Wireless network performance

First, let's take a look at the apartment that was used in our testing and how it is set up (the apartment has 753 square feet or 70 square meters). You can see that the router is placed in the living room. With most wireless routers, the signal strength is not that great in rooms like the kitchen. That's why we placed the powerline extender in the kitchen and this is where we made all our measurements. During our testing we used a very fast internet connection capable of downloads of 1 Gbps and of uploads up to 200 Mbps.

We used a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 for all our measurements and several software tools. To get a better perspective of the performance offered by the TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P kit, we compared it with one of its main competitors: ASUS PL-AC56. The two devices have similar specs and are direct competitors in this niche.

We started by evaluating the 2.4 GHz wireless network and measured the signal strength offered, using a tool named inSSIDer. As you can see below, the signal strength that was delivered by TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P was very good.

Then, we measured the speed of the internet connection on the 2.4 GHz wireless frequency, using SpeedTest. TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P offered very good download and upload speeds, better than our router and its competitor.

Then, we used LAN Speed Test Lite to measure the wireless download and upload speeds when transferring a 350MB file through the network. The results were very similar to what we measured with SpeedTest.

When it comes to the 2.4 GHz wireless network, our conclusion is that the TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P powerline WiFi kit can deliver very fast wireless connections.

Next, we analyzed the performance offered by the 5GHz wireless network. First, we looked at the signal strength. TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P delivered solid signal strength, even though it was not as good as its competitor.

However, the signal strength doesn't tell you how fast a connection is. So we used SpeedTest to measure the speed of the internet connection offered by TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P on the 5GHz frequency. As you can see below, TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P was very fast.

Lastly, we used LAN Speed Test Lite to measure the wireless download and upload speeds when transferring a 350MB file through the network. Again, TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P was a top performer.

The wireless network that is broadcast by the TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P powerline kit on the 5GHz frequency is very fast.

Wired network performance

The TP-LINK AV1200 Gigabit passthrough powerline WiFi kit (TL-WPA8630P) offers three Ethernet ports so that you can connect up to three devices. In order to test the quality of the wired Ethernet connection, we used a desktop PC, equipped with an Intel Core i5 4460 processor, running at 3.20GHz, 16GB of RAM and a very fast Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD and a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 with an Intel Core i5-4300U processor, running at 1.9 GHz, 8 GB of RAM and a fast 256 GB SSD drive from Samsung. We connected the Surface Pro 3 to the TL-WPA8630P kit and the desktop PC to the router.

First, we measured the download and upload speeds using SpeedTest. TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P delivered an average download speed of 198.35 Mbps, which is a good result, but not as fast as what its competitor was able to deliver.

Then, we used LAN Speed Test Lite to measure the wireless download and upload speeds when transferring a 350MB file through the network. Again, TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P was slightly slower than its competitor ASUS PL-AC56, which we reviewed here.

TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P is able to deliver real-life Ethernet connections of up to 200 Mbps, which is slightly slower than what other competing devices can deliver.

Extra features

When you see how simple the user interface of this device is, you might assume that it doesn't offer much in terms of extra features. However, this is not the case. The TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P has to offer the following extras:

• Mobile and desktop apps for administering the kit on Windows computers as well as smartphones with Android and iOS.
• Two guest networks: one for each wireless band (2.4GHz and 5GHz).
• A WiFi scheduler that allows you to set when the powerline kit broadcasts its wireless signal.
• A MAC filter for blocking or allowing access for certain devices to the network.
• A LED scheduler so that you can turn off the LEDs at night, so that they don't bother you when sleeping. You can also turn the LEDs off completely, at all times.
• A simple QoS (Quality of Service) feature that allows you to prioritize basic types of network traffic.
• Basic parental controls that allow you to set a schedule for when your children's devices can access the internet.

You will appreciate some of the extra features that are bundled on the TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P powerline kit. They are easy to configure and some of them may be very useful to you.

Pros and cons

The TP-LINK TL-WPA8630 P powerline kit has the following strengths:

• It allows you to extend the coverage of your network in places where your router's wireless signal doesn't reach
• It offers very fast wireless networks on both bands: 2.4GHz and 5GHz
• The user interface looks good and it is easy to use
• The documentation is easily available and it explains all the technical terms you might have issues with
• It includes useful extras like mobile apps for managing the kit, guest networks and the QoS feature

There a couple of downsides too:

• The user interface is available only in English
• The speed of the Ethernet connection offered by TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P is slower than that of competing devices
• It's expensive

Verdict

"TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P AV1200 Gigabit Passthrough Powerline AC Wi-Fi Kit" is a very long and confusing product name but that doesn't mean that the product is not good or user friendly. On the contrary, the setup of this powerline kit is relatively simple. If you follow the quick user guide that's found inside the box, you should have no issues. Also, the performance you get after configuring this device is very solid. TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P is a very good choice for those interested in extending the coverage of their wireless network in areas where their router's wireless signal doesn't arrive. It's also a perfect choice for high-speed devices that require fast network connections. So far, TP-LINK TL-WPA8630P is the best powerline WiFi kit that we have tested and we highly recommend it to all our readers.