Carry wireless broadband over your mains circuit
Powerline networking adapters (or HomePlugs) send your broadband connection around your home using your electrical wiring. They’re a great solution to those blackspots where your router’s Wi-Fi signal struggles to reach.
Plug one of the two Netgear units into a wall socket near your router and connect it to the router using one of the two Ethernet cables supplied. Plug the other one into a socket near to your PC, games console, or any other device with an Ethernet port and connect it using the second cable. If you need to connect a device wirelessly, such as your tablet or phone, you should consider the Devolo dLAN, which creates its own Wi-Fi network.
There’s no software or configuration to worry about. There are buttons on each plug to set up a secure connection or reset it. Three lights indicate power and the status of your connection, so you know at a glance if all is well. There’s even a pass-through power socket on the front of each unit, so you won’t lose use of the wall socket.
The 1200Mbps rating is lightning fast for powerline plugs, and we had no trouble streaming videos live in our tests. A pre-recorded hour-long video file transferred from one computer to another, between floors, in less than half a minute.
Home networking in this way is perfectly safe from an electrical standpoint, and more secure than Wi-Fi, because the signal doesn’t pass through the air. It can’t leak to your neighbours’ plugs, even if they’re running a similar system, for the same reason they can’t use electricity off your meter.
Its limitation is that if you want to work somewhere that’s on a separate electrical circuit, such as a shed or garden office, you’ll need to think of a different solution, such as a more powerful router.
The PLP1200 supports HomePlug standards, so you can extend the network by buying extra adapters from Netgear or other makers. Again, it’s just a matter of plugging in and pressing a button.
This high-speed, inexpensive kit is a simple fix for Wi-Fi blackspots around your home.
SPECIFICATIONS
Theoretical maximum speed of 1200Mbps • Gigabit Ethernet ports • Encrypted • 120x58x42mm (HxWxD) • Two-year warranty