How good are these "powerline" adapters?
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I bought a Neat gear XE103 which has a single Ethernet plug, then at the other end in my workshop, I have a XE104 which has four Ethernet plugs. THis means I have a four port switch included. Baragin for under £90 - save on wireless trouble and no cabling -Result!!
Becareful. Make sure you have adequate security and encyption in place as anyone on the same power line can access your data or PC. In otherwords, your neighbour will be able to see those pictures you took of that poor girl you had in your room last week.
Becareful. Make sure you have adequate security and encyption in place as anyone on the same power line can access your data or PC. In otherwords, your neighbour will be able to see those pictures you took of that poor girl you had in your room last week.
I'll only want the following.
Router to homeplug >> homeplug to netgear switch..
As for security my DHCP range is reserved and the subnet is locked down to 255.255.255.252
I'll probably turn off the DHCP too and the Ip range will not by the standard 192.168.x.x
How much overhead is there on the encryption etc?
As for PC security, there is the normal AV and firewalls in place as part of vista
Router to homeplug >> homeplug to netgear switch..
As for security my DHCP range is reserved and the subnet is locked down to 255.255.255.252
I'll probably turn off the DHCP too and the Ip range will not by the standard 192.168.x.x
How much overhead is there on the encryption etc?
As for PC security, there is the normal AV and firewalls in place as part of vista
More than that! Devolo web site says
"Using the dLAN® 200 AVpro2 / dLAN® 200 AVpro2 i, you can generate cluster sizes with up to 63 slaves—"
Do you want 63?
For the home network it says
Question:
What is the maximum number of dLAN adapters in a single-family home?
Answer:
The optimum application is no more than 15 dLAN adapters in a fully loaded HomePlug network.
"Using the dLAN® 200 AVpro2 / dLAN® 200 AVpro2 i, you can generate cluster sizes with up to 63 slaves—"
Do you want 63?
For the home network it says
Question:
What is the maximum number of dLAN adapters in a single-family home?
Answer:
The optimum application is no more than 15 dLAN adapters in a fully loaded HomePlug network.
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I've got 5 Netgear HDX101's in my house for PC & Xbox 360 across 3 floors and they all work great.
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I have 2 Devolo AV units. I chose mine for a number of reasons
1) 3 year warranty
2) the box is on a flex so you don't have a huge bulky unit blocking up an adjacent socket
3) It uses the homeplug AV std, not the other competing (spanish?) one.
4) Wireless blows - i don't to lose my internet everytime i microwave something
5) Kit of 2 is £100 (ish)
Some one i know who re-sells them says the solwise ones have quite a high failure rate.
Netgear XE103's are currently being recalled
I would rate Powerline adaptors as excellent, like many other people I find they work just fine in an extension too despite it not being reccomended. But avoid plugging them into a strip that also has a bunch of cheap switchmodes in (phone chargers etc).
1) 3 year warranty
2) the box is on a flex so you don't have a huge bulky unit blocking up an adjacent socket
3) It uses the homeplug AV std, not the other competing (spanish?) one.
4) Wireless blows - i don't to lose my internet everytime i microwave something
5) Kit of 2 is £100 (ish)
Some one i know who re-sells them says the solwise ones have quite a high failure rate.
Netgear XE103's are currently being recalled
I would rate Powerline adaptors as excellent, like many other people I find they work just fine in an extension too despite it not being reccomended. But avoid plugging them into a strip that also has a bunch of cheap switchmodes in (phone chargers etc).
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From
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/01/22/review_netgear_hdx101/
"If you already have 14Mbps or 85Mbps HomePlug-based powerline adaptors in place, any HDX101s you add will happily co-exist with them, Netgear claims. But don't expect them to communicate with each other. Opera is incompatible with HomePlug 1.0 (14Mbps) and HomePlug 1.0 Turbo Mode (85Mbps). Nor is it compatible with HomePlug AV. Which, in case you were wondering, isn't compatible with the slower HomePlug specifications either but, again, will co-exist with them.
So don't expect a Netgear HDX101 to talk to a Devolo DLAN 200 AVdesk like the one I reviewed last week or the Solwise HomePlug AV 200Mbps I'll be looking at in due course.
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Sounds a minefield!
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/01/22/review_netgear_hdx101/
"If you already have 14Mbps or 85Mbps HomePlug-based powerline adaptors in place, any HDX101s you add will happily co-exist with them, Netgear claims. But don't expect them to communicate with each other. Opera is incompatible with HomePlug 1.0 (14Mbps) and HomePlug 1.0 Turbo Mode (85Mbps). Nor is it compatible with HomePlug AV. Which, in case you were wondering, isn't compatible with the slower HomePlug specifications either but, again, will co-exist with them.
So don't expect a Netgear HDX101 to talk to a Devolo DLAN 200 AVdesk like the one I reviewed last week or the Solwise HomePlug AV 200Mbps I'll be looking at in due course.
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Sounds a minefield!
Should be no problem provided they are to the same standard (please double check this!).
Specific statement of "Homeplug" standard seems to be more reliable indicator of compatibility than vague indications of powerline standards etc.
For homeplug AV vs slower Homeplug 1 devices the homeplug alliance say
Homeplug AV
HomePlug 1.0 Coexistence
The AV PHY enables coexistence and interoperability with HomePlug 1.0 devices. The specification requires coexistence but interoperability is optional. Coexistence means that AV devices are capable of the low-level communications with 1.0 devices needed to share the medium, but not necessarily the ability to communicate payload data. An optionally
interoperable device has the ability to communicate payload data with 1.0 devices.
So if your homeplug AV unit has the optional interoperbility hardware/firmware it will allow homeplug 1 to work and swap data with it otherwise it will allow homeplug 1 to work but not swap data between homeplug 1 to homeplug AV devices.
Solwise AV units have a ver 2 firwmare avilable for download that says its not interoperable, previus v1 units were interoperable.
No surge protection or line conditioning filter out the signals generated by the powerline/homeplug units.
use powerline/homeplug on the main socket or possibly an ordinary unprotected trailing extension if you must extend.
I think it is just that the plugs themselves need to know the password etc. to allow the signal to then pass through the Ethernet cable to the connected machine - this part of the loop is not protected, but the idea is that someone else cannot plug in their own plug somewhere nearby and then hook up a PC without knowing the password
I have a wireless n network at home, but still cannot rely on the signal further down my garden....was thinking of getting something along these powerline things to use from my shed (which has mains power) .... but ideally would then want one end to have a built-in wireless AP so that I can use the laptop etc. without the need for an ethernet cable.....but the only such ones I have seen tend to have a rather hefty premium
of course, could just get a regular wireless AP but that kinda defeats the object by getting progressively more messy and expensive....
I have a wireless n network at home, but still cannot rely on the signal further down my garden....was thinking of getting something along these powerline things to use from my shed (which has mains power) .... but ideally would then want one end to have a built-in wireless AP so that I can use the laptop etc. without the need for an ethernet cable.....but the only such ones I have seen tend to have a rather hefty premium
of course, could just get a regular wireless AP but that kinda defeats the object by getting progressively more messy and expensive....
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No, the security is in the hardware, the only software needed at all is if you want to monitor connection speeds and change the default security password from a PC
If you get units from the same maker with the same password you can just plug them in and do nothing else at all, takes longer to open the box than to get them working.
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I've just choked on my cornflakes after reading that.
LOLA set arrived this morning to replace a shoddy phone extension.
Plugged one in, then the other. Plugged one into my Router. Plugged the other into a Switch which connects to my machine and a 360.
Turned everything on and it just worked! Great technology.
Highly recommended if you have flaky wireless or don't like wires arouind the house.
Got neighbours with mains electricity?
Got external sockets for garden tools?
Do you trust everybody in your house and visiting?
Are you in a shared property?