Belkin's Gigabit Powerline Adapter ups the ante for electrical outlet networking
By Ross Miller 
posted Jun 22nd 2009 7:46PM
posted Jun 22nd 2009 7:46PM
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FIRST!
Sorry... everybody gets to do it once though! Right?
ur right. I'll vote ya up cause i might get voted down
Interesting. I was something of an early adopter so the setup I have does about 50-100Mb...even if these only do 500Mb, it might be time for an upgrade.
For the price of a pair of these, you can easily buy 600 feet of CAT5e/Cat6 and RJ45 wall jacks. With 2-3 hours of free time, you can wire your whole house for Gigabit.
Barcode, There's no way you could do my (smallish) house in 2-3 hours. To wire my whole house would require pulling apart plaster walls and ceilings. It'd be weeks worth of work and thousands of dollars (gotta put the walls and ceilings back together).
I'm currently wireless, but would like something more reliable. I'm looking at devices like these, but I hear mixed reviews.
While 2-3 hours isn't exactly correct, it took me about 8 hours to put in 12 cat6 runs to 4 different wall jacks in 4 different rooms. That included the time to drill the holes, run and fish the cable, assemble a makeshift rack for the patch panel, wire to the patch panel and wire to the outlets themselves. Tack on a little more time to put together some patch cables.
As far as price, about 1000' of cat6 and a 12 port patch panel plus all of the wall plates, jacks, etc. ran just over $100. After 12 runs, I still have over 500' of cable leftover that I've been using to make patch cables with.
roadway, while I'm not a splunker, I've run plenty of cable in commercial buildings. I won't run it in my house. It really would require tearing apart plaster walls and ceilings.
I guess a lot of it depends on the design of your house.
I apologize for the unforgivable noobness, but what is this thing supposed to do?
Your cable/ DSL modem connects to a router that sends the 'internet' to all outlets in your place. Powerline modem picks up the signal and use an ethernet cable from it to your computer.
It lets you use your power wiring to transmit data. Basically a way of creating a network without running cat-5 or wireless.
Hey thanks for the info. I could definitely use something like that. Here's hoping that my Lynksis craps out soon :D
Don't listen to "shenanigans", he may be trying to help but his post is incomprehensible.
The powerline adapter simply uses the electrical wiring in your house to extend your ethernet computer network.
This is awesome stuff. Too many people don't know anything and pan this technology. HomePlug AV/2.0 standard devices. Essentially, they have processors which can detect any kind of patterns of electrical line noise and cancels them out. The nodes transmit network data from regular Ethernet cabling over the Electrical Wiring in your house.
I hear people in stores who work there pan it all of the time. It's called ASSUMED IGNORNACE. You assume you know ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING and you tell people it's all bad. I've installed at least 20 sites with old HomePlug 1.1, and now 2.0 AV devices and NOT run into a problem. I am running a 5 point node right now. 3 Monster PowerNet 200 modules and 2 Netgear Homeplug AV nodes. Monster doesn't provide any software, claim it's their secret sauce, but i use netgear's software to edit settings. Once they are on the same ID, all is great. I am running an HD HomeRun Dual Tuner ATSC/ClearQAM Ethernet box, an HP 7280 network printer with my 266x CF card from my SLR work, 2 notebooks, a windows gaming machine, a linux database server, a PS3, XB360 and Wii all over this network through a Netgear N router. I don't saturate it.
Sometimes i'm editing photos, downloading updates, doing backups, and watching video while someone else is also watching cable on the network.
But, if these are 150 dollars, they look good. Belkin isn't the worlds best, but, they've done lots of great equipment for consumers. I have had great Belkin equipment. I don't believe these are really HomePlug 2.0/AV though, unless there is some extented mode added to the RFC im not up on. I prefer the PowerNet from Monster (get cheap on ebay, no way at retail) because they give me 2 clean power filtered outlets for the 2 i lose.
Okay all, Click the link.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/homeplug-alliance-hits-some-milestones-rallies-the-troops-at-ce/
600MB. I will consider it later.
Can someone make me one with two outlets? I'll upgrade then.
Where the Monster PowerNets are, i really need that.
These powerline adapters are a good idea but I am having to unplug it every half an hour to an hour of surfing because the connection dies.
That was exactly my experience. I had to replug them about every other day. These things are not worth the trouble. Either use wireless, and if that doesn't work, bite the bullet and run CAT5. The units I had also ran pretty warm, which means they used quite a bit of power 24-7. Get this if you have NO OTHER choice, but consider stringing CAT5 under a carpet before you waste money on power-line networking.
I've been using these since 2004 and they've worked flawlessly for me. I've been in newer homes granted. I use this for my xbox live account where wireless is sometimes unreliable or laggy.
Yeah, these run hot. One died on me already. My landlord has them running through the building. Most are connected to a wireless router connected so everyone shares a connection. I have my own modem that I have connected to my own wireless g router to connect my Mac and PS3.
Good idea but I'd never use them if I had a choice. But at $15 a month for 10Mbps cable, I cannot complain.
which ones are you using?
Please give me the specific models.
Just trying to help. AS you'll hear, alot of professionals who are also very familiar with them set them and forget them. Ofcourse, by SET, we mean run this and that make sure all is good and move on knowing were golden.
Alot of them are 'kind of ' compatible or have shipped with different firmwares and you will never know if you never run the software for them and check them. Without the Layer 2/PHY (Layer 1) software (not the company, referencing the IP stack level) to edit and verify hardware firmware, sometimes it can get all wonky for lack of a scientific term.
How secure are these? I mean, how far along the lines does the network signal go, exactly?
the lines have filters before they get to your house. it wont go beyond your home's wiring.
What if you live in a condo/apartment building?
They do have encryption (at least the older devices I've seen/used do) and you usually have to peer-connect them via some app
.. they work ok in situations where you have heavy concrete/steel issues.
.. I use them to extend an otherwise un-peerable wifi mesh with Wireless N routers on each end they do multi-floored buildings nicely.
If your router has MAC address filtering for the wired network, use that in addition to other encryptions.
The devices are invisible to the network, which is why you need to use Layer2/PHY software (i still find Netgears to be tops, Linksys' will only find Linksys's devices, even if HomePlugAV, thanks for nothing Cisco).
You can really make people mad using MAC Address Filtering on the router. In general, unless someone can get one into your power system and guess it's encryption passcode (which is why you hear me saying USE THE SOFTWARE TO CONFIGURE IT) it's as safe as Wired ONLY.
I don't call anyone having trouble Liars, i'd just like them to take the time to recheck things. The most common issues are mismatched firmwares and rate issues among different brands. I use the Netgear software after using the included software to do any firmware updates. I set everything to default after getting the id's to match up.
The use of common software insures the timing/settings that they might swap up to make their stuff work better with their stuff gets wiped out.
Then establish your good password. Set and forget.
No, it's not true you will never ever have trouble.
I just laugh that some people pretend they've never snagged a wire good and had to re run one or crimp their way out of it. Not as common but i've seen homeowners snag it good.
I like these, they work for people. I get a call 'I want to rearrange my place, is there any problem? " Answer: 'No, just remember to plug the PLE devices (they are marked) DIRECTLY into your wall socket, just like it is now, no filtered outlets or surge protectors."
If you don't mind the wire running to the notebook, it certainly reminds you that your notebook isn't really that sluggish, it's just the wireless. Its invaluable if you use a networked all in one with a card reader and you often shoot in RAW, those files are large and that format needs better than wireless' 55% packet loss rate.
I'm pretty sure the signal doesn't get past the transformer, so you're safe in a house. As others have said, many of these devices also have encryption.
I'll stick with 802.11N
This isn't recommended for apartments I assume?
http://www.buy.com/prod/belkin-powerline-av-starter-kit/q/loc/101/209890763.html
I have a pair of those... they work quite well. If you have a house with 2 power circuit breakers, then you'll have to do a bit of research to see what circuits are connected to what... otherwise, they work just fine. Gigabit would be even nicer though....
I still rock a 100' cat 5 line from my router. Now that is network stability my friends.
i agree with ya. Cable is the only stable way of connecting.
Although for one reason or another all my cables are Cat-6 dont know why but meh.
That does however lack walking to the bathroom at night in the dark stability. Another possible side effect is not being able to keep the wife/ girlfriend stability. Sorry, stringing a 100' lan cort through your house is just sloppy. Get your game tight player.
FWIW, I ran 12 ports worth of cat6 through my walls for about the same price, and I get guaranteed gigabit speeds for every port. And I still have about 500' of cable leftover! Granted, it took quite a bit of work and that doesn't count the price of the switch.
this Belkin actually looks cool....
how effective are these things? my wireless network kinda sucks for gaming so i wouldnt mind something like this; better than having to drag a 50 foot ethernet cable across the house like i did 5 years ago.
Drag the wire, unless you don't mind replugging them every day or so to reboot the dropped connection. They also waste power compared to CAT5, and not a small amount when you consider they are on 24-7.
So what brand are the once that you have to un/replug all the time? And in what kind of setting do people with issue live? is the power stable in the area? do you live next to an AM station and do you have wiring that edison himself put in? Seems that is quite peculiar and specific to a few people and not how it is for the rest.
@Wwhat
The one that I have are the Netgear. It's the one that looks similar to this Belkin but it's white. (Don't get the cheaper grey ones) (There are models with single ports or has 4 ethernet ports, which allows for multiple connections)
Mine are incredibly reliable. I've never had a dropped connection. They also do NOT run hot. Barely warm to the touch.
Definitely much more convenient than running cable throughout the house and more reliable than wireless.
There is no lag as well. My house was built around the early 90s so it's not that old but it's not that new either.
What's great about the Netgear is that it is "true" plug and play. All those other devices that falsely claim to be plug and play, you gotta install some software then configure, then maybe it will work.
Now, if only Bellsouth/ATT will fix their crappy DSL connections...
Thanks you for the reply
:)
but if your internet speed is only 10 mps, how does this make it faster?
This does not help in increasing the speed of internet into your home. This is primarily for 2 purposes:
1. increases speed between devices within your home
2. Reduce the latency/delay introduced by other networking mechansims liks Wireless etc.
But as others pointed out, it is never going to be as good or as reliable as the good old wire.
I was thinking of getting this.
Good information, dude. Thanks. :-|
-jp
PS: My cat's breath smells like cat food.
I've used them in an apartment. If you have your own electric bill then you have your own circuit. Works great.
i'm still using wireless B lol...
I have 4 Linksys AV powerline adapters in my house and regularly stream HD video, transfer GB's of data through them with no issues for a couple of years now. I don't remember having to unplug any of them due to dropped connection ... ever. You can secure access to your network with passwords you enter into the adapters themselves.
How are they regarding any lag? I mean the signal has to be converted twice, does that cause any ping points at all? I don't imagine it would but it can't harm to ask, so what's your experience?
I've not noticed any lag at all, These things behave just like another switch in your network. Nobody worries about lag caused by their switches, do they? As far as cost goes, I've got high, vaulted ceilings, hardwood floors and 3,100 square feet of house. If anyone can get that invisibly cabled with Cat 6 for less than $300, I want to hear from them.
Well there's a reason why there are hubs and switches, one (switches) are using 'intelligence' and use packet/MAC storage to prevent speedloss, so there's somebody that worries about lag in switches: the inventors, they do do an effort to prevent it showing it was in their mind as a concern.
But thanks for reporting on the absence of lag in these babies too, just thought I'd check and it's nice to get userfeedback.
Wonder how hot these babies get. I know older ones can get quite hot.
I don't know about these Belkins, but I have Netgear 200 Mbps HomePlugAV units in my apartment. They're warm to the touch - warmer than the ambient environment - but not burning hot. As I understand it they're all based around pretty much the same tech, regardless whose brand is on them, so I'd expect something similar with these units.
I like this idea, but it's more expensive than both 802.11 and wired.
I owned a netgear version of this.. it sucked horrendous balls.
FUCK YES! i know a lot of people have problem with powerline networking, i have the netgear av 200mbps ones.. they work perfect i get about 150mbps between then, if this belkin version really works id consider upgrading
I bought a pair of these yesterday. The setup is incredibly easy. You just plug them in and they detect each other and are ready to go (much easier than linksys and D-link both of which required software configuration via Windows or Mac). There is a button on each of the adapters that you can press to enable encryption between the adapters. They do get rather toasty. In my experience the only way you get a speed increase over the traditional 100/200 Mb Powerline is if the powerline adapters are on the same circuit on your circuit breaker. I cannot speak to the reliability of these seeing as I haven't had them that long.
My experience with data over power (albeit a phone-over-power jack) is that when you use minor power surges to communicate, you can't really filter surges.
One lightning strike, and my adapter melted.
belkin = monster cable
I bold claim I wonder how well it keeps sustained speeds and how close to that 1000 it can maintain :p. Be rocking if it's real.
I've used the 11Mbps Netgear and am now on the Panasonic HD-PLCs. The Netgears were great but wouldn't stream video well. The Panasonics do great, although the results I get depend on which electrical outlet I hook up to. Right now I can stream DVD ISOs just fine.
Here's a fantastic alternative - It uses the cable tv coax runs to each room for ethernet - spec claims 270Mbps and I've actually hit around 70Mbps in the real world which is plenty good enough for HD streaming
http://www.netgear.com/Products/PowerlineNetworking/Coax/MCAB1001.aspx
Can someone explain to me why you'd pay more for a set of 2, essentially connecting ONE computer to a network, than you would for an N Band Router and 2/3 wireless cards (IF your computer doesn't already have one)???
Either that, or wiring your house with proper CAT cables - which would STILL be faster and cheaper?
You can connect you cable modem on one floor and the wireless router say in the basement. OR have the router on one floor and another access point connected via this to the router on another floor.
Because wireless have range limits. I have a dlink N router, signal strength drop significantly at the corner of my second floor. Running CAT6 around the house .... too much work.
You could connect an Ethernet switch to the remote unit, and then attach as many hosts as you need to at the remote end. That's what I do for my home theater, since almost everything in it these days wants Internets (even my TV).
First of all, I rent. I can't start drilling holes into walls.
Secondly, for three years I fought with crappy wireless routers that would reset themselves in the middle of the night. Even if they didn't, I'd get something like 3 Mbit/s while standing right next to then. My roommate started to think that our 12 MBit/s internet was supposed to be that slow, because he didn't know any better.
I eventually gave up and succumbed to a pair of NetGear HDs. I've NEVER had a problem - they're as solid as a cable, and I get 100 MBit/s + actual data rate out of them.
This has been in two seperate flats, plugged into different power outlets. That's European power, by the way, maybe results on US cabling is different.
But I don't know why everyone keeps shooting down Powerline, yet spends years trying to get stupid Wifi working in a steel-and-concrete encrusted basement. I know SO many people with Wifi issues, yet when I tell them about Powerline they're totally flabberghasted.
If you don't need Powerline because your Wifi works, then fine. But if it doesn't (and it never did for me), then you'll be happy to know that there's a rock-solid alternative (in most cases). It's at least worth a shot!
And Gigabit, mhmhm. Will probably be something like 300 MBit/s in reality, but still. I'd just have to move my entire TV and audio equipment off the wall to get to the Powerline adapter. That's how often I had to unplug it - NEVER. It's burried deep behind tons of cables and equipment, and it hardly gets warm at all.
I use POWERLINE AV ETHERNET ADAPTER KIT XAVB101 from netgear.
http://www.netgear.com/Products/PowerlineNetworking/PowerlineEthernetAdapters/XAVB101.aspx
Best product of this type I have used, own 4 of them, all over the house, work flawlessly.
I would recommend these to anyone and everyone
I would say exactly the same thing about my four Linksys AV powerline adapters. Flawless.
I have some older version of the Powerline Network Adapters but they do the trick. I have a nicely finished house so making holes to run lay a network line down was a no go and it just happened the place I need a network drop was major wifi dead zone (right in utility room beside the water heater and furnace and the house hold wiring junction box).
It allowed me but my Music server there and then link it up to my wireless router so I could access it everyone in my house and in my yard.
These powerline network devices completely obliterate shortwave radio for you and your neighbors.
Why do you think that? I haven't had any problems here...
I ordered two sets of these earlier today. I'm moving into a new home next week and these are going to be easier than running CAT6 all over the place the first weekend. I'll get to it eventually but these should hold me over for a while, even if they only do 10% of the rated speed.
Nope, absolutely worthless. At work they won't connect at >200Mbit/s unless I plug in all 4 I bought (and the wiring here is only about 2 years old) and at home they have trouble maintaining any connection (37 year-old wiring).
I have the Netgear adapter and I love it. I stream video all the time over the power lines to my 360 (and Netflix) and PS3 with no problems. I guess its hit or miss with these.
It's amazing that this thing even work, but at that price? Unless you're really against cables, rolling out some CAT5/6 is probably much more economical, and much much more reliable.
I saw this story this morning and thought this would be a good replacement for the cat5 I've got strung stealthily across my house, if it even reached 10% of the rated speed, so I went and picked up a set after work.
Well, it works. I've got connectivity. But in my particular setup It's very slow. I'm seeing 15-25Mbps. Not even 100Mbps. Bummer.
Setup was super easy. Literally just plug them both in and plug network devices into them. In the locations they are in to support what I needed, the "powerline" LED is amber, which indicates link rate of less than 200Mbps. Plugged into different locations, they'll light up blue indicated link rate of greater than 200Mbps, but I didn't try actually passing data over them in that setup. YMMV obviously.
There is a bit of lag - under full 25Mbps load I'm seeing 30-40ms, and sitting idle I'm typically seeing 5-10ms.
Seems like it would be fine for internet connectivity, and looks like in the right conditions it might perform pretty well, but I'm streaming HD video, so it's back to the ethernet cable for me. Ohwell.
I purchased these the other day. Currently I've been using a Dlink DGL 4500 & a DAP 1522 to connect my Xbox360 (3rd floor of house) as an extender to my Media Center PC (1st floor of house). The connection hasn't been that great, so I was looking for an alternative (one that didn't require me to run wire).
So I plugged the new powerline adapters in. They were easy to setup; plugged them in and they found each other in a couple seconds. Then I fired up the network tuner on the extender to see how the connection was behaving.... The connection was never steady-- constantly up and down (but above the HDTV line). Then I got disconnected from the media PC. Then I tried watching live HD TV. This worked for the most part (better than the wireless connection), but I was still seeing the network issues pop-up on the screen every once in a while.
Then I noticed on the powerline adapater that the powerline indicator was flopping from Blue (over 200mpbs) to amber (under 200mpbs) a lot. So I decied to plug up a laptop with a gigabit nic to see if I got the same behavior. And sure enough the same amber light came on with the laptop while I was copying files over the network.
So having no online support yet for this product, I called Belkin support -- which was a joke. The lady clearly had no idea what product I was talking about and she kept telling me that I can only get 200 mpbs. I had to explain several times that this was the GIG-A-BIT adapter and that 200 does not equal 1000.
I was just trying to figure out if there was anything I can do help with the signal (different breakers, etc...). I'm also assuming that there is some type of diagnostics that can be done on the powerline devices since they do have a MAC address and a password listed on the device-- no one seemed to know anything about this though. I guess the lady did all she could so she handed me off to the next level of support.
The next support person then had me try both powerline adapters in the same room. When I did this I started getting disconnected about every 3 minutes (much worse than before). I got the same up/down pattern on the network test for the xbox and the amber light still kept coming on indicating less than 200mpbs (even with the laptop connected to it). Finally the lady told that the units must be defective. So I'll be returning them today for a replacement and I'll give it one more try.
Additionally, yes these devices run VERY hot.
the belkin units are hot and get only 10 Mbps. I cook stew on them. With the hot weather the units should only be sold in Alaska or Siberia. Belkin has junk products. The units cannot sustain video stream for one second.
Check out PLC-CLLI from http.//www.cal-lab.com
It may make a difference in powerline home hetworking
These are working great for me. Nice to see my 1Gbps network connection indicator on the PC.
Belkin also has an update available which improved my performance even more, I was just doing some simple IPERF TCP tests and saw over 300Mbps of real TCP throughput. They are not any warmer than my laptop power supply.
You can update your adapters by going to this URL and downloading the Utility: http://www.belkin.com/support/article/?lid=en&pid=F5D4076&aid=14994&scid=0
Hi Troy,
They are great for me too, I bought them, plug them are they were working nice no issues. I upgrade the FW too (I'm expecting more FW coming as any new product), more than 350Mbps measure with the windows networking performance tool, more than any other home network product that I've used before, neither wireless or powerline. It is true that you don't get the same performance around the home and it will be different based on the type of power cable.... but I'm glad that works that well for me :-)
I bought a set of adapters last week and they seem to work much better than the old Netgear 200 Mbps HomePlugAV pair I had. On the down side, I am not able to get the 1000 Mbps advertised on the box. However, I am able to do an FTP at 220 Mbps between my two PCs, which sure beats the 65 Mbps I was seeing before.
One strange thing is that if I combine one Netgear and one Belkin adapter, I am only able to see 65 Mbps. I guess that I need both adapters to be the same brand to get the extra performance.