This was posted 2 years 9 months ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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[WA, NT, VIC] Tenda PH5 AV1000 Wi-Fi Powerline Extender Kit $50 + Delivery ($0 with $55 Spend / C&C) @ Officeworks

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Looks like a good deal for a powerline setup. Two gigabit ethernet ports, plus it can act as an access point. RRP would seem to be around $140.

Only available online, and only in some locations. Check here for details.

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  • +1

    Already OOS

  • +1

    OOS- Please update the post

  • +1

    It's not out of stock. Might just be dependent on your location. Currently available in plenty of WA locations, along with several others.

    • +1

      None in Sydney, not that we're allowed out of the cave anyway.
      That's a great stock search tool - any tips how to use it?

      • +2

        Retrieve the product ID from listings on the Officeworks website. Then just chuck it in here and filter by state as needed.

        • Thanks

  • Anyone got any experience with this?

    • +5

      Just buy a mesh system, to be honest. I don't think extenders are worth buying.

      • This is an ethernet over power solution as much as it is a range extender. An ethernet connection, even with the quality reduction from Powerline kits, should be more reliable than a mesh system.

        • +2

          I've found powerline to not work across separate circuits since I got my house divided up with separate RCDs. Not suprising really.
          Houses with old fuse boards are "leaky" enough to work well any where in the house. Like an old house I rented in the past.
          Within a circuit, I find them a solid method of networking.

          • +1

            @wetwork: Wow, I didn't know they could function like that in older constructions. That's pretty neat.

            But yeah, they'll have to be on the same circuit for most houses.

          • +1

            @wetwork: Same

        • I've tried three or four EoP kits over the years. None lived up to the promise. Unreliable.

      • Any recommendation brand or model?

    • Tbh, I would rather get a xiaomi 4a gigabit router. Can serve a similar purpose as an extender or just router. Wifi dualband 2.4g and 5g

    • I'll go contrary to some of the others here. My experiences with powerline have been much, much, much better than with mesh (including rolling my own mesh with dd-wrt on linksys routers in the mid 2000s).

      I found mesh to be a pain to get working, it generally delivered poor reliability and bandwidth, and had horrible latency. I haven't tried for about a while, so I'd expect it be much, much better now, but I'd take a lot of convincing it is as good as powerline.

      So, I switched to powerline a long time ago. My experience has been that individual implementations can be ropey, but if you get the right brand and units they can be very good. Our DHP 309AVs have been rockstars for reliability and we have a set of TP-Link 1000AVs which run well (won't say the same for the wifi on the TP-link wifi/powerline unit).

      About the worst that happens is that every few months I need to reboot one or more of the units. And given that this is something I also have to do with wifi units and modems, I don't see it as much differentiation.

      The circuit thing is also not as much an issue as claimed in this thread. The units will work within a single distribution phase quite cheerfully. What they won't do is talk across phases. They are also affected by distance and the number of RCDs they cross - so going from one circuit to another with couple of RCDs along the way will reduce throughput.

      But we are managing fine with an AV500 network which I believe is connecting 3 different circuits. And because I did some testing just today, I can confirm we are getting about 30-40Mbs without issue - probably 30m of wiring and 2 RCDs along the way. I'm planning to upgrade to AV2000 (Netgear PLP2000s) in the near future, which should increase throughput by a factor of about 4-5 (maybe more as the Netgear kit has an excellent rep for signal filtering).

      The other nice thing is broad cross compatibility. AV200, 500, 1000 and 2000 gear pretty well talks happily to one another regardless of vendor - I'm not sure that the same is true for mesh implementations. I've mixed and matched Netgear, D-link, TP-link and edimax gear without issue - although generally it's worth avoiding mixing speeds, as everything runs as slow as the slowest gear.

      • +1

        Try using a good purpose-built mesh system with a dedicated wireless backhaul made within the last few years, you’ll be blown away by the performance. WiFi has come a long way since mid 2000s.

        I’m using an almost 4 year old tri band Netgear Orbi system (which BTW is significantly slower than the latest and the greatest WiFi 6 systems out there now, like the Orbi AX6000 which can do gigabit speeds over WiFi) but I still get around 400Mbps at each node and over 200Mbps throughout our double story house and even outside over a wireless backhaul, which isn't too bad. BTW those speeds are actual data transfer speeds, not sync rates. In contrast, the best I have clocked between two of my TP-Link AV1000 EoP adaptors is 200Mbps (when the two are just a few meters apart), but the speed drops off significantly with distance. The worst I’ve clocked is around 15Mbps across two circuits and two floors (probably around 40m of wiring to and from the electrical box), this is in a relatively new (<3 year old) house with original wiring. Essentially, my best EoP speed is slower than my worst WiFi speed.

        P.S: Here is a quick speed test I did over WiFi a few minutes ago

        • That 400Mbs is pretty impressive - I'm getting sync speeds of 100-170, with transfer speeds about 25% of that using AV500, so best case with AV2000 is going to be in the region of 200Mbs actual speeds.

          I guess it's time to take a re-look at mess as an alternative - I'll be interested to see how it stacks up cost wise, as I'm looking at ~340ish for 2 pairs of AV2000, although I really on need 3 stations.

          • @EthicsGradient: I only use EoP because I have a few low bandwidth devices that use ethernet but I can’t put a mesh node there. But I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the speeds I got with my AV1000 when I first got them. The way I have currently set them up I get between 75~150Mbps at each of the locations, which is more than good enough for my needs. While the speeds aren’t all that great compared to WiFi I can’t complain about reliability as they’ve been rock solid ever since I installed them. I got my two sets of AV1000s for $50 and $75 each on eBay (used).

            I'll be interested to see how it stacks up cost wise, as I'm looking at ~340ish for 2 pairs of AV2000

            Found these (refurb/box damaged) AV2000 on eBay with a US plug for $79 a pair

            You are looking at spending around $500 for a decent mesh system with a couple of nodes, by that I mean one with a dedicated wireless backhaul with at least 866Mbps. But to get the best of the best you'll have to spend upwards of $800. If you have a typical wood construction house then I think a good WiFi mesh system will do a lot better than AV2000 adaptors, but if you have internal brick walls or a multi-story house with concrete floors then it could be a tossup.

            • @opt:

              Found these (refurb/box damaged) AV2000 on eBay with a US plug for $79 a pair(ebay.com.au)

              Thanks for the link - unfortunately, I've not had best experiences with TP-Link EoP, and I'd rather not deal with a possible future claim with an insurer based on American certified units.

              I'm looking at two pairs of the Netgear PLP2000s, which have a great reputation for reliability and throughput (apparently better than average filtering, and work well up with up to 5 or 6 units). This would be $340ish new.

              You are looking at spending around $500 for a decent mesh system with a couple of nodes, by that I mean one with a dedicated wireless backhaul with at least 866Mbps. But to get the best of the best you'll have to spend upwards of $800. If you have a typical wood construction house then I think a good WiFi mesh system will do a lot better than AV2000 adaptors, but if you have internal brick walls or a multi-story house with concrete floors then it could be a tossup.

              And this probably kills it for us - we have a multi story house with a mix of wood and concrete, and three widely spaced locations I need ethernet points at. I might be able to get away with one pair of mesh units and add a wifi access point to for our media area, but thats sounding like $500-600+ (more if I need another 1 or 2 mesh points). At which point getting our sparky in to run Cat6 starts to sound attractive.

              Still, I'll do a bit more digging to see if it looks viable for us.

  • +1

    Anyone who is new to EoP adaptors, just be aware that the actual speed you can get out of these are nowhere near the advertised rate and depends on the quality of wiring in your house and the wire distance. Despite the 1000Mbps advertised rating, you can only expect around 250Mbps under ideal conditions, but <=100Mbps if the two units are plugged into the same circuit 10~20m apart and much lower speeds if they are on separate circuits (connected at the electrical box).

    I use a few TP-Link AV1000 adaptors, if these Tenda ones perform similar then I’d say $50 for this set is a pretty good price. But don’t consider these as an alternative to installing ethernet cables. In most standard wood-frame houses a good wifi mesh system with a wireless backhaul can easily outperform these, so not even good as good WiFi. Only good if you need an ethernet port were installing a cable is not practical or if a pure wifi mesh system will not work (e.g: in an outdoor metal shed with power).

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