@PeterRoc 

I can agree with you I never saw an ethernet controller limited to 100mbit but advertising a full gigabit speed. Although this is technically possible, I think this is against the ethernet standard specification.

I have to say that as the PLC app reports a speed well beyond 100mbit, I think that they could be actually limiting via the firmware. I'm not sure about the bug thing, how could they (TP-Link) miss a 'gigabit ethernet powerline adapter' working at 100mbit? And it has been available for many years...

@robertogl 

 

If they are limiting it artificially, that would be shooting themselves in the foot. It's not that it's impossible to reverse engineer the firmware(umm...that may be an interesting idea...). I've sent already an email to their Technical Support, and if I don't get a reply from them, it will be 4 devices that they will get returned from me for not working as expected.

I've tried to talk with the technical support, but they are always ending the conversation with 'This is the expected behaviour' and they do not answer anymore. So... I don't know.

@robertogl 

 

Well, the expected behavior they will have from me is returning the devices if I get that kind of answer. And to be honest, that will be disappointing, all the devices that I've purchased from TP-Link were of good quality and they still are working flawlessly (soho managed switches). I was planning the purchase of a new switch but guess I hve to wait and see...

I'm also using a lot of TP-Link devices, in particular the USB switches are really good (well, on a consumer grade). But these powerline adapters...

@robertogl

 

After digging a bit, I've found that there's at least a second vendor using the same BCM960355 as TP-Link with the TL-PA7010P, and that vendor is Tenda, more specifically in the PH3 AV1000 model (notice the AV1000...). I was even able to flash one of my units with the Tenda firmware. Same 100Mbps result though. The interesting news is that I've found the former project manager for this Broadcom chipset. Crossing fingers that he won't mind to confirm what's going on and/or not constrained by any NDA.

@PeterRoc 

Thanks for the information.

Keep us posted.

@robertogl 

 

Hi.

Understandably, the person that I did contact can't answer the question due to an NDA. Regarding the problem with the failled firmware update, the technicall support in my country sent me an email with the procedure for a hardware reset, which I will leave it for others:

 

With the plc pluged in, press the Pair button until the power led turn off momently and turn on again.

 

As for me, I don't have the time and patience to fiddle with closed source firmware so I'm returning all my PLCs. There are PLCs on the market with Qualcomm chips and I think I will give them a try, at least not leaving the store before testing them there or sending an email to AVM questioning them if their PLCs are limited also.

 

Cheers

@PeterRoc 

Thank you for your experience.

I cannot return my PLCs unfortunately, but I will not buy anymore this type of device from TP-Link.