Powerline Ethernet Adapters - A Guide
Powerline ethernet adapters are not a brand new technology, but they've come into prominence with the need for high speed home networking because of gaming systems, cable and dish TV, and voice over IP applications which require fast network connectionsRemember though, powerline ethernet adapters speed up your LAN, that is your local area network that comprises of your homeThey do not speed up the WAN, that is your access to the Internet and the Wide Area networkIf you have a slow DSL connection, or even worse, a dial-up modem, powerline ethernet will allow your home network to be fast, but will do nothing for your connections to the outside world.
Powerline ethernet aims to be plug and playIdeally, you would simply plug in your first adapter into the outlet, and your second adapter into the second outlet, and connect your network cable to each of these adapters, and you would be ready to goFortunately, this does happen some of the time, but there can be problems with interference, different electrical circuits in the home, or some configuration issues if you set up your adapters for encrypted connectionsRemember though, this is a consumer product, and the setup should work, otherwise technical support is available.
The speed you achieve with these adapters would probably be between 15 and 50 mbpsAdvertised speeds are between 85 mbps and 200 mbps, though some gigabit powerline ethernet adapters are also being advertised these daysThe speed becomes slower as interference or distance becomes an issueHomeplug 1.0 is the correct standard to use, and though the homeplug alliance claims that manufacturers following its standard will be intercompatible, it would be best to not only choose the same brand, but even the same make and model of powerline adapter to make sure additional adapters are compatibleThe reason I say this is that some specifications on products are mentioning incompatibility.