INTRODUCTION

   Although the very first powerline adapters made their appearance in the market roughly a decade ago and have been covered by media such as ours ever since many consumers (if not most of the people i know) are still not aware of them. Now at first i have to admit that powerline adapters had very little more to offer in terms of performance compared to Wi-Fi but they were more secure and for some people that was more than enough. Today however although powerline adapters are still nowhere near to competing with wired connectivity they usually offer higher and more stable data transfer rates compared to even some of the fastest routers in the market. TP-Link has released quite a few powerline adapter models over the years and for the past week we've been using their latest TL-PA9020P AV2000 2-Port Gigabit Passthrough Powerline Adapter Kit.

   Founded in 1996, TP-Link is a global provider of reliable networking devices and accessories, involved in all aspects of everyday life. The company is consistently ranked by analyst firm IDC as the No. 1 provider of WLAN and broadband CPE devices, according to latest published IDC Worldwide Quarterly WLAN Tracker Report, Q32016 Final Release, supplying distribution to more than 120 countries and serving hundreds of millions of people worldwide. With a proven heritage of stability, performance and value, TP-Link has curated a portfolio of products that meet the networking needs of all individuals. Now, as the connected lifestyle continues to evolve, the company is expanding today to exceed the demands of tomorrow.

   Up until recently the most advanced powerline adapters promised speeds (theoretical always, not achievable) of up to 1200Mbps but with the TL-PA9020P adapter kit TP-Link has introduced adapters with a theoretical maximum speed of up to 2000Mbps. Now we don't know the exact hardware differences between these 2000Mbps models and 1200Mbps models but we do know that they enjoy a slightly wider data bandwidth of 86MHz compared to the 67MHz of the 12000Mbps models (they all use Gigabit Ethernet ports however so the results shouldn't vary much). These new models fully support the HomePlug AV2 standard (compatible with AV2 powerline adapters) and feature 2 RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet Ports, Integrated power socket, 2x2 MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) with Beamforming technology, Patented Power-Saving Mode (reduced electrical consumption up to 85%) and AES 128-bit hardware encryption. So time for us to see just how fast these new powerline adapters really are.