Devolo and Solwise HomePlug kits

Reading the original review, "by using the install CD, you can set up a password to encrypt data and stop people from adding unauthorised modules to your network...". The other factors are the limited range (200m) and the chance that the folks next door are on a different supply phase. A meter alone would be no barrier as far as I can see, so in, say, a block of flats the password should be used. In fact IMO the password should be used full stop unless it really slows things down.

 

After finding out that my Netgear router doesn't work too well with ADSLmax, I'm not sure I'll be buying anything from them again.
Although, of course, if someone wants to send me a couple to review, I could be persuaded to put my prejudices aside

 

I bought the netgear ones and covered them Here a little bit down the post I covered things like latency etc, despite being initially disappointed because the speeds were nowhere near advertised I am very happy with them for my media PC though I only see about 40Mbps in my scenario, its still much better than wifi for streaming MPEG video etc than wireless was, Wifi just couldn't cut it.

 

So, in reality, the 200Mbps kit from Netgear, which retails at around £125 per pair, isn't any better than the 85Mbps kit from Solwise or Devolo, which retail at less than £100 per pair.

 

Its hard to say really as I have seen reviews where the Netgear stuff is faster as the DS2 chipset is apparently better but it seems Powerline networkings effectiveness depends on your wiring, most reviews of 85Mbps show nowhere near the bit-tech review, interestingly even Solwises own review of their kit (bottom of first linked page below )doesn't match the bit-tech review, so doubt I'd trust numbers in Bit-tech review in this case?

http://www.solwise.co.uk/net-powerline.htm

More data here

http://www.solwiseforum.co.uk/downloads/files/solwise-homeplug-comparison.pdf

Personally I'd buy the netgear 200Mbps or the newer Solwise AV200 if you wanted some decent bandwidth as thats what they are geared up for.

 

Yep

 

14 Mb/s?! Where've they been testing them? In a bunker?!

 

I too would like to hear about latency on these, and how much latency is added by plugging one of these into a 4/6-way extension rather than straight into the socket.

 

I have been selling a lot of these at work from various manufacturers (Zyxel, Dynamode and the reviewed models) and have to say that providing the cabling is sound they are a great solution, especially for people in listed buildings where cable runs are not an option.

In our experience they will not work when plugged in to extension blocks, they have to be directly in to a wall socket. As for latency, unless you have poor wiring expect LAN type response.

Thoroughly recommended as a stable solution that does not suffer from temporary drop outs or loss of signal when people walk past your access point, I use them myself at home to get connection to a machine in my garage and this has never stopped working or even needed to be looked at for anything, it's just there and works maintenance free.

Hope that this helps.

 

Given how appalling the WLAN signal is across my house, these might be worth a gander.

 

I have now purchased and (used) 3 of these sockets in my house. However, I'm still intrested to hear about the secuirty issues surrounding net via electricty. I'm fully aware i can add encryption to packets of data, but i'd like to know how this is inherently secure without enabling encryption?

What's to stop my next door neighbour from buying a plug and snooping my data? i understand its a seperate circuit, but if electricity is being fed into the house, then surely that means data can be fed out?

Any thoughts?

 

To be secure you will need to enable the encryption.
In my experience it does not add any delay so there is no real good reason not to enable it.
I have certainly been using it since day one.
Hope that helps?

 

Hi Djpuk,
Many thanks for your answer. I think I'll enable the encryption as suggested, but I was also hoping to understand what was meant by inherent security (since there's an electricity meter etc...).

Anyways, i'm very happy with the 3 plugs I have and am enjoying the set up!

 

Sorry Libero I must have missed what you were asking.
Obviously I did not write the review but my guess would be that it is inherently more secure than wireless in that a wireless signal is available to anybody in range of your access point whereas the signal over power is only available to anybody directly connected to the same copper power cable that you are, thus limiting the amount of potential wrong doers to your immediate neighbours rather than somebody war driving searching out access points.
And of course your neighbours would have to be running the same flavour of homeplug that you are.
I hope that is what you were asking?

 

Hi Djpuk,

That pretty much answers my question. Many thanks for help!

Gotta say, I'm very pleased with the transfers i'm getting from these plugs!

 

Anyone know how to turn the encryption off on these things? I just got a devolo starter kit and turned the encryption on, but I want to see if I get improved performance with it off.

I'd be interested to know what speeds people are getting; I bought these to replace two wireless routers in repeater mode (54g) and the devolo infomer tool says they are synced at 74Mb/s - not bad given they have a max of 85Mb/s. However when I transfer files I'm only seeing 14Mb/s

 

Not sure on those particular ones how to turn it off, sounds obvious but when you turned it on was there not a reverse option there?

The total throughput will rely heavily on the cable you are running over, I have tried with various outlets in my place and some get amazing speed between to plug points and others not so hot, I guess some may be original wiring and some may be where the wiring has been extended using cheaper copper but that is just a guess.

 

no option to turn it off unfortunately, further investigation seems to suggest that it's always on, and ships with a default encryption key/password.

I figured speed is something to do with the quality of my wiring, but I just assumed that if it said it was connected at 74mb/s that the transfer wouldn't be quite so much slower.