ZyXEL PLA-450 Wireless Access Point

9/10 Great Wireless Access Point for Added Range

scottvk - 04/03/09

We recently built out our basement and before I spent the time and money to cat5 my whole house or possibly add a second cable modem, I decided to give the PLA-450 + 1 PLA-401 a try. To my amazement, I saw no degradation of speed when connected to the PLA-450 wirelessly at a reasonable range than I did when connected directly to my cable modem. This powerline duo smokes. My cable modem is on the second floor and my primary DLink wireless router is connected to it. Needless to say, getting great coverage from the second floor to my basement was not possible on the DLink. So the PLA-450 acts as my second wireless router (called an access point) allowing me to plug it into any wall outlet in the house. You do have to have at least 1 PLA-401 (connected to the primary router) and then your powerline link is complete. The PLA-450 is a good wireless device permeating interior walls with ease and maintaining reasonably strong reception with my laptop - even with a floor in between. Accessing the PLA-450 device via a browser is a little tricky the first time. You have to temporarily change you IP address on your network connection. I called support and they were easy to get ahold of and nice and friendly. The instructions do tell you what is needed so a call is probably not necessary for most users. I am thrilled that I can get near cat5 performance without having to hard-wire my house. A great product that suits my need perfectly.