14Mbps Homeplug kit £49.99 - E:23/01/07

whitedot

If, like me, you have found wireless internet broadcasting around your home utterly useless then you may have heard of a Homeplug solution. Basically it lets you use the power lines in your home to transport the signal from your router around and terminate anywhere where you plug in an adapter.

More information can be found here: http://www.homeplug.org/flash/loop_homeplug01.swf and http://www.solwise.co.uk/images/pl-14pe-scenario.jpg

Anyway, the following 14Mbps (throughput is good enough for 4-6meg in broadband terms) adapters - £49.99 set of two - are on offer at Maplin: http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=97634

PS - I am aware that one can buy the Solwise branded adapters for slightly less online at https://www.solwise.co.uk but the ones from Maplin are available in-store at the same price.

greyster

There are millions of people on powerline broadband in the US and I think its been trialled over the last few years in the north, maybe Scotland....

Glad to see that there is a LAN product based on this out, lets hope some powerline ISPs pop up over the coming years to compete with BT and cable broadband.

Bulwer

I've been using this method of networking for 2 years now. The first gen products used to need resetting once in a while as they locked up but the ones I bought 6 months ago have been fine. Really easy to set up - run a cable from your router into one homeplug which plugs into any 13a socket. Plug the other one in where you want and run a cable from it to your PC. Job done.

Word of warning - this systems sends data using very mini power surges. I found out the hard way that plugging one into a surge protected power strip causes it to shutdown if speeds get too high. Just plug it straight into a socket or into a non surge protected extension block and you should be fine.

whitedot

Just an update, I am taking these plugs back as they top out at 2meg for me (I have a 4.5meg line). I bought the 85Mbps versions instead - Devolo kit for £89.99 at Staples in-store - instead as it gives me full speed. This is not to say that the ones in the original post will not be fine for someone else, it may just be my power circuit, just thought i'd be honest and let people know.

Again though, it shows the benefit of these being a decent price in-store so one can test them without the messing around sending back online purchases if unsatisfactory.

quoia

whitedot wrote:

Just an update, I am taking these plugs back as they top out at 2meg for me (I have a 4.5meg line). I bought the 85Mbps versions instead - Devolo kit for £89.99 at Staples in-store - instead as it gives me full speed. This is not to say that the ones in the original post will not be fine for someone else, it may just be my power circuit, just thought i'd be honest and let people know.

Again though, it shows the benefit of these being a decent price in-store so one can test them without the messing around sending back online purchases if unsatisfactory.

I'm wondering if you might have "shot yourself in the foot" (or are about to) over what you think you already have and what you think you are going get with the Devolo.

You say you " have a 4.5meg line " (I presume this is an ADSL Max - up to 8 meg) that runs at this speed due the distance from your exchange to your house and the quality of the copper in between.

You also say these Maplin units "top out at 2meg for me"

You are comparing like for like on these 2 figures aren't you ?

It's just that your 4.5 meg line is MEGA BITS (not bytes) and these Maplin HomePlug Ethernet adapters are 14 (FOURTEEN) Mbps (megaBITS per second)

So in theory they are THREE times fasters than your ADSL link.
Even with only a 50% transfer capacity of actual data bits and the other 50% taken up with networking control, redundancy, correction, navigation and acknowledgement bytes and packets it would still run at 7 meg !

Accordingly, I also find it "odd", that IF your figures are correct the speed of your ADSL over the 3 or 4 kilometres of probably very old copper telephone cabling (that has been subjected to all weathers and temperatures) is at least twice as fast as the speed you can achieve over probably no more than 50 feet of relatively very good condition copper wiring that has not be subjected to the elements.

Is it possible your 2 meg "top out" figure is in BYTES and not BITS ?
Afterall 14 megaBITS equates to approximately 1.75 megaBYTES.

Regards your PS - "I am aware that one can buy the Solwise branded adapters for slightly less online at https://www.solwise.co.uk but the ones from Maplin are available in-store at the same price."

If you subscribe to the Maplin email newsletter you will be sent personalised discount codes to be used against orders for the current newsletter offer period of about a month.
If you buy a 6p diode with these adapters making the order over £50, you would be able to get at least a £3 discount making them only £46.99
Additionally ANY order from Maplin that is £35 or more (BEFORE any discounts are applied) are delivered FREE - so you don't even have to go to a store to get them at this price.

blinky

This type of Ethernet over power adaptors are supposed to work well. There's a write up on some at www.adslguide.org

Just remember the point about not using surge protected power sockets - which is a bit of a pain (your PC is surge protected right?). Until now the price has been a bit high.

Wireless is a bit of a black art so if your home isn't wireless friendly these are a good option. Running Cat5e or Cat6 around the house would be better but it can be a pain to do.

HuseinK

what i was wondering about these is do the pcs have to be on the same ring main.
one of my pcs is on the 1st floor ring main and one on the 2nd floor ring main n one on a another ring main, n all have seperate fuses on the consumer unit

suniil

good ones, i've been using both 14/85 mbps version since 2005 still not enough for high definition streaming.

but how come this on grabbit board, as the pricing doesn't seem to be a bargain

blinky

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/hardware/reviews/2005/q4/solwiseplug.html
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/hardware/reviews/2005/q3/devolo85.html
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/hardware/reviews/2004/q4/devolo.html

also check the devolo site

I suspect that they will work across 2 separate ring mains but I cannot be certain.

whitedot

quoia wrote:

I'm wondering if you might have "shot yourself in the foot" (or are about to) over what you think you already have and what you think you are going get with the Devolo.

You say you " have a 4.5meg line " (I presume this is an ADSL Max - up to 8 meg) that runs at this speed due the distance from your exchange to your house and the quality of the copper in between.

You also say these Maplin units "top out at 2meg for me"

You are comparing like for like on these 2 figures aren't you ?

It's just that your 4.5 meg line is MEGA BITS (not bytes) and these Maplin HomePlug Ethernet adapters are 14 (FOURTEEN) Mbps (megaBITS per second)

So in theory they are THREE times fasters than your ADSL link.
Even with only a 50% transfer capacity of actual data bits and the other 50% taken up with networking control, redundancy, correction, navigation and acknowledgement bytes and packets it would still run at 7 meg !

Accordingly, I also find it "odd", that IF your figures are correct the speed of your ADSL over the 3 or 4 kilometres of probably very old copper telephone cabling (that has been subjected to all weathers and temperatures) is at least twice as fast as the speed you can achieve over probably no more than 50 feet of relatively very good condition copper wiring that has not be subjected to the elements.

Is it possible your 2 meg "top out" figure is in BYTES and not BITS ?
Afterall 14 megaBITS equates to approximately 1.75 megaBYTES.

I tried the Devolo plugs last night and my speed tests are at the speed I get with my router plugged directly into my test socket, around 4500kbps. With the aforementioned 14Mbps homeplugs I was getting speed test results of 2000kbps.

I too thought the 14Mbps plugs would be able to cope with my speed but clearly they are not.

whitedot

suniil wrote:

but how come this on grabbit board, as the pricing doesn't seem to be a bargain

I stated previously that this is not necessarily a bargain, but that the pricing is good for an in-store purchase. As I have found myself, being an in-store purchase means they are far easier to return. It's an offline grabbit if you like.