Solwise Homeplug: No-hassle powerline networking

Wireless networking is convenient, but even the quickest variants are subject to the whims of radio waves and it's often pretty hard to get Wi-Fi to run at its top speed, especially with encryption turned on and a few walls in the way. So what's the solution when you really can't run an Ethernet cable? We'd suggest sending data over your home electrical cabling is as good a way as any.

Using electrical cables to transmit data isn't an especially new idea, but it's only recently that we are starting to see the sort of transmission speeds that make it more useful than Wi-Fi. The Solwise Homeplug NET-PL-200AV-PUSH has two distinctive features; the first is that it claims it can operate at 200Mbps. The other is that it will take you significantly less time to get it working than it does to say the name of the product.

The 200Mbps claim is somewhat spurious, especially given the plugs are only fitted with a 100Mbps Ethernet port. The 200Mbps really refers to the maximum speed the technology can achieve. In reality, you should expect throughput of less than 100Mbps. The actual speed you get will be dependent on the quality of your home wiring too, so you'll get better speeds in a new house than an old one.

But the fact is, these plugs are incredibly easy to use, and work like a dream. Hooking them up takes no time at all. You shove one in a mains socket near your router, and one near the device you want to connect to the Internet, and that's pretty much it. We did a little test with a D-Link DSM-330 and had absolutely no problem streaming both standard and high-definition material. It's not usually possible to get HD to stream over Wi-Fi, so we were immediately impressed.

There is encryption available if you need it, but that will only be relevant to people sharing houses who don't want anyone to connect to their network. It's certainly not as important as it is with Wi-Fi, because no one outside your house will be able to connect.

The Solwise Homeplug NET-PL-200AV-PUSH is available for about £40 each, and you'll need a minimum of two to get started. It really is like some magic is happening in your own home. -Ian Morris

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Comments (8)

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Comments

AnonymousTue 25 March, 2008 2:12pm

Would encryption be needed if you live in a block of flats, for example?

I mean, how big is the range of the transmitted network signal along the power lines?

AnonymousTue 25 March, 2008 3:59pm

I got a pair about 3 years ago. To start with they were fine - as magical as this article suggests - but now they don't work between floors in my house. I've no idea why and can't say that anything specific changed which may interfere with them. Answers please?

AnonymousWed 26 March, 2008 12:01am

I'm just thinking, being zapped with a load of these waves 24/7... any effect on us if we were power downloaders and kept these on even when we were sleeping?

AnonymousWed 26 March, 2008 12:38pm

I've been using Homeplug for a few months, mostly to connect my X360 to the internet/video share, and it's magnificent. Fast and reliable.

Ian MorrisThu 27 March, 2008 9:19am

First Anon, generally it's the consumer unit that prevents signals from leaving your property, so I'd suspect you won't need to worry about other flats. Still, the encryption is easy to use.

Second Anon, not sure why they won't work. Best advice would probably be to unplug as much stuff as you can, then try them. It might be a noisy item of electronics that is interfering with the homeplug signal.

DavidRGilsonFri 28 March, 2008 12:59pm

The reason these won't work between floors is because your upstairs circuit and your downstairs circuit are normally on different circuits.

One of the reasons someone from outside your house can't read your power-line network is because your house junction/fuse box acts as a firewall (i.e. is designed to block any electrical current from other circuits). Although you also have several circuits in your house coming from the fuse box. Therefore, trying to traverse different circuits in your house won't work because you're needing to traverse the fuse box.

You might be able to make an "Ethernet bridge" between floors by joining two of these sockets with a length of Ethernet up your stairs. I'm not sure about this though.

MothityFri 4 April, 2008 12:58am

Can someone please explain how they actually work. So, how do you get the device to recieve the internet connection? There doesn't appear to be any point where you attach any sort of cables. Do they recieve signal from a wireless router and then send that around the electrical wires in the walls and floor, where the signal happens across another one of these plugs that transmits the signal it recieves?