Wi-Fi is great, but it’s not always an option. If you have a remote bedroom or even an outside office, you may struggle to get a decent connection. One option is to invest in an expensive mesh extender system, but in many cases that’s overkill. Powerline adapters are a much simpler solution – and much cheaper.
Powerline networks (or HomePlugs as they’re sometimes called) work by sending network traffic over the electrical wiring in your house. The hardware normally comes in the form of a pair of adapters, one of which connects to your router via Ethernet, and plugs into a mains socket near your router.
The other unit can then be plugged in anywhere else in your home to provide either a wired Ethernet connection or a Wi-Fi signal. Powerline networking isn’t as fast as a direct connection to your router, but it’s perfectly fine for work and even video streaming, and superbly quick and easy to set up. And if you need more connections in the future, you can simply plug in additional adapters.
If that sounds good to you, there’s plenty of brands and models to choose from. Here’s our guide to choosing the best powerline adapter for you, and our pick of the best buys.
How to choose the best powerline adapter for you
What are the different types of powerline adapter?
Not all powerline connections are the same: there are several different communication standards, promising different levels of performance. The HomePlug AV 500 standard is the most basic one you’re likely to come across, streaming data over the live and neutral wiring in your home at a theoretical top speed of 500Mbits/sec. More advanced models support the AV2 600, AV2 1000, AV2 1200 and AV 2000 standards; these use all three power cables (live, ground and neutral) to achieve better bandwidth, with the number indicating the maximum transfer speed in megabits per second.
This may seem like a lot of standards to cope with, but the good news is that they’re all backwards-compatible, so different adapter models can all work together, even if some are slower than others. Even adapters from different manufacturers should work seamlessly, as long as they all conform to compatible standards.
That’s the theory, anyway. In practice, there are two main companies that make HomePlug chipsets – Atheros and Qualcomm – and powerline adapters based on one chipset don’t always work perfectly with devices using another. If possible, it’s safest to stick to one standard and one manufacturer; if you want to mix and match, check user reviews to see if someone can confirm that your desired combination of adapters definitely works.
How fast do I need to go?
The transfer speeds detailed above may sound impressive, but they refer to theoretical capabilities, not real-world performance. The state of your home electric cabling, the type of cabling used, the design of the circuit, the distance between your adapters and interference from other appliances will all impact on performance. In practice, you won’t get anywhere near the advertised data rates.
That being the case, it’s tempting to go for the fastest adapters you can get. But as our reviews below indicate, different speed ratings don’t always translate to real-world performance benefits. If performance isn’t critical you won’t lose a lot by saving some cash and going for a mid-range package.
What else should I look out for?
Basic powerline adaptors typically come with a single Ethernet port, but pricier models may have two or three, which can be very handy for kitting out a home office. Check that the ports run at Gigabit speeds – the powerline connection won’t give you the full benefit of all that bandwidth, but older models may only have 100Mbits/sec ports, and that could bottleneck your connection.
Some adapters also include a built-in Wi-Fi access point. Again, check the connection speed, as many HomePlug AV adapters only support the older 802.11n Wi-Fi standard, rather than the newer and much faster 802.11ac.
One thing you shouldn’t have to worry about is security: the vast majority of powerline adapters use 128-bit AES encryption to ensure that no one can snoop on the data packets travelling around your home. It’s worth checking, though, to see if this is enabled by default.
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The best powerline adapters and kits you can buy
BT Broadband Extender 600 Kit: Best budget powerline networking kit
Price:£23 | Buy now from Amazon
BT’s AV2 600 kit is a hell of a deal. For just over £20 you get two adapters, each with a single Ethernet port. They’re already paired straight out of the box, so you can just plug them in and go, and adding new units is simple (although BT’s instructions could be clearer). Expansion options include adapters with a mains pass-through and models with built-in Wi-Fi access points, so the system can grow with your needs.
Unsurprisingly, this isn’t the fastest powerline system in the world. We saw top speeds of around 62MBits/sec for both reading and writing files, falling to 32Mbits/sec in the furthest room in the house. But if you’re just looking for a stable internet connection in a remote room or garden office, there’s no need to pay any more.
Key specs – HomePlug Standard: AV2 600; Ports on Adapter 1: 1 x GbE; Ports on Adapter 2: 1 x GbE; Wi-Fi: No; Mains passthrough: No
Trendnet TPL-420E2K: Best-value powerline kit
Price:£40 (kit), £28 (single unit) | Buy now from Amazon
Trendnet’s powerline kit isn’t quite as cheap as BT’s, but it’s much faster at short range: we saw top upload speeds of 116Mbits/sec, and download rates of 98Mbits/sec. Performance falls off at longer distances, averaging 31Mbits/sec from one end of the house to the other, but still, these units are well-built, work flawlessly and come paired out of the box. They’re also nice and compact, so you shouldn’t have a problem squeezing them into your mains sockets, and you can expand your network gradually by buying additional adapters singly or in pairs. It’s a shame that the Wi-Fi extender unit doesn’t seem to be available at present, but if you don’t need wireless this is a great, highly affordable powerline kit.
Key specs – HomePlug Standard: AV2 1200; Ports on Adapter 1: 1 x GbE; Ports on Adapter 2: 1 x GbE; Wi-Fi: No; Mains passthrough: No
TP-Link TL-PA9020P powerline starter kit: Best mid-range powerline kit
Price:£90 | Buy now from Amazon
The Homeplug AV2 2000 specification promises lightning-fast connections at up to 2,000Mbits/sec – but don’t get too excited. In our tests, this TP-Link kit actually delivered unremarkable top speeds of 103Mbits/sec upstream and 115Mbits/sec downstream, more or less on par with the much cheaper Trendnet.
Still, that’s plenty of performance for most file-transfer and streaming purposes, and the plugs themselves are nicely designed, with mains passthrough sockets, twin Ethernet ports and an upward orientation that provides easy access and won’t conflict with the skirting board. We also like the activity LEDs, which are discreet but clearly visible when you need them. And the whole thing just works, with zero setup needed; powerline networking doesn’t get much more straightforward or effective than this.
Key specs - HomePlug Standard: AV2 2000; Ports on Adapter 1: 2 x GbE; Ports on Adapter 2: 2 x GbE; Wi-Fi: No; Mains passthrough: Yes
TP-Link TL-WPA9610: Best-value powerline kit with Wi-Fi
Price:£95 | Buy now from Amazon
This HomePlug AV2 2000 kit doesn’t just give you a Gigabit Ethernet connection where you need it – it also provides a handy 802.11ac access point. We measured Wi-Fi speeds of around 92Mbits/sec; that’s a long way south of the theoretical 2,000Mbits/sec maximum, but it’s absolutely fine for typical home-office and entertainment duties.
The units themselves look neat and efficient, and the wireless network is very easy to set up, with just a couple of button presses required to replicate your router’s existing Wi-Fi settings. If you want to get more hands-on, there’s also a full web-based configuration interface. The one thing that’s lacking is a mains passthrough, but if you can live without that, this is a great, versatile powerline extender kit.
Key specs - HomePlug Standard: AV2 2000; Ports on Adapter 1: 2 x GbE; Ports on Adapter 2: 1 x GbE; Wi-Fi: 802.11ac; Mains passthrough: No
TP-Link AV2000 2-ports Gigabit HomePlug Powerline Wi-Fi extender adapter 2-Kit (TL-WPA9610 KIT)
Devolo dLAN 1200+ Wi-Fi AC: The best powerline kit on the market
Price:£130 (kit), £57 (GbE adaptor), £91 (GbE plus Wi-Fi adapter), £80 (3 x GbE adapter) | Buy now from Amazon
Devolo’s premium HomePlug kit is the fastest we’ve tested, giving us top speeds of around 130Mbits/sec. That drops off to around 60Mbits/sec at maximum range, but it’s still ahead of the competition. The 802.11ac wireless access point worked brilliantly too, giving us 97Mbits/sec over a 5GHz 802.11ac connection.
The tastefully designed adapters feature subtle activity indicators, Ethernet ports at the top and mains passthrough sockets at the bottom. Our only gripe is that the default Wi-Fi password is printed on the back of the extender, so you can’t see it while the unit is plugged in.
A final plus point is the great range of expansion units Devolo offers, making it easy to extend Ethernet to a second room, or set up an additional Wi-Fi access point where you need one. It’s the most expensive kit here, but a little extra money gets you a fast connection and bags of upgrade potential.
Key specs – HomePlug Standard: AV2 1200; Ports on Adapter 1: 1 x GbE; Ports on Adapter 2: 2 x GbE; Wi-Fi: 802.11ac; Mains passthrough: Yes
