can imagine, the real-world tests in this configuration were abysmal. Not only was I unable to stream local HD video at this speed, but my ISP receive speed is about five times as fast. Taking an hour to copy an 10 minute video file just doesn't cut it. Theater-Bedroom
When moving the main connection to my home theater room and leaving the remote unit in the bedroom, the performance improved somewhat. I repeated this test a few times and the best results were the ones in the table above. Streaming the file wasn't perfect. The file stuttered, skipped and jumped with more than one failure. It performed no better than my average WiFi connections. Based on that, I wouldn't replace the wireless bridge with the HDX101 setup. Pros Cons - Performance sub-standard even on with the best scenario
- Performance far below rates specified
- Performance inconsistent on same outlets over time
- Performance substantially different on different outlets throughout the house
- Windows-only configuration software
Conclusion Overall, there wasn't a single powerline configuration that would work for me. I found the performance unacceptable for my desired use and inconsistent under every configuration tested. Our grades in each category are sullied by the fact that the performance is unacceptable. We can't give a rating above five on any category if the device just plain doesn't work. It's too bad, I'm such a Netgear fan, I wanted the HDX101 Powerline adapters to fill a real need. Performance in your home may vary and could even work better. However, based on our results, we can't recommend the HDX101 to anyone for any purpose.
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