HomePlug 85Mbps Ethernet adapter with a built in 54Mbps access point

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Solwise announces the PL-85PEW

HomePlug 85Mbps Ethernet Adapter with a built in 54Mbps Access Point

Hull, UK, February 27th 2006 – Solwise, a UK based 'Direct Channel' importer and distributor of telecoms and computer products, today announced the Solwise PL-85PEW – the latest addition to its HomePlug Family.

The Solwise PL-85PEW is a Homeplug 85Mbps Ethernet Adapter with a built in 54Mbps access point. The adaptor uses the Intellon 85Mbps Turbo chipset which means it is compatible with the rest of the Solwise HomePlug range. The built-in wireless access point uses the Infineon Wildpass Chipset - this solution transforms your home power circuit into a networking infrastructure and a WAN connection.

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Check out the release.

If you're not familiar with HomePlug, just know that it's a mains-borne Ethernet networking standard that does away with the hassle of running cables and of the vagaries of WiFi connectivity - so, in one sense, the new Solwise gadget is a bit of an anomaly.

We've recently gone hands-on with a bunch of HomePlug kit (none Solwise, as yet) and from our experience, it just seems to work - which is a BIG relief after some of the grief we've suffered with WiFi.

Watch out for an upcoming review of devolo's MicroLink dLAN Highspeed Starter Kit.

If you want to know more about HomePlug, there's lots of useful info at HomePlug.org - we'd suggest that you start with the
HomePlug FAQ.

I was thinking about buying one of the Delolo's a few months back for my Squeezebox 3, but went for WiFI instead. Great idea though the main thing people need to check before buying one is the the room's they plan to network are on the same 'ring'. For example, i have heard of a few people i had thier PC upstairs but could not connect with rooms downstairs as the upstairs and downstairs where on different curcuits/rings. It all depends on how your house is wired up really. I have also heard that there can be some interference. Not problems with data, but things like lightbulbs can flicker slightly.

Wireless is great for uhm - notebooks.

The way I see it - its only worth having wireless if you do want to move things about since all systems have power points anyway.

I don't mind running cable and the reliability is far better :)

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Originally Posted by David

Wireless is great for uhm - notebooks.

The way I see it - its only worth having wireless if you do want to move things about since all systems have power points anyway.

I don't mind running cable and the reliability is far better :)

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spot on. you've seen my place - wireless for laptop use, dirty great cat5 cables pinned to the skirting boards for towers

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Originally Posted by directhex

spot on. you've seen my place - wireless for laptop use, dirty great cat5 cables pinned to the skirting boards for towers

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And you still haven't come to see mine so uhm

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Originally Posted by David

Wireless is great for uhm - notebooks.

The way I see it - its only worth having wireless if you do want to move things about since all systems have power points anyway.

I don't mind running cable and the reliability is far better :)

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I find the complete opposite - wireless does the job more quickly and more easily for any computer for me - eg building a computer its easier to stick in a ten quid wireless card than wire it.

Although I would consider mains networking, as it has the same benefits for me. Not too sure about our "retro" wiring though...

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Originally Posted by EvilWeevil

I find the complete opposite - wireless does the job more quickly and more easily for any computer for me - eg building a computer its easier to stick in a ten quid wireless card than wire it.

Although I would consider mains networking, as it has the same benefits for me. Not too sure about our "retro" wiring though...

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Well not sure how many systems, or other units you are using on the 2.4GHz band - but there are inherant problems with it.

A Cable will always be more effective than wireless. I am not stating having Wireless cards in a system is useful but I do think they have a long way to come.

I am using Homeplug networking and its ACE! well worth it... I am looking into purchasing a 85mbps soon heheh

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Originally Posted by dangerous_dom

the main thing people need to check before buying one is the the room's they plan to network are on the same 'ring'. For example, i have heard of a few people i had thier PC upstairs but could not connect with rooms downstairs as the upstairs and downstairs where on different curcuits/rings. It all depends on how your house is wired up really. I have also heard that there can be some interference. Not problems with data, but things like lightbulbs can flicker slightly.

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Is this first-hand information you are relaying?

Not sure that the upstairs/downstairs thing is likely to be a very common problem, except in houses that had been split into flats and later reunited without using a single mains meter box.

We did one lot of tests where we took a devolo unit into a neighbouring property - and found that, even there, we could see the network in our offices, it's just that the connection was so sloooow, that it was totally unusable, with the attention of the network being easily lost.

Did manage to print a couple of very plain documents this way, though - one from MS Word and one from Notepad.

:)

Anything more complex, though - such as a Word doc with clip art - and printing seemed impossible (or, perhaps, likely to take longer than we would ever have considered waiting).

File copying and internet access also proved impossible from next door but ran sweetly within our building.

What we also found is that the networking speed WITHIN our offices (from upstairs to down) was sufficient for us to stream most times of video over the network, including WMV HD 1080i, which impressed the hell out of us.

And, the whole thing is totally transparent, with no faffing about the way you have to do with wireless - and no messy cable runs, of course, either.

As for interference - we've seen no signs of the networking kit having any effect on anything else in the building, whether it's lights or anything else, and we have a big variety of light types, including five sorts of fluorescent, and innumerable conventional tungsten lamps.

No not first-hand Bob sorry. Just info i picked up from places like Avforums and other sites when i was looking into it. And yes the ring/curcuit issues were mainly in older property a fairly rare IIRC.

Bob, have you tried the unit that also has audio (phono) plugs? I would be very interested to know how well they work.

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Originally Posted by EvilWeevil

I find the complete opposite - wireless does the job more quickly and more easily for any computer for me - eg building a computer its easier to stick in a ten quid wireless card than wire it.

Although I would consider mains networking, as it has the same benefits for me. Not too sure about our "retro" wiring though...

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I'd bet that the wiring in the building in which we conducted our main tests would fit into the retro category, too, but it didn't seem to matter.

The REAL problem with wireless, in my view, is the man or woman in the street will very often struggle with WiFi and, all too often, only get it working by NOT using any of the security options.

I can readily think of half a dozen friends, relatives, acquintances who, in the last three months have ended up pulling their hair out and only getting a resolution by talking to me (in some cases, dropping the whole kit round to me).

I know that there are wireless solutions available now that are trying hard to address the usability problem.

LinkSys, for instance, has a very clever solution, a button you press on one of the bits of kit to start off a dialogue that gets the network sorted, including security settings.

But, as far as I am aware, that sort of consideration for ordinary users, rather than people with lots of network experience, is still far from being the norm, though I'd presume it will be commonplace a year or so down the line.

However, the HomePlug 85Mbps standard as implemented by devolo - although it doesn't deliver anything like 85Mbps on an individual computer-to-computer basis - is plenty fast enough for virtually every possible use, including video streaming.

Okay, I get much faster data transfers using various Gigabit-capable PCs connected via a Gigabit switch, but that really only benefits me when I'm punting around very large files - something that most people won't do anything like as often as I do.

But what more and more of them will be doing is streaming video from PCs to network media players connected to TV sets and AV systems, and the devolo kit handles that very well, as we found out when we tested a Pinnacle ShowCenter 200 network media box using the mains-borne system.

Know, too, that there is another version of HomePlug called HomePlug AV that I'm expecting devolo and others to dem at CeBIT 2006 next month.

This promises a nominal total system data-transfer rate of 250Mbps.

And whatever that turns out to mean in terms of traffic from one device to another, it really should be good enough (in theory) for anything that ADSL-2 and TVoverIP can throw at it (though I'd be kind of surprised if the 85Mbps stuff was found wanting in the UK for a few years).

Heck, for those people who have broadband and don't do any around-the-house streaming, the previous-generation 14Mbps (nominal) kit is likely to deliver far higher data rates than the best you get via downloads - judging from personal experience.

You can already get 200 Mbps homeplug stuff

http://www.shopmagenta.com/product/CXPAV200ETH.aspx

but its not as tidy as the 11 Mbps and 85 Mbps ones.

If you want them on the cheap you can get them here

Up untill recently they were the same as the black solwise ones.
http://www.shopmagenta.com/product/HP85.aspx

http://www.nickknows.com/browse.php?category=639


At adsguide they rated the solwise ones higher than the more expensive develo ones.

I like the idea of the duo ones at nickknows, would be very useful for having VOIP phones
about the house. Pity they are only 11 Mbps ones.

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Originally Posted by Kumagoro

You can already get 200 Mbps homeplug stuff

http://www.shopmagenta.com/product/CXPAV200ETH.aspx

but its not as tidy as the 11 Mbps and 85 Mbps ones.

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You can say that again. This is a great brute of a thing and doesn't work transparently the way the 14Mbps and 85Mbps stuff does - there's a 39-page manual and it looks to me like you'd need to read that carefully if the five-page quick-start guide doesn't get you up and running. That guide starts off this way:

1. Connect the Corinex AV200 Powerline Ethernet Adapter to the electrical socket.
2. Connect the computer to the adapter, using a straight-forward Ethernet cable
which came with the product.
3. Change the IP address of your computer to 10.10.1.1, network mask 255.255.0.0.
For more information on how to set the IP address in you system, please see the
User Guide which can be found on the enclosed CD.
4. Start your web browser (eg. Internet Explorer) and open the webpage
http://10.10.1.69.
5. The authentication pages of the Corinex AV200 Powerline Ethernet Adapter will
appear.

Not quite plug-and-play the way the 14/85Mbps stuff is.

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Originally Posted by Kumagoro

If you want them on the cheap you can get them here

Up untill recently they were the same as the black solwise ones.
http://www.shopmagenta.com/product/HP85.aspx

http://www.nickknows.com/browse.php?category=639.

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Ah, right, NOT the Corinex AV200 but the eConnect-branded 14/85Mbps stuff. And I see that if I go to eConnect's site, there's a page flagging up the coming availability of a combi unit that is strikingly similar to the Solwise one that this thread is about.

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Originally Posted by Kumagoro

At adsguide they rated the solwise ones higher than the more expensive develo ones.

I like the idea of the duo ones at nickknows, would be very useful for having VOIP phones
about the house. Pity they are only 11 Mbps ones

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We're just starting out looking at this stuff, and I'm currently in contact with the Solwise and LEA (a French firm that doesn't currently sell retail in the UK), as well as devolo, and will be hassling Corinex shortly.

I currently hold a devolo dLAN duo (USB/Ethernet) Starter Kit and will be looking at this when I finish writing up the devolo MicroLink dLAN Highspeed Starter Kit.

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Originally Posted by Kumagoro

You can already get 200 Mbps homeplug stuff

http://www.shopmagenta.com/product/CXPAV200ETH.aspx

but its not as tidy as the 11 Mbps and 85 Mbps ones.

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Now I am confused!

I've looked at this a bit closer and it seems to me to be something rather different from HomePlug AV.

It's a Powerline device intended, I think, to bring into the building an Internet connection via the mains.

So that's not the same idea at all as PowerPlug which is for creating an ethernet network over the mains within a building.

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Originally Posted by Bob Crabtree

Now I am confused!

I've looked at this a bit closer and it seems to me to be something rather different from HomePlug AV.

It's a Powerline device intended, I think, to bring into the building an Internet connection via the mains.

So that's not the same idea at all as PowerPlug which is for creating an ethernet network over the mains within a building.

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Justifiably confused, it turns out.

I've been talking this through with Corinex and have been told that this isn't what I though but is, instead, a rival system to HomePlug.

My man at Corinex tells me,

"The difference being UPA 200 Mbps technology has been shipping for about 1 year, HomePlug AV 200 Mbps technology (products) won’t ship until about Q4 of this year."

Was looking into the possibility of using homeplug a few months ago (never got round to it though as am at Uni half the time), and noted somewhere that there were some issues when trying to run the units in a 4-way extension lead, for example, especially if it was surge protected. Anyone know if this is true or not?

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Originally Posted by Elessar_VPR

Was looking into the possibility of using homeplug a few months ago (never got round to it though as am at Uni half the time), and noted somewhere that there were some issues when trying to run the units in a 4-way extension lead, for example, especially if it was surge protected. Anyone know if this is true or not?

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Surge protection is a no-no but I used in four-way units and still had enough speed to stream video, including Windows Media HD.

I think that this is one of those bits of kit where it pays you to use the supplied speed-diagnosis software (which is trivial to set up and use) and experiment a little if you find that what's reported is lower than expected.

Would i be right in thinkning (help me get my head around this). thats if i took an ethernet cable from my router and connected it to a 'homeplug' via the mains, i could then get another 'hompleug' and plug it anyhwere around my home and get a network connection?

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Originally Posted by maks

Would i be right in thinkning (help me get my head around this). thats if i took an ethernet cable from my router and connected it to a 'homeplug' via the mains, i could then get another 'hompleug' and plug it anyhwere around my home and get a network connection?

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That is EXACTLY the idea.

And, if - as I'm sure will be the case - your router dishes out IP addresses, then you'll find that the whole thing works quite seamlessly, without you having to do anything anything at all except ensure that the PC (or network device) you connect by Ethernet cable to the other adaptor is set up to acquire its IP address automatically by DHCP.

S'magic!

;)

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Originally Posted by Bob Crabtree

Surge protection is a no-no but I used in four-way units and still had enough speed to stream video, including Windows Media HD.

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Champion of wireless that I am, that might persuade even me - the idea of giving up part of a 4 way is not as daunting as losing a whole socket.

**Cowers behind chair from shower of sparks emanating from overloaded socket**

It would be useful for the 360 I'm planning to buy soon.

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Originally Posted by EvilWeevil

It would be useful for the 360 I'm planning to buy soon.

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I don't have an Xbox 360 here but David does and that's one of the reason why I sent on to him the devolo 85Mbps kit that I'd tested.

He's been frantically busy and has now flown off to IDF so I've not had feedback from him on how the devolo performed with Xbox 360 but when I get it (and that will now probably be after the CeBIT show), it will be added to the review (which, hopefully, will be finished in the next day or three).

However, since I had zero problems using a Pinnacle Show Center 200 network media player - streaming videos to it over the mains, including WMV HD 1080i files - I'd be deeply shocked if things were any different with Xbox 360.

So far, Im impressed, but are the speeds listed a real possibility?, like wireless G says 54meg, but in reality I never get that when transferring files. For HD being delivered the bandwidth maybe a problem if it goes below a certain level, but with 200meg in horizon, these things are ideal. (As long as the price is realistic)

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Originally Posted by maks

So far, Im impressed, but are the speeds listed a real possibility?, like wireless G says 54meg, but in reality I never get that when transferring files. For HD being delivered the bandwidth maybe a problem if it goes below a certain level, but with 200meg in horizon, these things are ideal. (As long as the price is realistic)

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Whether for wireless or HomePlug, the quoted speeds are not the speed for a single connection in a single direction.

The typical speed we got with the devolo 85Mbps kit was of the order of 10Mbps (1.3Mbyte/sec) when using one adaptor upstairs and another downstairs.

When we did some two-way tests in that situation, we estimated we were getting a total data rate of over 16Mbps (over 2MByte/sec).

When the adaptors were in the same room, the one-way was over 20MBit/sec (2.6MByte/sec).

That meant that we were able to play a variety of video files successfully over the mains, including:
* MPEG-2 with a total datarate of 8224Kbps
* WMV HD (1080) with a total datarate of 8450Kbps
* Lots of stuff with lesser datarates, of course.

One thing we did observe (and I've seen this any number of times before when doing networking speed tests) is that the speed of file copying is different in different directions - and you can't always predicted which direction will be fastest.

And, I don't think this has anything at all to do with the read/write speeds of the hard disks on the different PCs - which were pretty fast on the machines we used.

All copy operations were controlled from the same PC - located downstairs -and we found that with the devolo, files copied faster from that PC to the one upstairs than they did when copied the other way.

We'll be including this info (and more) in the review of the devolo kit, of course.

devolo MicroLink dLAN Highspeed Starter Kit review now live.