So a few days ago I received a set of Homeplugs I purchased from eBay and this is the weekend to play with them. If you’re unfamiliar with the technology, it allows you to propagate your home network over your electricity supply; which means you can turn every power socket in the house into a potential network point. I already have a Wifi network at home, but I recently purchased a Dreambox that only has a wired connection, and for the price of a wifi-wired bridge, I chose to go down the HomePlug route too. It means I can support wired devices around the house if I want and they have the advantage that the network they provide runs at speeds up to 200Mbs. That speed means that if I wanted to strea HD or play with live video streaming services around the house, then I’m not going to run into any bandwidth issues.
So, I’m off to play with the HomePlugs. They were sold as BT Vision HomePlug adapters, but are really rebadged Comtrend Powergrid 902 devices, and I’ve got the full manual online in case I run into any issues.
I use Develo ones and they work really well. I expect you won’t get anywhere near 200Mps, though.
But maybe houses should come with structured CAT5e as standard now, anyway.
When I bought my house, I flood wired it with Cat5e. I use it for everything, network, phones, remote hi-fi speakers (it’s also apparent how much faster in the real world it is compared to WiFi).
The one thing that bothers me about mains-delivered networking is the potential for electromagnetic interference (the untwisted, unshielded mains cables make great antennas), but then again I do spend time mucking about with electronics which is not something everyone does.
I have been using the devolo ones to get broadband to my study (wireless is to intermittent.)
I have just received my BT homehub and TV vision, which has the a different type, and two are need – one at the master socket the oether at the vision box.
Is there any way I can get the two difeferent types of adapter to recognise each other, as currently I can have either braodband and no BT vision or vice versa.
Any help MUCH appreciated!