Belkin's Gigabit Powerline Adapter ups the ante for electrical outlet networking

We don't know exactly how, but Belkin's claiming its new Gigabit Powerline HD Starter Kit adapters can outpace the current 200Mbps standard speed of most other powerline devices (not all of them, mind you) by five fold. Of course, the caveat here is that the touted 1000Mbps is under ideal settings, and there's no telling what other network traffic, interference, or problematic wiring could lower that figure -- still, assuming all conditions are sound, we're talking some hefty numbers for an HD streaming network run via your home's electrical system. It's available now in North America at a penny under $150 for a pair of adapters, with a European release in early August.

[demon Posted Jun 24th 2009 12:37PM]

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.

[Zangetsu Posted Jun 22nd 2009 10:13PM]

I like this idea, but it's more expensive than both 802.11 and wired.

[iFargle Posted Jun 22nd 2009 10:21PM]

I owned a netgear version of this.. it sucked horrendous balls.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 22nd 2009 10:48PM]

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

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 22nd 2009 11:24PM]

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.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 22nd 2009 11:26PM]

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.

[va jj Posted Jun 22nd 2009 11:49PM]

belkin = monster cable

[bushi Posted Jun 22nd 2009 11:59PM]

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.

[aubreyq Posted Jun 23rd 2009 2:50AM]

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.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 23rd 2009 3:02AM]

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

[purplegreendave Posted Jun 23rd 2009 4:33AM]

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?

[majortom1981 Posted Jun 23rd 2009 7:15AM]

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.

[pcfishhk Posted Jun 24th 2009 1:03AM]

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.

[demon Posted Jun 24th 2009 12:41PM]

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).

[Quark Posted Jun 23rd 2009 6:14AM]

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.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 23rd 2009 8:31AM]

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

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 23rd 2009 11:34AM]

I would say exactly the same thing about my four Linksys AV powerline adapters. Flawless.

[jimr1234567890 Posted Jun 23rd 2009 9:36AM]

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.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 23rd 2009 10:36AM]

These powerline network devices completely obliterate shortwave radio for you and your neighbors.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 23rd 2009 5:01PM]

Why do you think that? I haven't had any problems here...

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 23rd 2009 1:25PM]

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.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 6th 2009 12:48PM]

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).

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 23rd 2009 4:05PM]

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.

[pika2000 Posted Jun 23rd 2009 6:30PM]

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.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 23rd 2009 9:51PM]

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.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 24th 2009 11:56AM]

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.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 29th 2009 4:14PM]

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.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 1st 2009 4:09PM]

Check out PLC-CLLI from http.//www.cal-lab.com
It may make a difference in powerline home hetworking

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 7th 2009 4:25AM]

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

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 7th 2009 12:46PM]

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 :-)

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2009 8:56AM]

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.