New "85 Mbps" HomePlug Turbo products not so turbo?

So it's not really news to hear that most networking products don't actually speed along at their advertised Mbps, but Tom Networking has the low down on those new 85 Mbps HomePlug products hitting the market and it sounds like they're taking this disparity thing to new heights. The good news is that HomePlug Turbo products (they tested devices from Actiontec, NETGEAR and SMC) best HomePlug 1.0 by a few hard earned Mbps, averaging around 10 Mbps compared to the pokey 3-5Mbps of the original, the downside is you'll be paying twice as much for the privilege, and won't even be scraping the 4-6x speed improvements claimed. Chipmaker Intellon even confirmed the results, so if you want that extra boost, can't string cables, and WiFi isn't cutting it, you might not have many more options, but at least you know what you're getting into.

[TroyB @ Feb 6th 2006 3:37PM]

There are great solutions for those who live in homes with walls up to two feet thick cement. See ekoplc.net. WiFi has a tough time going thru walls like these. So, for a bit more cash up front, its a no brainer. Large networks its a great solution.
TB

[U. Betchya @ Feb 6th 2006 7:34PM]

I've been using three of the Netgear XE104 models for about a month. While the little built-in four port switch is nice, the speed is hardly 85Mbps. I didn't really expect that kind of speed mind you, but I barely see an improvement over the Netgear XE102. In either case there can be some strange latency now and then as well. I will depend on your AC "environment" I'm sure. Still a little zippier/faster than 802.11G, but not by much.

[Dave @ Feb 6th 2006 7:55PM]

Those speeds are just plain BAD. I just finished setting up Two Linksys WRT54GS units to create a link between the two levels in my new house. I was looking for alternatives that would give me better speeds, but my Bridged WRTS are giving me an average of 23Mbits/s thats DOUBLE what they got in this review for a wired product.

[G @ Feb 7th 2006 6:42AM]

I have tried the older Linksys and Netgear devices and they work very well. Especially when you consider that most broadband is 3.0 Mb or less, these make a lot of sense.

[Gregory Pierce @ Feb 7th 2006 6:52PM]

They make sense so long as you aren't moving a lot of content around your house like streaming media, printing large documents to a networked printer, etc. Most of my problem with the devices was that they were unreliable, frequently requiring an unplug/replug so that they could sync up again - and my house isn't that old (5 years). At this point I've decided to just stick it out with WiFi until I build my next home here I will run Cat5e/Cat6 in multiple ports to every room in the house.

[Philip S @ Feb 9th 2006 3:55AM]

One comment to Simon S. The AV200 from Corinex is now available in Europe as I bought a couple of units in Germany a few weeks back and it kills the HomePlug stuff. Its ideal for Xbox 360 and I get around 60 Mbps from my upstairs bedroom to our living room downstairs. I highly recommend it.

[Andy @ Feb 12th 2006 4:55AM]

Philip S.. I'm looking at a homeplug solution for streaming hdtv (.ts files) to my xbox 360. I was looking at the 85Mbps versions but is it right that they aren't good enough for streaming hdtv media? The AV200 sounds like what I'm after, as long as it can reliably maintain 25Mbps then it will be fine.

[Scott Johnson @ Feb 13th 2006 8:17PM]

At around 5Mbps, you certainly don't want to be streaming .ts files over these things.