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| Panasonic BL-PA100A HD-PLC Ethernet Adaptor | 
 enlarge | List Price: $99.00
Buy New: $36.99
You Save: $62.01 (63%)
Buy New/Used/Refurbished from $36.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 19 reviews)
Category: CE
Publisher: Panasonic
Studio: Panasonic
Brand: Panasonic
Label: Panasonic
Media: Electronics
Autographed: 0
Memorabilia: 0
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 4 x 7 x 5
MPN: BL-PA100A
Model: BL-PA100A
UPC: 037988845064
EAN: 0037988845064
ASIN: B000FZVTSW
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | HD-PLC as the Core of a Home Network | | • | Easy Setup - No PC Required | | • | Connect Through Any AC Outlet in Your Home | | • | Use up to 16 adapters per network |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A groundbreaking option in no-new-wires connections, the new BL-PA100 is a product that makes it extremely easy to set up a robust network for connecting devices. A reliable network capable of carrying high-definition video content required running dedicated cabling between devices, a possibly expensive and time-consuming venture. With a Wireless LAN, wireless interference and network collisions are a significant problem for many users, in some cases causing the network to drop out or suffer extremely poor bandwidth capacity, and it might be difficult for the average person to properly set the security code (WEP), thereby risking online security. The BL-PA100 adaptor eliminates these, and other, hassles associated with this process. Simply plug the adaptor into an electric power outlet, plug your PC or other peripheral, such as a Panasonic IP network camera, into the adaptor's Ethernet port and you're ready to go. The HD-PLC (High Definition Power Line Communication) ethernet adaptor makes it possible for your home electrical wiring to serve as a link between your PC and modem. Getting online access is as easy as plugging into a power outlet. You can move your PC and connect to the internet anywhere there is a power outlet in your home.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
Does Exactly What It's Supposed To Do November 20, 2008
Added third adapter. Worked right out of the box. Setup is a snap. Gives rough estimate of its own connection speed. Speed is good, but could be better, not as fast as router. One must pay attention to instructions: Do not plug adapter into power strip. Do not plug AC adaptors or chargers into same socket as adapter.
 It works!!! November 19, 2008
I was very skeptical that this would work, but it works great. You need at least two, One's the master the other you hook to the computer that you want to set up to the internet. I bought two, now I have Five.
My Easiest Networking Setup Experience October 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought a set of Panasonic's powerline network adaptors to get a relatively high speed connection (up to 190 Mbps) to a location that was out of range of my wireless-G network. I could have bought hardware to extend the range of the wireless net, but the price/performance of the Panasonic product made more sense. The plan was to add two Macs and a PC to my network. I've been burned setting up home networks before, so I was skeptical as to how easy this would be.
I decided to start with one of the Macs. Set-up was absolutely easy. It took maybe 15 minutes. The few necessary directions worked exactly as written. Even better, there was nothing to configure on the computer. The job consisted of plugging one unit (the master) into an AC receptacle near my DSL router and running an ethernet cable between the unit and DSL router. The second unit (the slave) gets plugged into a receptacle near the computer you want on the network, and another ethernet cable goes between it and the computer. Amazingly, everything just worked.
To hook up all three computers, I unplugged the ethernet cable from the first Mac and plugged it into a Netgear 4 port dual speed ethernet hub. Then I ran three ethernet cables between the hub and each of the three computers. Once again it just worked.
I've been heavily using this configuration trouble free for about eight months. It's worked so well that last week, when I needed to move one of the Macs to a new location in my house, I bought another Panasonic adapter from Amazon. Adding this new slave adaptor took 10 minutes and, as before, did not require any configuration changes to the Mac.
If I want to expand this set-up further I can add more slave adaptors (up to 15). Obviously you'd need pretty fast Internet service for 15 computers to surf the net simultaneously. In my house my computers aren't all used at the same time, so things are generally pretty fast.
Last, I read some of the other reviews and noticed not all are as glowing as mine. While I found Panasonic's product highly reliable and easy to set up, I can guess what happened to some of these folks. First, while the adaptors are relatively simple devices, they are electrical and are subject to damage, interference and misuse. If the adaptors are damaged it should be fairly obvious because each unit has three colored lights to report various status and error conditions. I'll bet damaged units are pretty rare.
As for misuse, the instructions are clear and contain only a few steps, but must be followed exactly - including running a straight forward speed test that must pass before you plug the ethernet cable into your computer.
Interference is probably the biggest source of problems. Panasonic is quite specific about the potential for this sort of problem.
The adaptors ideally must be plugged into an actual AC receptacle that is not shared by another device that could generate interference, like a power block for a low voltage device (i.e., laptops, printers, speakers, phones - almost everything, these days). Power blocks are really stepdown transformers that produce electric fields that can disrupt powerline network signals. Likewise, you should avoid plugging adaptors into a power strip, which may contain circuitry that can create interference, or may have a power block or two plugged in.
Panasonic sells a high quality, well documented product that has worked well for me. Note that most of the technical points cited above will apply to any powerline networking product from any manufacturer.
 Didn't work at all September 28, 2008
I bought these for a friend who asked me to investigate. I thought if they worked - I would keep them. I purchased a 'pair' and an additional remote unit for my personal environment.
I could NOT make them work unless both parts were powered through the same electrical outlet. I sent them all back and took a hit on return shipping plus a restock charge on the 'single' unit I bought. I ended up buying something else that worked like a dream for my friend and he still has them. For me... I'm still suffering with a bad wireless signal.
I should point out that I have an electrical engineering background, and worked with power-line carriers 30 years ago in one of my first jobs. So - for these things to 'stump' me... they had to be pretty bad.
Fantastic product September 1, 2008
For some reason, wireless routers do not work in my home. I've tried several brands and none seem to really work. The Panasonic system does the trick. I can get Internet anywhere in my house now. I was thinking about running wires through the house, but with a couple adapters, there is no need.
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