Product ReviewsWestern Digital WDBABY0000NBK-NESN Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit
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85%
11%
4%
0%
0%
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 Rating: Review Date: 01/04/13  |
Cons: None
Pros: easy setup and fantastic speed |
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Rating: Review Date: 12/31/12 |
Cons: Not the fastest out there (but probably fast enough for anybody)
Pros: Easy to set up (plug-n-play!)Fast enough to stream pretty much anythingQuality built Comment:
I purchased this because we were having connection problems from one of the kid's bedrooms (not good for MMO's!). I just plugged them in as the instructions stated, and they connected to each other painlessly. Obviously the connection problems are now gone.The only con I can think of is that it's not the fastest available out there. However, that would only be a problem (or more so, an annoyance) if there is a need to transfer a lot of data often. It will perform the task, but maybe not as fast as one would like. But otherwise, even to stream HD content, there is no problem at all. |
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Rating: Review Date: 12/13/12 |
Cons: -None with regards to product.-Documentation could include more "technical" data on network security for tech savvy users.
Pros: -Works exactly as advertised.-Easy to setup. Comment:
This kit is the cat's a$$. It works really well and provides the performance advertised. I installed the adapters at both ends of my 2700 sq ft home and get a consistant 166 mbps PHY rate. It solvd all my issues trying co connect my blue-ray player and xbox on 802.11g/n. I should have looked at this technology years ago. |
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Rating: Review Date: 10/22/12 |
Cons: -NONE
Pros: CheapEasy to SetupExtra PortsPower cable doesn't block the outlet Comment:
I bought this to extend the internet in my house. I coupled it with a DLINK access point.Plugged one powerline to the Telus Router. Plugged the other one about 50 ft away. Was connected within seconds. No setup absolutely needed. Connected my laptop to the powerline with Cat5 cable , and my internet DL speed was still 27mb/s (even though telus spec is 25mb).Hooked up a my DLINK AP to the power line and now BAM my wifi in masterbedroom is awesome and getting DL speeds of over 25mb/s.This has been one of the best purchases ever. |
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Rating: Review Date: 10/03/12 |
Cons: None
Pros: Very easy to setupHas 4 ports at each end Comment:
I bought this to eliminate the wireless connection to my Blu-ray player, TV and Xbox in my living room. Wiring an Ethernet connection was going to be a bit painful.Somehow I got lucky and the outlet that the each Powerline unit is plugged into is on the same electrical circuit (different floors even). So I get better than 190Mb/s.I did try this on an outlet on another circuit and got much lower speeds. Makes sense.It's been working great since I installed. No issues. |
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Rating: Review Date: 10/03/12 |
Cons: None.
Pros: Just works. Very reliable. Comment:
Incredibly easy to set up and use. Acts like a 4 port hub at each end. Perfect for entertainment centre use as I hooked up my media centre, and three gaming consoles with one device. Plus I actually gained ports at my router rather than losing one. All around excellent experience. |
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Rating: Review Date: 06/14/12 |
Cons: i'm only getting about half the rated speed of 200mbps. still, not bad. sometimes hear interference through other plugged in devices (a cheap set of powered pc speakers).
Pros: works flawlessly everywhere i put them, even through a sub-panel. Comment:
i hooked up my xbox 360, appple tv, smart tv and htpc to this thing and stuck it in a corner. lag was gone, everything worked through my vpn and i never had a problem streaming media.in my office, i turned off the wi-fi on my programming rig and use the powerline. again, never had a problem. my dns-323, which, admittedly, has slow transfer rates to begin with, performs just as well over powerline as over my gigabit switch.there's a set of cheap pc speakers attached to one of my kids' pcs and i can hear burps and chirps when data is transmitting. other than that, i actually found the external power cable to be a bonus. i have a lot of wires and in some cases the plugs are further from the equipment that i would like, so it helps to have the extra reach in order to hide the nest of network cables behind something while having a single black cable visible at the outlet.i just moved to a bigger, older house and my powerline still works flawlessly. i just ordered another pair to accommodate the new house configuration. |
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Rating: Review Date: 05/27/12 |
Cons: Rated connection speed vastly overstated.
Pros: Easy to use. Fine for internet speeds. 4 port hub Comment:
I bought this kit to increase stability on my IPTV / HTPC in my home. It's to connect 2 systems that are in the same room (20 feet apart).Plug it in and it works immediately. You'll have to avoid power surge protectors as that drops your data rate; although it does work poorly.Built in 4 port hub on both ends was very helpful as my TV, HTPC, Bluray and AppleTV all accept ethernet port inputs. Nice and stable.HOWEVER, the speed rated is finicky. The WD livewire utility reported a connection speed of 100mbps +. However, rated lantest benchmarks and anecdotal feel only put it at 20 mbps of real throughput. Spent 5 hours debugging router, cables, sockets and came to the conclusion that something with the livewire adapters results in very poor throughput. Encryption? Inflated ratings? who knows.I decided not to waste any more time after that.Already on the latest firmware upgrades.IF you have systems that are very far away physically, powerline ethernet may be ok in this iteration. HOWEVER, wireless was faster in my case (consistently). Ended up returning the units.Perhaps gigbit powerline (or 500mbps which is already out) may improve this.However, in my household, the actual throughput was 1/10 the maximum theoretical. |
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Rating: Review Date: 05/06/12 |
Cons: Didnt work immediately out of the box? no stars deducted.
Pros: Relatively easy to setup. Took maybe about 10 mins in total and that includes the time it took to troubleshoot it as it did not work immediately right out of the box for me. Comment:
So far I have no complaints about this product. Used it to replace my Wireless setup and now I have a far more stable connection that wireless N ever provided. |
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Rating: Review Date: 04/21/12 |
Cons: Some outlets don't work well - trial and error needed.
Pros: Simple to use, reasonable speed Comment:
The documentation with the units warns not to plug them into power bars. Sure enough, the connection is slow and subject to dropouts even if the adapter is plugged into the wall with a power bar in the same outlet. Power bars either are a sink for the powerline networking signals, or emit interference. Different outlets in the house get differing connection speeds from a basement router and adapter (monitored by software supplied with the adapters). If there are problems, sometimes an outlet elsewhere in the room will give a better connection.I suspect that connections are worst when the circuit that the adapter is plugged into is wired through a number of other outlets before it reaches the main breaker box. |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/10/12 |
Cons: None
Pros: Easy to install , worked right out of the box . Comment:
Bought because i wanted to hook up my HDTV , Blue Ray DVD player without having to run network cables thru the house , i would recommend to anyone this if you buy this you will be more than pleased with it , very easy to install , worked right out of the box , you can't go wrong if you buy this product . Great value for the money . |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/07/12 |
Cons: None.
Pros: Great design and solidly built. Auto configure when plug-in. Include all the cables. Work well with aluminum wiring. Comment:
After seeing all the positive reviews on the WD Livewire, I finally bought my very first Powerline networking device from NCIX. First, I want to say that the folks at the Mississauga Eglington store are extremely helpful and friendly. Way better service then the other computer store. The WD Livewire is very easy to setup. It took me more time to unpack the content from the box then to get it working. Got over 105Mbps on aluminum wiring. Able to use it with an IPTV box without any performance issue and consistantly faster then the wireless N. |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/16/12 |
Cons: -which I could see whether the private network is set properly without the software
Pros: -easy to setup-works well for streaming 1080 movies from computer-love how it has 4ports so I can connect more than 1 device Comment:
I picked this up today and was a bit nervous since I'm in a 30 year old condo. I hooked it up and it worked immediately. My TV and PS3 are now connected to the powerline network and the speed is a great improvement. They are rated at 200Mbps and I would get 183Mbps when connected directly to the wall. Since I don't have enough plugs though, I connected it to a power bar for now and I'm getting 143Mbps which is still good enough for streaming the 1080p movies.Very happy with the purchase |
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Rating: Review Date: 11/29/11 |
Cons: It's not free
Pros: Stable connection, extremely easy setup Comment:
I have a SR2 running on Linux folding in the second floor via wireless and the connection is not entirely stable.I cannot afford the downtime when the client cannot connect and I am out of town. A fellow forum member s HWC suggested powerline ethernet as a way to connect. The last time I even read about powerline ethernet it was still in its infancy and rather flakey. Well I'll tell ya, I am sold now. I set it up without any drama whatsoever, Linux and all. The box says 200 Mb/s and Linux is saying 100 Mb/s. I would recommend this over wireless any day now. Wanna buy some routers and receivers? |
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Rating: Review Date: 08/01/11 |
Cons: - Difficult to determine if connection is encrypted.- Higher Bandwidth but higher latency than WiFi in current environment, not good for gamers
Pros: - Literally Plug and Play- Comes with 3ft AC Cord- 4 port switch on both endpoints- Runs cool and does not overheat- Great for apartments with WiFi woes- Affordable at time of purchase for 4 port kits.- Very reliable Comment:
Tried this after a netgear kit with one single port source and a 4 port endpoint. Netgear ran hotter by about ~20 celsius. WD was the best network device purchase I ever made.Have been using these for 8 months roughly 30 ft away from the source. Setup was plug everything in and ready to work, never needed to reset once in 8 months. Home is from 1992 - bandwidth is roughly 68-72 Mbps using jperf. Latency is 3 ms to LAN gateway, which may freak gamers out. It was also compatible with the netgear kit because it used Homeplug AV 2.0.If this was $30 cheaper I would recommend it to anyone experiencing wifi connection issues who do not need the convenience of mobility. I doubt this will work very well at distances greater than 50 ft, but I could be wrong |
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Rating: Review Date: 07/10/11 |
Cons: occasional lost connection
Pros: very good speeds (approx 50 Mbps), simple to setup Comment:
for $100 you cant complain. nothing beats a legit ethernet connection but when impossible use this product. plugged one end in upstairs and the other at the other end of the house downstairs, synced em up and off to the races |
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Rating: Review Date: 07/08/11 |
Cons: -For my application a 8 port version would be nice.
Pros: very stable extremely easy to setup (plug and play)ON/OFF switchsolid build Comment:
A great powerline ethernet. Since I decided to put my router and modem in the basement it was the easiest solution instead of having to run a cable from top to bottom. |
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Rating: Review Date: 07/05/11 |
Cons: Had problems with the setup utility (fixed by restarting the computer)
Pros: Simple to set upDoesn't take up a lot of spaceSmall increase in speed over wirelessMore reliable than wireless Comment:
I have my modem and one powerline adapter on the opposite side of my house from the one plugged into my computer, up one floor, and on an addition of the house. Zero interference or slow downs. The only thing that didn't work well was the utility to set it up. It kept saying my internet password was invalid so it would not connect to the internet. I simply restarted the computer and now it connects automatically. I would definitely recommend this to anyone with bad wireless connections like I had. |
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Rating: Review Date: 06/09/11 |
Cons: None
Pros: Easy setup. Simple to use. Small enough that you can set it any where. More reliable than my wireless connection. Comment:
I bought this because my wireless signal kept dropping out upstairs. If you don't want to run hard wired ethernet, this unit is the next best thing. Installed in just a few minutes. No more dropped signal, works great! The advertised speed says up to 200Mb/s. I am actually getting only 50Mb/s. I have the WD TV Hub attached and Netflix streams fine, Facebook works great and so does Youtube. I am thinking that because my house is older and the wiring is from the mid 70's, this is probably degrading my speed. Overall I am happy with it. |
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Rating: Review Date: 06/06/11 |
Cons: - Dependent on house power circuit- Potential issues when spanning seperate circuits in same house- No power socket pass-through- Currently not as fast as gigabit network setups
Pros: - Plug-n-play setup- Good performance- Stable and consistent (main advantage over wireless here)- Cheap alternative to a good wireless N setup (involving at least a router + adapter)- Built-in 4-port switches at either end- Uses power cable to plug into wall socket instead of the whole unit Comment:
Picked up one of these yesterday, and am impressed. Everything was plug-and-play with no SW required; literally took seconds to setup at either end as you simply need to plug in the cables. The 4-port expansion at either end is a nice plus and basically act as switches.Test setup:One box on 3rd floor (host : desktop) at corner of houseOne box in basement (client : laptop) at opposite corner of houseHouse is ~20 yrs old (medium size?)Full pathway between the two systems:Host desktop -> 75ft Cat5e -> Linksys E3000 -> 75ft Cat5e -> WD Livewire box -> [Powerline] -> WD Livewire box -> 15ft Cat5e -> client laptopI know they said don't go through a power bar, but I had to try it anyways. Power bars used are old Belkin Surgemasters (pic: http://www.dracx.net/temp/belkin_surgemaster.jpg)Transferring a 1GB file from host to client:Socket to socket (no power bars) ~ 6.8 MB/sPower bar at client ~ 5.3 MB/sPower bar at client and host ~ 1.77 MB/sDefinitely a significant drop in speed if you're running through >1 power bar. I wouldn't go through any if it can be avoided.Internet speeds though are exactly the same on host and client in all 3 scenarios.If you need to route ethernet large distances through your house, in particular to supply to desktops, then powerline sounds like it is exactly what you need. This certainly beats wifi for such cases both in speed and stability. Expandability is also a good thing as you can also purchase more powerline adapters down the road to expand the same powerline network to more rooms as long as there is a power socket. I also believe that you can theoretically mix brands thanks to the standard they're all using now (older powerline models out there cannot).Price-wise, at $85 (or less if you look a bit) this is hard to beat. A good N-router and N-desktop adapter will easily go over this and still won't be as stable. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/05/11 |
Cons:
None so far
Pros: Easy Setup, No wireless guessing Comment:
I got this because I was sick and tired of wireless signals dropping all the time and very inconsistent speeds over wireless, now I can actually play online games with out dropped connections and sudden ping spikes.. Thank you WD |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/09/11 |
Cons:
Dependent on the wiring in your house
Pros: Consistent speedGood for streaming Comment:
Bought this because I was having serious ping spikes over my wireless connection (even though I have a really good card and router..anyways). It maxes out my connection nicely and is good for streaming media to my PS3. I did have some issues setting it up, I had to install the utility that came with it (some people suggested they just plugged it in and it worked, well not for me). I had to input the password (found on the back of each box) into the utility, which then recognized the devices as being part of the network. It was only after that, that I was able to connect, but all things considered only took about an hour to set up, so have a little patience, much better than wifi. |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/07/11 |
Cons:
price could be lowervulnerable to the design of your house wiring (routing through panels)
Pros: Easy setupsetup accessories includedno maintenance Comment:
I was very impressed at how simple and straight forward it was to setup this system. I have the WDTV Live box also and wanted to get my home videos and music from my office across the house. After plugging everything in, it lit up and it was running. I got to watch my 1080 content with zero lag and fairly fast load times as well! |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/24/11 |
Cons:
1. Clumsy software. Not even sure why it's required in the first place.2. Privacy and security feature could be better.
Pros: 1. Can set it up ready for use in seconds. 2. Reliable data transfer and video streaming at high speeds.3. Vastly superior to wi-fi. Comment:
I unpacked and set up the product in seconds. No elaborate installation instructions or softweare drivers were required. I live in a 3-storey townhouse, so connected the first unit to my modem-router set-up on the upper floor, and connected the second unit to my internet-ready Sharp Aquos HDTV and Samsung blu-ray DVD player in the basement. Both the TV and DVD player immediately recognized the internet connection and I was able to proceed proceed to set up their internet features. I looked for HD content on Netflix and streamed a movie. I also interrrupted the movie after about 15 minutes to fast-forward to about 1 hour into the middle of the movie, and the download and streaming speeds were just superb. It took less than 6 seconds to buffer and then played the rest of the movie uninterrupted. CONS1. Major disadvantage: There's no certainty of knowing if the network privacy and security feature is working effectively. I followed the instructios for it - that is to press the sync buttons for les than 3 seconds and within 2 minutes of plugging in both units. I wish there would be an audio or visual LED display confirmation that synchronization was complete and the network was now secure. This is important for townhouse and condo dwellers.MINOR DISADVANTAGES2. The software is clumsy. Fortunately, it's also quite unnessessary. You don't have to use it at all. Retain the CD though since it also contains the owner's manual. 3. The power cord length is short. Considering WD advises against plugging the adapter into a power strip, the cord length was not long enough to reach the nearest wall receptacle in my basement while haveing the adapter on a shelf alongside the blu-ray player. It now lies on the floor with ethernet cables connected to it, all very visible and unseemly. |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/15/11 |
Cons:
- Can only lay down horizontally, consume little bit more spaces because the power cable and the ethernet cables are not right angled and on different sides.- Price is a bit on high side when gigabit powerline kits are already in development.
Pros: 4 extra ports switch on the router side, probably the only difference compare with other 200Mbps kits on the market. Comment:
Strange but this kit is slightly faster than my other 200Mbps kit from Linksys based on same standard. But Powerline ethernet speed is still highly dependent on the quality of your house wiring. |
This I would recommend to anyone who is looking at getting away from wireless technology. it is much faster offers speeds just like connecting directly to a modem or router.Do not connect to a powerbar though all devices connected cause feed back into the power outlet which is why they do not recommend it. a must have for anyone looking at an easy solution to running wires and wireless drop outs or weak signals