Testing & Results

Testing Methodology

I believe the most common use of powerline adapters will be practical application. For me, that means the ability to get fast enough constant internet speeds to any computer anywhere in my house. I don’t do a lot of streaming and transferring from one system to another, other than pictures maybe. Most of my file transfers happen from the internet. Still, when a 50Mbps internet connection can’t stream Netflix because the WiFi doesn’t support fast enough transfer speeds, something needs to be fixed.

To test the Rosewill RPLC 200P Powerline Adapter Kit, I used the IXChariot utility and I also performed a 1.2GB single file transfer of a movie file and a 1.4GB folder of pictures. I’m only testing from system to system, because I think that is what matters most. The speeds over the powerlines could by 1Tbps for all I care. If the speeds over ethernet are any slower, it is just going to bottleneck the data anyway.

I’m comparing the Rosewill RPLC 200P Powerline Adapter Kit to the Trendnet TPL-406E, which I have been using in my house for a few months now. The Trendnet TPL-406E is a 500Mbps kit, but it is around the same price-range as the RPLC 200P.

Results

As expected, the Trendnet 500Mbps kit outperformed the RPLC 200P Kit, but the Rosewill RPLC 200P Powerline Adapter Kit did perform well enough to suit my needs. The following chart show the average performance of both adapter kits in the various scenarios.

The IXChariot tests put both powerline adapter kits easily ahead of the WiFi.

In the small files transfer test, the WiFi does very well. As long as it is in the same room as the access point.

The WiFi struggles in the large file test as well, further solidifying the superiority of the powerline adapter kits.