Reviews - Power Ethernet Sockets

[HEXUS]

Powerline networking has never looked so good.

Read more.

[Bunjiweb]

Fantastic idea, if I had the cash I'd be changing a bunch of sockets in my house for these!

[marshalex]

Fantastic idea, if I had the cash I'd be changing a bunch of sockets in my house for these!

Me too, the 4 port switches built in make them an even better option but the price is just stupid, considering 2 powerline adaptors (500mb) and a gigabit switch can be had for under £50. Hopefully the next revision will be cheaper and have more features as the article suggests (usb charging ports would be a fantastic addition!)

[lodore]

I saw these awhile ago and think they are a nice idea. the price put me off as well.

[valhar2000]

I've been considering using various techniques to hide cables around the house. It would require a lot more work than installing one of these things, but given the price of this adapter and the the superior speed of an actual cable, I think it's a neck and neck.

This is, nonetheless, a good idea, and I hope they keep releasing new products.

[aeonf242]

Also lacks an on/off switch! Pretty obvious omission!

[Hicks12]

have i missed something, first benchmark/graph says top score of 31Mb/s... but its rated at 200Mb/s? How is that considered good when its like 6.5x slower than its rated speed?. Did you mean to put MB/s?

Seems like a simple and useful idea but the execution of that idea is poor IMO, so bloody expensive id rather just get wireless router placed all round my house for less money...


To me it should have a built in wireless module that way it can work as a solid extension to the wifi, for myself im unlucky my room is right at the back of the house and the router is at the front 1 floor down, i drop out alot so i gave up but will install wireless to my room at some point, wired is solid as always .

[Roobubba]

I've just upgraded my old Netgear XE104 set to a couple of Netgear 500Mbps Nano (XAVB5101) plugs. Not as neat as changing your socket, but also not as permanent and easier to move around the house if/when I need to. And they're fast! I did consider these fixings, but reasoned that if I was going down that road, then I might just as well just lay some CAT6 throughout the house and get proper gigabit speeds. As it is, the nano500 homeplugs are very, very fast, cost less (I think?) and are more portable (like going to friends' houses for LANs etc where perhaps we all end up in a non-networked room). I can thoroughly recommend them!

Roo

[Steve]

have i missed something, first benchmark/graph says top score of 31Mb/s... but its rated at 200Mb/s? How is that considered good when its like 6.5x slower than its rated speed?. Did you mean to put MB/s?

Refer to the other results in that graph as well. All are significantly below the stated data rate. This is because the link level speed rarely equals the effective speed obtained when you want to bung a payload down that link, due to all the overheads involved in using shared resources like airwaves and powerlines. All things considered though, it does pretty well.

I'd love it if the unit was a little more modular, so that I could drop an upgraded version in a few years down the line...

[tigertop1]

I am sold on Power ethernet plugs having installed 4 or 5 around the house with great success

The socket idea is a natural progression but it needs the modifications already pointed out and a BIG price drop to succceed

[synaesthesia]

Looks good but aren't these the same as the ones Solwise have been punting at less money for ages?

[crossy]

Me too, the 4 port switches built in make them an even better option but the price is just stupid, considering 2 powerline adaptors (500mb) and a gigabit switch can be had for under £50.

Hmm, £50 wouldn't get you decent gear, the PLE's especially if the sub-£20 mark are likely to be "no name" units that are bl**dy unreliable and run hellish hot to boot. (Voice of experience - I had three literally cook themselves). On the other hand the Devolo's that I use at the moment - whilst being expensive - are quite reliable and cool (technically and literally). Oh, and all but two of them also are "pass through" units, so I don't have to dedicate a power socket for networking.

have i missed something, first benchmark/graph says top score of 31Mb/s... but its rated at 200Mb/s? How is that considered good when its like 6.5x slower than its rated speed?. Did you mean to put MB/s?

Usual excuse is that it's 200Mb/s duplex which seemed a bit mendacious to me. Just checked the performance dashboard on my network and it's claiming to be running at around 180-190Mb/s.

Seems like a simple and useful idea but the execution of that idea is poor IMO, so bloody expensive id rather just get wireless router placed all round my house for less money...

Fine, up to the point that you realise that you've got a room that's "wireless proof" - in which case these come into their own. One of the bedrooms here has mirrored wardrobes and they do a sterling job of destroying 802.11 signals. So I ended up putting in a Devolo WLAN repeater that also had 3 Cat5 ports.

I'd preferred to have used proper cable - but SWMBO was having none of it, the "this is a family home, not bl**dy PC World!" argument.

I am sold on Power ethernet plugs having installed 4 or 5 around the house with great success The socket idea is a natural progression but it needs the modifications already pointed out and a BIG price drop to succceed

Also lacks an on/off switch! Pretty obvious omission!

So that's cheaper with an on-off switch. I'd also kind of like to see a single-gang unit - even if it meant that it was quite deep.

Actually, what happened to all that furore about PLE's effectively "jamming" amateur-band radio? I thought they - the radio hobbyists - were trying to get them banned at one point. Speaking of interference, the only cloud on the horizon for the product in the article would be how resistant it would be to poorly regulated kit on the same power net - e.g. I had terrible problems which I managed to eventually narrow down to an Apple iPod charger!

[mark22]

£20-£30 each and I'd be all over these.

[Tattysnuc]

How much?????????????????????????????? I'm stunned that someone would think people with some DIY skills would pay that. It's looking cheaper to buy the cable and then channel out sections of wall etc, and then fix the damage than wire up 2 points in the house using this technology.

The product is an order of magnitude too expensive.

[Nelviticus]

One thing reviews of these things never mention is how much power the devices themselves use. I have a pair of 200Mbps plug-in ones (D-Link I think) and the damn things nearly get hot enough to fry eggs on. That means they must be taking quite a lot of power just to remain on, even when there are no network cables plugged into them.

Install these throughout your house and you're just gushing money away every day for nothing.

[cptwhite_uk]

Needs to be ~ £50 per face plate, and include an on/off switch for the plug. Then I'd happily snap up 2 or 3.