Forget WiFi – get the Zyxel Powerline adaptor for faster internet speed
The struggle for stable, fast internet speed is real. While we love our WiFi, and it really does try its best to get us that connection we are after, WiFi doesn’t always succeed.
If you live in a home with thick walls, or your WiFi router is tucked far away in the office, then you will ultimately encounter dead zones. This is where the wifi is virtually non-existent which means terrible internet speed. You may have tried changing to a high-gain antenna on your router or repositioning the router, but the slow sluggish internet is still causing some serious frustrations.
The two most common solutions are:
- Get a WiFi extender but these don’t always reach every room. The speed is fine for basic internet surfing but can struggle when its 4K streaming or gaming.
- Run LAN cables all over your house but that’s not a small task. If you live in a rented home or your spouse isn’t so keen on having cables all over the house, then you have to climb into the ceiling and deal with cable length, wires switches.
But there is another option – a powerline adaptor.
What are powerline adaptors?
Without getting too technical, powerline adaptors are able to send data across your home’s existing wiring. This of course happens without interfering with your electricity.
For this to work you plug one of these adaptors into your power outlet and the ethernet cable is plugged into your router. It is important NOT to use power strips or surge protectors but just plug it straight into the wall.
Next, take the other powerline adaptor and plug that into the power outlet in the room where you want internet data. You take the ethernet cable and plug that into your devices such as your TV or your PlayStation or computer or even a switch.
There is no configuration required. That is it.
Data is sent from the router to the powerline adaptor, through your home’s wiring, and out on the other side directly into whatever you have connected there.
I tested the Zyxel PLA6456 Powerline Adaptor
Zyxel reached out and offered me their PLA6456 Powerline Adaptor. As you know, I HATE messing with electricity, so before I was going to plug anything into my wall, I wanted to make sure that it would be safe.
Turns out that Zyxel won 92 Taiwan Excellence Awards and this is one of Zyxel’s four 2020 Taiwan Excellence awards. Thes awards are important as the Taiwan Excellence Awards are only awarded to the best and highest quality products out of Taiwan that meet stringent guidelines in R&D, Design, Quality, and Marketing.
Therefore, the fact that Zyxel won is an indication that their products are safe.
What kind of speed are you going to get out of the Zyxel PLA6456?
Firstly it uses the new G.hn technology which allows theoretical data transfer at up to 2400 Mbps; depends on your home’s wiring, circuit breakers, quality of wires etc. Seen as G.hn tech has twice the bandwidth of the traditional HomePlug AV2, it means that you get smooth 4K steaming and there is plenty of bandwidth for 8K if you got that kind of TV tech!
Of course for online gaming, you need bandwidth but you also need low latency and this gives you both.
It is also worth mention here that since we are taking heavy bandwidth devices off the wifi and routing them through the powerline adaptor, it means that your WiFi should also perform better too.
3 Tests over 3 Days
In order to really test this product, I ran three tests over three days:
- First Test was connecting to the regular WiFi
- Second Test was connecting to the WiFi Extender
- Third Test was connecting to the Zyxel Powerline adaptor
- I measured the Internet speed using Speedtest.net and I connected to the same server each time.
Note: that I have a cap of 400Mbps download and 20Mbps upload.
Over the three days, the Zyxel PLA6456 out preforms the WiFi and Extender. The speeds that I managed to get were equivalent to a LAN cable connection without the headaches of having to run wires.
So in summary:
Zyxel has developed a product that is for the every-day-person and not for a high-tech individual. Anyone can simply plug it into the outlet, connect the supplied LAN cable into the router and then plug the second adaptor into the outlet near the device you want to connect and connect it. There is no configuration. It’s literally the plug-and-play solution you are looking for!
Check out more info on the Zyxel Powerline PLA6456 adaptor here
