Powerline network adapters

I know this is not strictly wireless, but powerline adapters are
alternatives to wireless for home networking.

I am buying an older large house. I am pretty sure that my single WRT54G
will not cover this space reliably. Further, the house is not cat5 wired
and I really do not want to do that. Buying range extenders seemed like
a hit or miss affair and expensive from what I have read.

So I was thinking of using powerline adapters to network the house and
adding access points in selected large spaces, such as the family room,
upstairs or garage.

The question is whether this is a sound plan or not. I have had no
experience with powerline adapters. Googling around also seems to yield
limited strong recommendations. There appears to be a "some better than
others" flavor of postings and a "make sure the store has a good return
policy" flavor.

Surveying the crop of solutions at Fry's seems to yield these front
runners base on price, performance and extendability.

Panasonic HD-PLC
Netgear HDX101

Any comments on this would be very much appreciated.

Philip wrote:
> I know this is not strictly wireless, but powerline adapters are
> alternatives to wireless for home networking.
>
> I am buying an older large house. I am pretty sure that my single
> WRT54G will not cover this space reliably. Further, the house is not
> cat5 wired and I really do not want to do that. Buying range
> extenders seemed like a hit or miss affair and expensive from what I
> have read.
> So I was thinking of using powerline adapters to network the house and
> adding access points in selected large spaces, such as the family
> room, upstairs or garage.
>
> The question is whether this is a sound plan or not. I have had no
> experience with powerline adapters. Googling around also seems to
> yield limited strong recommendations. There appears to be a "some
> better than others" flavor of postings and a "make sure the store has
> a good return policy" flavor.
>
> Surveying the crop of solutions at Fry's seems to yield these front
> runners base on price, performance and extendability.
>
> Panasonic HD-PLC
> Netgear HDX101
>
> Any comments on this would be very much appreciated.

The netgears work great (the faster ones 102/103/104,
http://www.netgear.com/Products/Powe...tAdapters.aspx
85 mbps not the way slow 101's, however a bit more per pair $135-$160),
brick house, and internal cement block walls to support the sunken floors
upstairs, blocks the signal inside, about $20 more for a pair of the faster
ones (read the cnet review and there are purchase links at the end
http://reviews.cnet.com/Netgear_Powe...-31970278.html )
, have one linksys wrt54g on the cable modem, the router output part plugged
to the bridge, and then a second linksys wrt54g upstairs in the dining area
with the 2nd unit plugged ijnto the router part (don't use the wan input on
the second), same ssid but a different channel, lets me roam with the
laptops... For some strange reason however, my PDA doesn't work on the
second one, but will on the first (notebooks work fine)..

Just to be fair/full disclosure, I love it, at home in MD just ran electric
to a gazebo in the back yard and have another WAP in their (and a hammock so
I can relax while surfing), and did the same at my vacation place in
northern ID (underground power from the house to the garage about 500 ft
from the house for the welder, both with steel snow roofs, 2nd wap in the
garage)... Know you don't know me, but two enthusistic thumbs up - try em,
you'll like em!

Hi, recently I bought a pair of Netgear XE103 (a pair of
them comes as XE104) from Amazon. I just plugged one into
the wall socket and then connected it to my router which is
hooked to the cable modem and my main machine. In a detached
building, I plugged in the other one near my laptop, and a
CAT5 cable to the laptop and wala, I was running. File
sharing and the internet worked great. Didn't install a thing.

But don't plug them into any power strip that has hash
filters, it filters out the RF link real well. Good luck.


Philip wrote:

> I know this is not strictly wireless, but powerline adapters are
> alternatives to wireless for home networking.
>
> I am buying an older large house. I am pretty sure that my single WRT54G
> will not cover this space reliably. Further, the house is not cat5 wired
> and I really do not want to do that. Buying range extenders seemed like
> a hit or miss affair and expensive from what I have read.
>
> So I was thinking of using powerline adapters to network the house and
> adding access points in selected large spaces, such as the family room,
> upstairs or garage.
>
> The question is whether this is a sound plan or not. I have had no
> experience with powerline adapters. Googling around also seems to yield
> limited strong recommendations. There appears to be a "some better than
> others" flavor of postings and a "make sure the store has a good return
> policy" flavor.
>
> Surveying the crop of solutions at Fry's seems to yield these front
> runners base on price, performance and extendability.
>
> Panasonic HD-PLC
> Netgear HDX101
>
> Any comments on this would be very much appreciated.

Peter Pan wrote:
> Philip wrote:
>> I know this is not strictly wireless, but powerline adapters are
>> alternatives to wireless for home networking.
>>
>> I am buying an older large house. I am pretty sure that my single
>> WRT54G will not cover this space reliably. Further, the house is not
>> cat5 wired and I really do not want to do that. Buying range
>> extenders seemed like a hit or miss affair and expensive from what I
>> have read.
>> So I was thinking of using powerline adapters to network the house and
>> adding access points in selected large spaces, such as the family
>> room, upstairs or garage.
>>
>> The question is whether this is a sound plan or not. I have had no
>> experience with powerline adapters. Googling around also seems to
>> yield limited strong recommendations. There appears to be a "some
>> better than others" flavor of postings and a "make sure the store has
>> a good return policy" flavor.
>>
>> Surveying the crop of solutions at Fry's seems to yield these front
>> runners base on price, performance and extendability.
>>
>> Panasonic HD-PLC
>> Netgear HDX101
>>
>> Any comments on this would be very much appreciated.
>
> The netgears work great (the faster ones 102/103/104,
> http://www.netgear.com/Products/Powe...tAdapters.aspx
> 85 mbps not the way slow 101's, however a bit more per pair $135-$160),
> brick house, and internal cement block walls to support the sunken floors
> upstairs, blocks the signal inside, about $20 more for a pair of the faster
> ones (read the cnet review and there are purchase links at the end
> http://reviews.cnet.com/Netgear_Powe...-31970278.html )
> , have one linksys wrt54g on the cable modem, the router output part plugged
> to the bridge, and then a second linksys wrt54g upstairs in the dining area
> with the 2nd unit plugged ijnto the router part (don't use the wan input on
> the second), same ssid but a different channel, lets me roam with the
> laptops... For some strange reason however, my PDA doesn't work on the
> second one, but will on the first (notebooks work fine)..

Thanks very much for the assurances, Peter.

Slightly OT but, I note that a Linksys WRT54G wireless router + 4 port
bridge is $49 locally while a WAP54G access point (no nothing) is $59.
Seems like buying another WRT54G and using it as an access point is the
best deal.

Philip wrote:
>
> Thanks very much for the assurances, Peter.
>
> Slightly OT but, I note that a Linksys WRT54G wireless router + 4 port
> bridge is $49 locally while a WAP54G access point (no nothing) is $59.
> Seems like buying another WRT54G and using it as an access point is
> the best deal.

Yup, and a bonus is that if you have two (or 3 or 4 or... of the same), and
one goes belly up, it makes it easy to diagnose/fix when they are all the
same.... If you do use a second one with the powerline, think I mentioned
same ssid/different channel, and forgot to mention the same subnet (if you
want to share between devices on different routers), and use a router port
rather than the wan in port...


You may be interested in these instead
Powerline Wireless Access Points
http://www.netgear.com/Products/Powe...essPoints.aspx

Same thing, plug one unit into the powerline and wap/router, and the other
(the AP part) can be plugged in anywhere in the house for an extra AP (works
with the PDA, however, only 54mbps and haven't figured out how to use
multiples on the same subnet to have lots of ap's, nor how to use wpa2)....
If you only need one more ap, then it is actually even a few bucks cheaper
(about $10) to get that (link above) rather than a separate 102 and a wrt54g

Peter Pan wrote:
> Philip wrote:
>> Thanks very much for the assurances, Peter.
>>
>> Slightly OT but, I note that a Linksys WRT54G wireless router + 4 port
>> bridge is $49 locally while a WAP54G access point (no nothing) is $59.
>> Seems like buying another WRT54G and using it as an access point is
>> the best deal.
>
> Yup, and a bonus is that if you have two (or 3 or 4 or... of the same), and
> one goes belly up, it makes it easy to diagnose/fix when they are all the
> same.... If you do use a second one with the powerline, think I mentioned
> same ssid/different channel, and forgot to mention the same subnet (if you
> want to share between devices on different routers), and use a router port
> rather than the wan in port...
>
>
> You may be interested in these instead
> Powerline Wireless Access Points
> http://www.netgear.com/Products/Powe...essPoints.aspx
>
> Same thing, plug one unit into the powerline and wap/router, and the other
> (the AP part) can be plugged in anywhere in the house for an extra AP (works
> with the PDA, however, only 54mbps and haven't figured out how to use
> multiples on the same subnet to have lots of ap's, nor how to use wpa2)....
> If you only need one more ap, then it is actually even a few bucks cheaper
> (about $10) to get that (link above) rather than a separate 102 and a wrt54g
>

Yes I saw those, but sort of discounted them because, of
cost-performance. They have the same price as the XE102's, but slower,
and appear to support only two point, not multiple drops.

The built in access point is neat, but I'd rather have a good one with a
standard antenna.