20.4.2018

Many people have complained about the unreliability here. I tried out quite a few different powerline adapters, and so far these were the only ones that did not produce a deafening, or at least loud, high pitched sound. Therefore, I was forced to persist with these, and I found out how to get them to work best. Note that I am reviewing the AV2+ standard adapters (the Flex 1000 line). I did try out the AV standard adapters (Flex 600 line) but these always dropped out seconds after being paired. Here are the steps I followed to get the Flex 1000s to work.1. The Extender 1000 (not the flex) should be used as the "distributor". This piece of kit creates a significantly stronger signal than the Extender Flex 1000s.2.The distributor should be plugged into a socket where ideally nothing else, or only very light devices are plugged in (e.g. lamps). Certainly, they must be plugged into a socket where no motor-machines (e.g. desktop computers, fans) are also plugged in. These create magnetic fields which greatly disrupt the distribution of the signal. This is true for all powerline adapters, but especially so for the BT ones.3. This may necessitate taking an ethernet cable a bit of a distance from the router to the distributor powerline adapter. In terms of impact on signal strength, this is absolutely fine.4. Placing the distributor close to the router will lead to a great drop in performance. This is because the powerline system uses radio frequency signals, sent through the cabling of the house - wifi from the router, also being radio-frequency, will disrupt this.5. The receivers should be located far away from motors of any type, and ideally in a socket of their own. However, if the distributor is located in an ideal location, then the receiver will still give very good speeds. I have a receiver right next to a desktop computer that gives a very usable 17 Mbit vs a practical maximum of 36 Mbit. Furthermore, receivers located 1.5m away from desktop computers give 32-34 Mbit.6. If you do have a device close to the receiver, then your receiver should be the Extender Flex 1000, and the device should be plugged into it. There should be no other device plugged into the adjacent socket in a double-socket. More devices plugged into different but nearby plug-socket pattresses are fine. However, any motor device (e.g. desktop computer) must be plugged into the powerline adapter.7. These extenders (like most other extenders) will not function reliably if extenders from other companies are also being used. TP-link adapters, for example, will disrupt the connection, even if they are not paired, simply as a result of being plugged in.8. Once you have physically set up the network, it is recommended that you turn off all the plugs in your house, then turn off all the sockets at the fuse-box for 15 minutes. For some reason, these adapters seem to benefit from this.9. Only after this, must you go around from powerline to powerline, pairing between the distributor Extender 1000 and the receiver Extender 1000s/Extender Flex 1000s. Although I am not sure, I think adapters paired last achieve higher speeds, compared to if they were paired earlier.10. Each adapter you add will reduce your speeds elsewhere by about 500 Mbit/s.Following these steps has given me, so far, a fast and stable connection without the high-pitched whine of other adapters. The connection does drop out occasionally, but the adapters are resilient to this and come back on a few seconds later. In my experience, this is unavoidable with all powerline adapters. Having said all this, I have only recently set these up, so if they do not prove reliable I will update the review.Update: A power-cut will necessitate a repetition of this process.Major Update: Having plug sockets with usb-ports installed elsewhere in the home will strongly harm the speed and reliability of these when motor-machines like desktops are plugged into them (the Flexes). My speed has reached nearly maximum network speed after replacing these plug sockets with standard ones, and furthermore power-cuts no longer have any impact.Major Update#2: Reliability of these will be nearly flawless when connected to the same ring circuit in the house. The connection will persist through power cuts. If they are connected on different ring then the connection will be dropped in the event of a power cut.Major Update#3: I can no longer recommend the standard (non-Flex) version of these. They only have a plastic earth, and it seems therefore that they are not surge protected. This means that in some routers they will cause the internet to drop off when there is a power fluctuation, even when the router is connected to a surge protector. I have replaced the central distributor with a 1000 Flex and my internet has become flawlessly reliable - not a single dropout or event.

28.3.2017

This is a review of the BT Broadband Extender 600 kit. What you get is two Broadband extenders, which look similar to 3-pin mains plugs other than the fact that they have three LEDs, an Ethernet socket and a “Link” button on each one, and two 2-metre Ethernet cables.The idea is pretty simple. You use these because you want to connect a device to your home network, or to the internet, and it is either out of reach of your wifi range or you want better performance. Therefore you plug one into the mains near your router, and connect it to one of your router’s Ethernet ports. You plug the other one into the mains near your device and connect it with the other Ethernet cable. All going well,you have a wired network connection to the internet, thanks to the data signal passing over your mains wiring.Note that this is NOT a wireless extender. However you could make it so by getting a wifi access point and using that as the remote device.It comes with an instruction leaflet but for a basic setup you hardly need it. Just plug in as above and go.I found it worked well. We have an internet radio in the kitchen and sometimes the wifi is dodgy. I used this instead and got a reliable connection.Very good; but there are few issues which I discovered. Now, one thing I like is that your network traffic is encrypted with the 128-bit AES standard, so your neighbour won’t be able to snoop on you via this thing. Another good feature is that you can get up to 16 of them and they should all work together, though you have to use the link button to add more extenders so it is slightly more fiddly.How is the performance though? Well, I have good news and bad. My router has Gigabit Ethernet so it is quite fast. I tried copying a large file over the network in three configurations, with the following results:Wifi (802.11n): about 2 MB/sBT Broadband Extender: about 12 MB/sWired direct to router: about 60 MB/sYou can see therefore that in my particular setup the Extender is much faster than wifi, but much slower than a direct wire to the router.The spec of the Broadband Extender is “Up to 600 Mbps”, hence the name “Extender 600”. That equates to about 75 MB/s so why could I not get the same rate as when wired directly to the router? Well, the 600 Mbps is described as “the maximum theoretical physical rate for this technology.” The Ethernet port on the other hand is only a 10/100 port, so it is a bit misleading, plus performance varies depending on the quality of your mains wiring, interference and so on.Still, I am not complaining since it is a very useful improvement over wifi speed in my case.One final point: the Extender is not meant to be plugged into an extension lead (though it might work), so you need to make sure you have enough mains sockets. I found myself wishing I had the different model called the Broadband Extender Flex, which has a passthrough socket to solve this problem.

3.4.2017

I’m reviewing what’s currently the most basic model in the line, the “Extender 600 Kit” without Flex. Amazon may cross-post this review onto other products in the same product line, there’s nothing I can do about that.I got these 600s as a replacement for the Powerline 500 that I was already using. On my older Powerline 500 devices, I found that occasionally the signal would drop out, but only for a few seconds- long enough for streaming Amazon Prime Video on the TV to stop. I was never sure whether this was the Powerline itself, or something else. The bad news for me is that these dropouts are still happening, despite the switch to this 600 model.So at least it shows that the issue is not with a single faulty Powerline device- though the fault could still be limitations in the wiring in our old house.Another thing I haven’t been able to crack yet is getting the 600s and the 500s to work on the same system. Swapping the 500s out and putting the 600s in worked immediately with no issues- the two 600s started talking to each other straight away. But when I want to connect the 500s in another room to get a 3rd and 4th network socket, the 500s don’t seem to want to talk to the 600s. I’ve read online that this *should* work, and read advice saying that you should link it from the source device closest to the router and so on, but thus far I haven’t cracked it. If I do manage to get this sorted, I’ll come back and update this review. Thankfully I wasn’t counting on this working, as I only really needed the Powerline in the one room where the WiFi is really poor.Both of the above problems are unique to ‘upgrading’ from older Powerline devices though. Buying them as a first set, as I imagine most people would, I still think they’re excellent. The data speed is (normally) good enough for streaming HD video from Netflix etc. The instructions are nice and clear, linking was pretty much immediate and so on. If linking two devices on different floors, be sure to read the tip in the instructions about pairing them in one room first, to save yourself unnecessary exercise...I do think my drop-out problems are unique to our house or our BT Broadband connection and not an indicator of a faulty product generally, so I’m not going to criticise it for that.I do think the design is more 4 stars than 5 stars though personally. I’m not all that keen on the bright green glowing LED lights that you can’t turn off; when your plug socket is visible in your peripheral vision when watching TV, it’s actually quite irritating. The 500s we have are black, and these are white, which is much more discreet and blends into the colour of the skirting board much better. So it’s more like 4-and-a-half stars from me.

8.6.2015

This really is a brilliant way of setting up a home network without wires trailing all over the house. Your router can be in the lounge linked to a smart TV or device such as a YouView box, using these adaptors a PC or non WiFi enabled laptop can link to the net in a bedroom with super-fast speeds.There are two adaptors supplied in the kit, they are exactly the same. There is no peering at labels or figuring out which one links with the router and which one plugs into the device.The adaptors both need to plug into a mains socket. They cannot be plugged into an extension lead. They aren't large (about the same size as a pack of 20 cigarettes). You will need a little bit of clearance above and below,

4.6.2016

I already have the 500 kit and was curious about the 600 kit as a way to increase coverage around my home. I'm happy to report that they work along side the 500 perfectly. So I have a 500 attached directly to the router and a 500 and 2 600 extenders placed around the house. 1 on my xbox, one on a laptop and another on a smart television and they all work really well together.Adding the two new 600 extenders to my network was a little fiddly however. The instructions state that you need to press the link button on any of the existing extenders on the network in order to get the new extenders recognised on the same network.

4.10.2016

Arrived before the delivery date. well packaged and great service from the seller.Love these things, bought two packs now to pipe broadband around my home. We live in poor area for TV reception via signals and I am not paying Sky's silly prices for multiroom for the kids to have TV. I am therefore left with streaming live TV for their bedrooms via android boxes. The wireless option was beginning to show signs of strain even for BT hub 5 on infinity 2 that I have; since about 7 devices including various mobile phones and a PC were demanding the signal. The line speed in my area is very good, far more than the 72 meg BT said I would get.

9.8.2016

I've been using this on pretty much a daily basis for just under a month now and it has served its purpose very well.I have an LG Smart TV with apps to stream Netflix, Prime etc. and despite having built in wi-fi the connectivity was reliably unpredictable, either dropping the connection mid-way through watching something or not being able to connect at all. I knew the problem was with the TV itself because all my other wirelessly connected devices worked fine. Supposedly, this issue is a common issues with Smart TVs that have built in wi-fi.In order to salvage one of the main reasons I wanted the TV, I bought this broadband extender kit hoping it would improve connectivity and it has done just that.

7.3.2018

I like that this set contains everything you need to get it working. I have them set up in addition to my Wi-Fi network, and in my case I find them useful for connecting up a wired device which is quite far from the router, and which doesn’t have a Wi-Fi facility. It was fairly simple to get them up and running, and it didn’t take me long either. I have the standard extender kit which does not have pass-through sockets, so in effect I lose the use of two sockets when these are fitted. Anyone who needs to use the sockets for other things at the same time should consider this version BT Broadband Extender Flex 600 Powerline Adaptor Kit with Pass-Through SocketCheck carefully that this set is what you’re looking for.

19.6.2015

I really didn't know what to expect with this set, I didn't even realise that it was possible to use the power cabling in a house as a way of extending broadband until I saw this.It's so easy to set up, literally take it out of the box and plug and play. The units are just like large adapter sockets, so they don't take much space and they are smart and discreet. They look well made and don't seem to get hot when in use, which is a gripe my husband has with lots of electrical things that need to be left on all the time. I think they have a power-saving mode built-in so don't waste much power anyway.We have been using our set with our PlayStation3 in the lounge,

24.8.2016

Only had these a short while so can't comment on any long term issues, but so far they are brilliant ! I get 36 Mbps from my Sky hub via an ethernet cable, so was interested to see how these would do. I need internet access in my loft but did not fancy drilling holes etc to run a cable up from the ground. In my loft I can get about 12 Mbps via wireless so wanted better than that. Plugged these in, and got 36 Mbps - happy me ! I should also add that although it says these do not work if plugged into an extension cable, I tried it anyway and still go 36 Mbps, so perhaps thats more a case of luck etc. I have found that the plugs do not work at all (no power light, no internet - nothing)

13.10.2019

Selecting powerline extenders is never easy, in part because of the variety of user reviews. However, having used BT network switches for some time now, I thought that I'd try these, so that I could connect my smart TV to my router located in another part of my home, using ethernet cables.Setup is straightforward: cable from router into one adapter, cable from the other adapter to the TV, switch on and see what happens. Overall, these things work if the source and destination devices are on the same household mains ring, which is certainly my case, but I did find an oddity during initial setup. Before connecting my TV, I used my laptop to connect to the adapter at the destination end of things to see what sort of speed I would get.

27.7.2017

These work, are easy to link to each other and set up... and they are relatively small and unobtrusive.They even play well with my old Simpler Networks AV200 powerline adapters that BT gave me ages ago. (In case it saves anyone some time, as I know there are a lot of them out there in people's houses, be aware that the synching instructions that came with the Simpler Networks AV200 adapters are WRONG and will mess you up badly - follow the instructions that come with these BT models instead - just press for two seconds, not one, to make the link.)Regarding speed, AV600 standard seems fine to me as the powerline adapters aren't anywhere near the limiting factor in my network speed.

8.12.2018

After upgrading to fiber internet and still only have speeds of around 3mb/s down and 1mb/s upload to my PC which is located upstairs, opposite side of the home, i ran my provider up about this. After confirming it was the distance that was the issue not my internet i looked to get a broadband extender. I was expecting modest results from this.It arrived in good time and condition, it comes with 2 decent lengths of Ethernet cable so is ready to set up out the box, i didn't even need the quick guide to set up. You plug one device into a free socket near your router(Either one works fine) with one Ethernet cable going into a free port of your router to the device and plug the other into a free

29.6.2015

The best compliment anyone could make about a bit of electronic kit is that you fit and forget it. With networks and computers that seems to be a tall order to say the least. However, I'm glad to report that BT (or whoever actually makes this) has done a sterling job. I simply plugged one unit into a convenient socket close to my network switching unit, plugged the ethernet cable into LAN 1 and repeated the process at the other end of my house, connecting a laptop.It connected immediately - no fuss, no drama, no passwords and IP addresses needed.Speed is extremely fast and I can surf at the full speed of my BT Infinity connection.Looks. Well as always this is subjective but these plug in extenders are well made and feel it.

8.4.2017

I was very impressed at just how easy this 2 unit extender kit was to set up.The instruction book is clear and straightforward and following the step-by-steps I had absolutely no problem in getting it up and running. The units in the kit use the wiring in your power sockets to channel the broadband signal, enabling you to run a PC/Laptop using an Ethernet cable connection in a room that doesn't have a telephone socket; all you need is a single broadband connection running your modem and you can potentially use any room in the house for cabled broadband – even set up multiple points if you have more units.I haven't noticed any significant slow-down in speed – I will run a comparative test when

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