Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

Hey all, I'm new here.
Was just wondering if anyone on here uses Homeplugs to network in the home.
Was thinking of trying them to hook up two pc's and the xbox 360 so the question is: Are they any good? What sort of price should i be paying? I've seen a load on line but they vary from £45 - £145, how much did you pay for yours and was it a worthwile investment?
Cheers:confused:

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

Welcome to the forum :welcome:

It seems to be you get what you pay for, after reading a review in a Webuser I would be inclined to go for a high speed top end spec set..

Like these..

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

Do they have to be on the same circuit? - I was under the impression they need to be on the same ring to work, so if your upstairs sockets are on a different ring main / breaker to your downstairs one, there's no connection? - or am I wrong/stupid?

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

Do you really want us to answer that? (Hint: think very carefully before answering) :D

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

Hmm... good point...

---------- Post added at 13:23 ---------- Previous post was at 12:13 ----------

Anyone? - as this is what has stopped me getting some of these, and relying on (flaky) wireless - if someone can clarify that would be great..

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

Yes, they work brilliantly. I have one near my router, and others in the rest of the house and garage.

I don't think they need to be on the same ring, but they won't work beyond your electricity meter. There is also a degradation of signal over distance, but this is probably only important if you live in a stately home.

A useful article can be found here: http://www.solwise.co.uk/net-powerline-intro.htm

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

MLM,
Not used it my self, but afaik this isn't a problem.
eg the Wiki page points out
which implies the signal will go beyond your fuse box.

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

From http://www.im2web.co.uk/Homeplugs.htm:

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

Ok, another probably daft question - can I run the network cable from one of these homeplugs into a standard network hub - and run several machines off there - I don't need a 'homeplug' hub or soemthing, do i?

---------- Post added at 15:01 ---------- Previous post was at 14:24 ----------

also how do they deal with powersurges?

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

Yes you can mine goes via an 8 port belkin switch without any issues.

No idea not had one and i'd rather not thanks.
Although they don't like the surge protectors they have to be on an unprotected socket

I have a pair of the Zyxel 85mbit/s ones.

Although I might swap them for some 200mbit/s adaptors (which aren't homeplug but some other powerline standard :( ) since i'm thinking of getting BT vision and i think it comes with a couple in the box or so i've heard.

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

ok, all things being well I shall go and get some today.

...and if they don't work as expected, you're all in a _lot_ of trouble :)

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

if you buy them online you have distance selling you can try them and if they do not do as you wish send them back and just lose postage.

Ive set up a few networks using these and think first posted about them some 2 years ago or more maybe :)

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

gonna pop down to maplins see if they have them

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

mlm let me know how that went after a powersurge :) would love to know if this is save cuz then I might be tempted with it.

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

Someone on the newsgroups at work said they had theirs on a surge protected extension lead and it was working fine.

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

ok, pleasantly surprised.

Bought a set of 85mbps ones. plugged one in upstairs, plugged one downstairs, into a surge protected block plug.

All works.

not sure what speed i'm getting but for the moment, I'm happy enough it works

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

1 question about the homeplugs though:

Right, obviously you need to plug the ethernet lead from the cable modem to 1 homeplug, but how can you secure the cable modem from the info leaking into somewhere else?

Lemmi make it easier:
you have security software that comes with the homeplugs to protect your data, but how would you go about protecting your SACM from someone else that has a homeplug (as it is stated that the data MIGHT leak out of your home)

Do they have a unique code like a MAC address or something?
I can see its fine if you only want to network a few PC's together, but with the introduction of a cable modem, how would you protect this?

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

use a router and mac filtering

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

You use said software to set a private network ID which gets stored in the homeplugs themselves, unless someone knows this they cannot communicate with your network.

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

Yes, they are fine - I now have 3 and setup is per my question in another thread - http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/87...-printing.html

I have the 14Mbps units, not sure if my maths is up to it but I didn't reckon - at that time - that the bandwidth I had from ntl was enough to support 85Mbps units ??

I bought the 3rd homeplug a couple of weeks ago from :::

Shopping Cart (Prices in British Pounds)
DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Fla14 - HomePlug - 14Mbps 1 £17.04 £17.04
================================================== ====================
Subtotal: £17.04
Shipping (Post - Special Delivery - Next Day ): £5.25
VAT: £3.90
Total: £26.19

************************************************** ****


Sincerely,
Flashbyte Net Ltd

7 Church Road
Shoeburyness
Southend on Sea
Essex
SS3 9ET
United Kingdom
01702 299919
sales@homeplugs.co.uk

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

I may stop using my homeplugs soon but only because I'm getting a couple of 200mbit Powerline adaptors that use a different standard.

Depends if they co-exist or not.

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

I have the following sceanario at home. My cable modem is in an upstairs bedroom at home, and my wireless router is connected to that. I would like to play online on my xbox downstairs, but Id rather not do it wirelessely (as I have heard this is not as good - would that be right?).

I have been told that I should use these homeplugs. So I assume a cable comes out of my router and into the home plug upstairs, and then one from my homeplug in the tv room straight to the xbox.

Can someone tell me if I can connect the cabel modem straight to the homeplug upstairs and then the router to the downstairs homeplug - ideally Id like the wireless router downstairs. The upstairs bedrrom is to be converted into my kids bedroom and I want as much electrical equiptment out of it.

The other option I have is to take the cable going into the upstairs room, and drill it into my dowstairs room, but I dont have the confidence to drill new holes in external walls, as well as unscrewing the socket from upstairs and putting it downstairs.

Hope this makes sense. Anyone got any suggestions/recommendations?

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

That's what I have - and it works ok - only thing that I have found is that if the power goes (or the modem gets rebooted) the modem doesn't always find the router (I assume it picks up the mac address of the home plug or something) - so I have had to unplug the router from downstairs and connect it directly to the modem upstairs to make sure the modem finds it - if that makes sense?

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

So the cable modem plugs straight into a home plug upstairs, and then the router plugs uin to a homeplug downsatirs. Glad that works, one of the guys at work said he couldn't do it like that so I was envisaging getting my masonary drill out :S

Do you connect your XBox to it, so you can go online? Is performance an issue? Which plugs did you buy?

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

yeah, that's how I've got it - Like I say, you may have problems if you reboot your cable modem, but apart from that.

I've actually got a set up that's a little bit more complicated.
Basically, my modem plugs into one homeplug (I got the devlo models (85mps)), The router then plugs into the router (buffalo) in the cupboard under the stairs, as does a server, and a NAS box. I then have another homeplug in the cupboard under the stairs, which one of the LAN ports from the router plugs into... which then links to another homeplug in the office/conservatory, which plugs into a switch, and then 2 or 3 pcs plug into.
My xbox is connected to another buffalo router, which is acting as a bridging unit between the other router.

so I have 4 homeplugs, 2 routers, 1 switch. :)

I've been able to play online with no problems wirelessly.

---------- Post added at 15:37 ---------- Previous post was at 15:35 ----------

oh, and yes, I am seeing how much hardware I can buy before my wife threatens to divorce me

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

anybody seen the belkin homeplugs - http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatSecti...tion_Id=206583

Re: Homeplugs - Any Good?
 

So they've jumped on the bandwagon now... Still guess it means more choice.
Not sure i'd buy any networking gear made by belkin again though.