Powerline Ethernet may be the least understood and used technology for networking.  It’s a shame because it’s so easy to use and is more reliable than WiFi.  The good news is that there are more vendors offering products in the space, Intellinet being the latest.  Their Powerline AV500 Ethernet Adapter  provides a true plug and play implementation.  If you stream video or transfer files on your LAN and want to save the cost and hassle of running cables, Powerline is the way to go.

Here’s what the product says it will do:

• Network computers through existing AC power lines
• Up to 500 Mbps network data rates and data security through 128-bit encryption
• Enables high-quality video streaming, VoIP and gaming over a home network
• Provides network access for computers, HD media players and gaming consoles
• Plug and Play (no drivers required)
• Software-free security configuration with a simple push of a button
• HomePlug AV compliant
• Compatible with Intellinet Powerline AV/HD200 Ethernet Adapters
• Can co-exist with HomePlug 1.0

For your first Powerline installation, you’ll need a starter kit.  It consists of two adapters and hopefully ethernet cables to connect your devices.  The Intellinet starter kit had everything needed.

On the bottom is the Ethernet connector, a button for changing the password and a hole for inserting a paperclip to reset the device.

The backside has the mains connector, which is not polarized.  This allows it to be plugged in different orientations.

And here it is plugged into the wall socket.  The indicator lights show connection to the LAN, relative throughput and link status.

This isn’t my first Powerline review, and I’ve had the technology running successfully for several years.  Before this review I had 4 nodes connected: 1 for my Ooma VOIP; 1 for a Cirago media server; 1 adapter with a 4 port switch for a Roku, media extender, and another Cirago media server; and then of course, the main adapter that connects to the router.  The current adapters are AV200 devices and are HomePlug AV compliant.

To test out the AV500′s HomePlug compliance and to check how idiot proof these devices can be, I didn’t read the installation instructions and just plugged both adapters into a couple of power sockets.

Within seconds the two Intellinet adapters were recognized on the LAN.  The above screenshot is from the firmware inside the Plaster Networks adapter connected to my router.  The last 2 entries are the AV500 devices.  The Plaster Networks firmware only works if their adapter is connected to the router and unfortunately it is no longer supported because they appear to have gone out of business.  To get the maximum throughput between the AV500 adapters, I later had to reconfigure so that one of the AV500′s was connected directly to the router.  The maximum throughput on the LAN is the lesser of the ratings between two nodes and in the above case that would be 200 Mbps.

OK, so now I determined that the AV500 really is conforming to HomePlug specs, I rummaged through my closet to find some devices I could hang on the adapters for some stress testing.  I pulled out an unused PogoPlug device and connected a disk to it.  I then connected it via an adapter.  I also moved my OB100 from the a router port to a Powerline adapter.  This gave me 6 Powerline adapters of different brands: 2 Netgear, 2 PlasterNetworks and 2 Av500.  I also installed the included Power Packet Utility to monitor what was going on.  Installation of this software is optional and probably most users won’t bother.

In the above screen shot my local device or the one plugged into the router, is Plaster Networks.  It is rated at 200Mbps which makes that the fastest throughput between it and the other nodes.  Here devices 3 and 6 are the Intellinet AV500′s.  You’ll notice that device 3 shows a throughput of 194 Mbps and device 6 shows only 100 Mbps.  Be aware that the throughput will vary depending upon the distance between devices and the condition of your home power wiring.  I’d be surprised if anyone got the stated speed and my experience has been anywhere from 70% to 25% of rated throughput.  You can move the adapters to different circuits looking for better throughput and monitor the results using the Power Packet Utility.

To see if I could get near 500 Mbps, I replaced the Local adapter with one of the AV500 devices.  Illustrated above, you can see that device 3, the other AV500 is now screaming along at near 500 Mbps, but that’s partly because it’s plugged into the same AC circuit as the local adapter.  It’s less than 15 feet away.  I wouldn’t recommend buying Powerline equipment for 15ft when you could run a cable more cheaply.  You’ll also notice that Device 2, which is connected to my Ooma box, is running very slow.  That’s because there’s something amiss with the line on that breaker.  I haven’t figured it out yet, but the speed is sufficient for VOIP.  Another downside of Powerline is its susceptibility to electrical noise.  In my house, I have some under cabinet LED lights that when turned on cause so much electrical noise that my Mbps drops by 50% on all my circuits.

The Powerline adapters come configured with a common password for the 128 bit encryption.  This could cause a problem if you’re thinking of using them in a multi-unit building.  It would be possible for a user on the same electrical panel as you to be connected to your LAN.  This is taken care of in two ways.  By pressing a button on the adapter hooked to your router and then, within a certain time, pressing the buttons on the other adapters, a random password is generated  for those devices.  The password can also be changed by using the utility. For those of us living in a detached home, we can just use the devices right out of the box with the default password or one could use the utility to segment the LAN by assigning different passwords to devices.  This way an adapter could only communicate to devices with the same password.

I make good use of Powerline in my home.  I stream HD video from my PC, connect my VOIP boxes where I want them and attach my Roku to the Internet without having to run cables or settle for the vagaries of WiFi.  I also have a Laptop running Ubuntu connected via an adapter.  For my uses a 200 Mbps device is sufficient.  Even when the quality of the signal is low, I’ve had no problems streaming data over the LAN.  For those who need higher throughput, the Intellinet AV500 would be an excellent choice.  It’s a no-brainer to install and there’s no maintenance.  It’s truly Plug and Play.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: A/V, Networking

Intellinet AV500 Powerline Ethernet Adapter Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 17, 2011 at 11:00 am.

GARGOYLE- [gahr-goil] NOUN – a grotesquely carved figure of a human or animal

Gargoyle Router  is an alternative firmware for a number of different routers that allows you to monitor bandwidth usage by user  and set and enforce bandwidth quotas on particular users.

Let me preface this review with a warning. I’m an alternate firmware junkie. Any device I’ve got that has an alternative firmware available has been flashed.  My HTC Desire was flashed straight out of the box, my Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″ the same. My various routers have had multiple firmwares installed on them over the years. Note that flashing an alternate firmware WILL void your warranty, and a bad flash has the potential to brick your device and make it unuseable and unrecoverable.  If you are not comfortable with the whole procedure and risk of flashing an alternative  firmware then please don’t. 

In Australia, almost all ISPs have set download/upload limited plans with some form of shaping if you exceed the limit.  So how do you stop that one ( selfish? ) family member or flatmate from chewing up all your available bandwidth and getting you shaped in the first week of your plan or even  tell who’s been downloading the most youtube, bit torrent or other stuff ?? This is the issue I had at home with my three boys.  Of course I had my suspicions which of them it was but no firm evidence*.  So my search to find a router that would allow me to gather and maintain some control over bandwidth consumption began.

Garygoyle router is a derivation of OpenWRT that runs on a variety of different routers, everything from the very old and reliable Linksys WRT54G to much newer hardware. I’m currently running it on a TP-Link WR1043ND,  a cheap sub $80 router.

As you’d expect from a router it does all you standard routery stuff….sets up your connection with your ISP, controls your Wireless and security ,QOS,  dishes out DHCP addresses, gives you control over what time’s wifi or internet is enabled or disabled etc.  I’m going to skip over all these “standard” functions and just concentrate on what’s special about this firmware.

It seems these days that any device is capable of connecting to the internet, whether it’s your notebook, your phone, your ipod, your DS……..so the first thing I needed to do is to setup some static DHCP addresses.   Rather than having to deal with lots of multiple devices ad hoc, using Static IPs I’ve setup up all my kids into a particular IP Range so:

Kid 1 ( T ) = 192.168.1.60-69

Kid 2 ( R ) = 192.168.1.70-79

Kid 3 ( H ) = 192.168.1.80-89

Other known devices ( that I don’t want to quota )  are 192.168.1.90-110 and non specified DHCP 192.168.1.110-120

Using this scheme I can put rules and controls easily around any of the kids without having to delve into individual devices.  This allows 9 devices per child and lord help me if they start exceeding that number.

I get 50GB per month and decided that each child should get 7.5GB of that bandwidth each.  All my kids have different usage patterns.  Two of them mostly use their Notebooks while the youngest tends to use his Ipod most of the time.  By grouping the IP addresses I can then give them 7.5GB across all their devices .  So it doesn’t matter if they only use their notebook or their ipod or a combination of both, it all gets recorded against their usage. So I end up with 3 rules for the kids. The last one means that anything that attaches without a static IP only get 1024KB before I shape them.  Stops intruders and also visitors from excessive downloading.

Above is  the individual rule for  192.168.1.60-69 ( Kid 1 ) , they get 7.5GB from each cycle and if they exceed that then they get throttled to VOIP speed ( max 200 kbit/s ). If I wanted to I could throttle them even further or even stop their internet access entirely for the rest of the cycle.

Group quotas can be checked easily by the administrator

Or by going to the router address , users can check their own

The other big differentiation with this firmware is that it also displays some really handy, easy to read status graphs that can help you out with monitoring your bandwidth over various time frames ( minute, 15 minutes, hour, days, month,year  ). Makes it very easy to work out what’s happening during any time period. The data can also be exported out for analysis via Excel or similar ( Click on the pics below to see bigger/clearer versions )

.

(*You’ll note some repeated host names in the bandwidth distribution table on the left. It’s some left over legacy stuff from my mucking around sorting things out. Note they show 0 usage.)

As mentioned above it is a third party firmware and as such support comes from the development community. I had some issues installing originally, then some issues with functionality such as the wifi and had to wait for some patches to be released but that can be the nature of third party firmwares.  It’s all good and stable now and I haven’t bothered loading the latest updates.

If you’re not comfortable with flashing a third party firmware Gargoyle does offer a router preloaded with the firmware.

You don’t need to have any linux skills to install or setup, it’s all configurable via the web interface.

I highly recommend this firmware if you really do need to know who’s using your bandwidth, and require  the ability to be able to set hard download/upload quotas for  certain users. Coupled with the ability to enable or disable wifi at particular times  for a particular user or web filter certain sites based on keyword ( some applications/sites  don’t work well with this ) I get a nice level of granular control.

Ideally I’d love the ability to be able to time quota the kids as well , say 3 hours per day during school days and 6 hours on weekends ( as compared with giving them access between certain times ) . The other shortcomings are that the monthly bandwidth distribution graph/chart  shown above only covers calendar month and can’t be sync with an ISP monthly cycle and the graph status pages are a little bit picky about what browser they’ll display properly in ( Firefox seems to be the most compatible ) .

In summary Gargoyle gives me the ability to easily monitor and manage my usage and comes with functions that you’d expect from much higher end  and more expensive routers.

*BTW after yelling and screaming at Kid 2 for month after month accusing him of exceeding our allotted bandwidth because of his gaming and skyping , after installing I actually found it’s Kid 3 that’s the biggest “offender”.  Even though he knew  he’s being monitored and had an enforced quota  he’d used up 37% of his 7.5GB quota in the first 3 days last cycle  on youtube and downloading games.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Reviews

Tagged: Networking

Gargoyle Router – A Not So Ugly Solution to Bandwidth Monitoring and Quotas – Mini Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 11, 2011 at 11:00 am.

I’ve been using Powerline networking for several years and this is the 4th product I’ve  used and reviewed.  All the vendors provided ethernet over the AC lines in my house, but I could never quite get the throughput I expected, until now.  The Plaster Networks solution has similar hardware, however, they have intelligence built into their boxes that provides diagnosis of the network, which facilitates optimization of the setup.  If you need to run your network from the computer to your media player, IPTV, networked DVD player or game console and don’t want to run cable, you  may want to read on…

Before Powerline Networking there were two main options to extend a network:  running cable or WiFi.  If you’re fortunate enough to have ethernet cabling in every room of your house you don’t need this product.  However, most of us aren’t this lucky and have used WiFi to connect back to the router.

Why would one consider Plaster Networks Powerline Networking over WiFi?

• Ease of Installation.  These devices are truly “Plug & Play”.  I plugged the PLN3 device into an AC outlet near my broadband router and the AV200 into an outlet near the ethernet device I needed to connect and had an instant ethernet connection.  Also, the Plaster Networks devices were totally interoperable with my current configuration of Netgear AV200 devices.
• Broadband Performance.  Although the theoretical speed is 200 Mbps I was at best able to realize only half that.  That’s still much better than anything I could get with WiFi.
• Security.  I didn’t have to set up any encryption because it’s automatic.  However, if you want to change the encryption password, it can be done from the firmware or web.
• Built in network processor.  The network can be monitored and data collected to see throughput performance over time.  Using this information, adjustments can be made to the network configuration to optimize performance.  There is no software to install.

The PLN3 device plugs into an AC outlet using the integral prongs on the back.  At least one of these devices is required in the network, in order to take advantage of the monitoring capability.

The AV200 is similar in size, but doesn’t have the monitoring capability of the PLN3.  Again the reverse side has  a 2 prong AC plug which allows the device to be inserted into a 110V socket.  The plug is not polarized.

As I mentioned above, installation is plug and play.  I replaced the Netgear AV200 adapter connected to my router with the PLN3.  After about 10 seconds all the lights turned green and the network was up and running.  I went ahead and moved some devices around.  I plugged the Plaster Networks AV200 into my media extender and used the now spare Netgear adapter for a laptop that was running WiFi.  Everything ran OK, but I didn’t see any improvement in throughput.  My media extender was still stalling and transfers between ethernet devices still appeared sluggish.

My next step was to register with the Plaster Networks Performance and Administration Server.  This would allow me to monitor and make changes to my powerline network from a web browser from anywhere on the Internet.  You’ll notice from the following screen shots that I’m using Opera.  That’s because one of the utilities requires a function only available in Opera and rather that switch back and forth, I used the same browser for all the tests.  Be advised that use of the Plaster Networks Server is free for the first year.  Subscription is $29 for each subsequent year.

The first thing to do is register each adapter on your network.  For Plaster Networks devices it’s as simple as typing in the 6 digit code that’s plastered (hmm, is that where the Company name comes from?) on the back and side of the adapter.  For non Plaster Network devices, you’ll need the MAC address and password for each adapter.  These are found on the back of the adapters.

Next you’ll probably want to give each adapter a name that makes sense, otherwise they will be referred to by their ID number or MAC address.  In my case I have 5 powerline nodes in the network.  The node named PLN003075 is the PLN3 with the admin firmware in it.  The others are a mix of AV200 adapters.  Again, a nice feature of the Plaster Networks devices is that they play well with other vendors AV200 compatible adapters.

This is a snapshot of my network today.  This interactive graph allows you to change the “from” device by clicking on an adapter hyperlink.  This makes it possible to see the throughput between different devices.  The green bars tell me I have enough speed to stream HD to my media extender, but when I began this review, several of the bars we shorter and yellow, signifying reduced throughput.

The above report illustrates what happened when I changed the PLN3 adapter from one electrical outlet in my computer room, to another on the other side of the room.  On the left side of the graph is the speed between the router and the media extender.  At about 2pm I had a brainstorm and moved to a different AC outlet.  You’ll notice that the throughput almost doubled!  It appears that the original outlet is on a circuit that has some problem or is not frequency coupled to the circuit to which the media extender is connected.

Now, some astute individual will probably point out that I could have come to the same conclusion and solution without the monitoring capability.  Perhaps, but I’ve been fighting this speed problem for a year.  The issue has been that the speed has been marginal for streaming and sometimes it worked well.  I did make changes before, but they never seemed conclusive.  With the monitoring and graph, it was clear when the issue was resolved.

There is also a tool that can be accessed directly from the PLN3.  This is a real-time monitor with moving graph.  The above is an example of my network which has been affected by some under cabinet LED lamps.  All is well until about the 60 second mark, when I turn them on and then turn them off about 10-15 second after that.  This is a great utility that can be run on a laptop while going around the house and turning electrical devices on and off to see the effects.

If you have noisy electrical devices, they can be plugged into the IX2 Powerline Isolator.  It will filter out frequencies that interfere with the Powerline network.

If you don’t want to use the Plaster Networks server, you can access several utilities directly from the PLN3 device.  It is the only way to get real-time statistics as detailed earlier, but you won’t have the renaming or reports functions available from the server.  Also, it can only be accessed from a device that’s on the same LAN as the PLN3.

Let’s face it, this powerline networking detail is boring.  Most folks just want to connect their devices and get on with it.  Here’s where Plaster Networks has an advantage.  The non techie can buy the hardware and plug it in.  It’s about as idiot proof as you can get.  If there are problems, they can get a techie friend, or their 12-year-old kid, to remotely log on to the Admin server and diagnose the  problem.  It really couldn’t be easier.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Reviews

Tagged: Networking

Plaster Networks Powerline AV Network Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 15, 2010 at 11:21 am.

I’ve been using powerline ethernet for several years and it’s allowed  me to extend my home LAN to every corner of the house without having to rewire the building.   I have used and tested several HomePlug devices, but the innoband Wireless N solution is unique in that it also includes a WiFi access point.

You may remember that Powerline ethernet is a technology that transmits ethernet signals over power wiring.  The advantage is the use of already available wiring to connect devices on a LAN.  The innoband Wireless N HomePlug solution takes this a step further, by including a WiFi access point in one of the two required transmit/receivers providing another way to get on the LAN.

Powerline Features:

• Provides physical layer data rate of up to 200Mbps over existing in-home powerlines
• Utilizes powerline technology that takes advantage of the unused bandwidth of the electrical wiring in your home
• Utilizes Quality of Service (QoS) control
• Supports 10/100 Base-T Ethernet
• Compliant with the HomePlug Powerline Alliance industry specifications

Wireless Features:

• Extended wireless coverage of up to 3 times the range of 802.11g products
• Pre-configured WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup)
• Auto channel select
• Compliant with IEEE 802.11n, 802.11g and 802.11b standards
• 2.4 GHz-2.484 GHz frequency range
• Up to 150Mbps wireless operation rate
• 64/128 bits WEP supported for encryption
• Wireless Security with WEP/WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK support

The kit contains 1 x HomePlug AV device, 1 x Wireless N HomePlug AV device, 2 x ethernet cables and a CD with the manual and a monitoring utility.

The 2 HomePlug devices plug directly into a power outlet.

The only other plugging necessary is the ethernet cable between your modem/router and either device, and  then repeat with the other device to your laptop, PC, game, etc.  To setup, push the sync button on either HomePlug box for 1-3 seconds and repeat on the other box within 2 minutes.  Simple, isn’t it?  Well, not really.  I had a problem.

I couldn’t get the boxes to talk to each other.  I pressed the sync button and the lights flashed , but the PLC LED did not light up as it was supposed to.  To make a long story short, apparently the innoband devices didn’t like the fact that my powerline network already had several NetGear HomePlug AV devices attached and running.  After I removed the NetGear boxes, I was able to establish a connection between the innoband boxes.  This situation is unfortunate because previous HomePlug AV devices I have reviewed, from different manufacturers were interoperable.  I have written to innoband about this and have not yet received a reply.

With only the innoband devices in the LAN, everything worked as advertised.  I plugged the non-wireless box into my router in the home office on the second floor and the wireless N box into an outlet in my den.  To test the powerline portion of the net I attached my trusty Media Center extender to the ethernet port.  I was able to stream video and audio at the same speed as with my other powerline gear.

Although not required, a utility is provided that allows for monitoring of the powerline network and adjusting parameters, but for the most part the default settings are sufficient.

While I was streaming a recorded TV show, I fired up my laptop and searched for available WiFi networks and sure enough, Innoband was on the list.  I clicked on it and was presented with a request for a password.  That made me think for a bit.  I knew the device was preconfigured for WPA, but where was the password?    With a little research, I discovered it was on a label on the retail box.  Just another reason not to throw the packaging away until everything is working!

I swapped back and forth between the innoband and my normal wireless access point to see if there was any apparent difference in speed.  Both streaming video and audio worked the same, however, to be honest I don’t have any 802.11 N devices so I was operating at G speeds.

The manual details the steps needed to access the web interface for the wireless configuration utility.  This is not an activity for those of faint heart.  It requires that you set all your LAN devices to a static IP in the range of the innoband access point.  For the majority of users the default settings will work fine, as they did for me.  However, if you need to open ports or access the DMZ, you’ll need to use the web interface.  For testing purposes, I changed the IP for my desktop so I could log into the interface, then I changed back to DHCP when I was done.

The innoband solution isn’t as complicated as it sounds.  For the most part, it’s as simple as plugging two devices into an electrical outlet, attaching the router and net work device with an ethernet cable and pushing the sync buttons.  You will then have an ethernet connection.  Although I entered a password for the WiFi connection, if your wireless device is WPS capable, there is a button on the innoband box that will connect automatically.

Over the 2 years that I’ve had  powerline technology as part of my LAN, I’ve found it to be a mixed blessing.   If you want a 100% reliable ethernet connection, run cable.   Powerline ethernet is a compromise.  It will save you having to run cable and tear up your house, but there will be times when throughput will suffer.  For me, it’s very noticeable when large appliances turn on.  When streaming video the picture stalls as will also happen with music.  There are also certain lamps in the house, mostly LED and fluorescents, that will bring the LAN to a grinding halt.  I know what devices cause the problems, so I’ve learned to live with it and not run them when I want to watch a movie.  When there’s no electrical noise on the power lines, it works great.

I don’t know how a powerline solution would work for you.  My advice, as I’ve said before, is to buy from an outlet that has a liberal return policy.  The innoban Wireless N HomePlug AV would be a good way to get started, as long as you don’t have another vendor’s powerline devices already.  After I discovered the incompatibility issue, it really was plug and play.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: Ethernet, Networking, Wireless

innoband HomePlug AV Wireless N Starter Kit Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 14, 2010 at 11:11 am.

The next time I purchase a house I will look for one that has Ethernet wired to all the rooms, but until that happens I need a way to get high speed LAN access in different areas of my home.  WiFi is too slow and unreliable.  One of the possibilities is a technology called Powerline Ethernet.  The MegaPlug AV Powerline Ethernet from ActionTec kit is one option.

I had previously reviewed the Netgear Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter and found that it satisfied my needs, but it would have been better if there were more ports to plug devices into.  The MegaPlug AV purports to provide the same connection experience with the addition of a 4-Port integrated switch.

The kit consists of 2 transmitter/receivers where one is a single port device and the other has the 4-Port switch.

Features:

• Plug-N-Play
• Any electrical outlet will work
• Supports HomePlug speeds up to 200 Mbps
• HomePlug Av compatible
• More secure than wireless networks
• Works with any Ethernet enabled device

In the box:

• The devices as mentioned above
• Quick start guide
• Two Ethernet cables
• Power cord

The Ethernet adapter plus 4-Port switch from the front.

And from the back showing the 4 ports.  The button under the lock symbol allows the encryption of the data.  Because I live in a detached home I don’t need it, however, for those living in multi-unit dwellings, setting encryption would be a good idea.

The single port Powerline adapter.  It also has the button to enable encryption.  Not shown is the flip side which has the 2 prong AC plug built-in.  The device has an integral power supply and looks like a wall wart when plugged into the wall.

Installation is a snap, entailing plugging the devices into a convenient AC outlet and then running an Ethernet cable from your modem or router to one device and then a cable from the other Powerline adapter to the device you wish to connect to the LAN.

As my current Powerline setup also states that it conforms to the PlugAV specification, I should then be able to plug the Actiontec devices in the wall and they should work mixed in with the Netgear devices!

To be honest, I was surprised that it worked.  In the above photo the 4-Port ActionTec device is in the kitchen with a laptop plugged in and the LAN also includes a Netgear device for my Linksys Media Center and the adapter at the router/modem end is also from Netgear.  I tried different combinations of all 4 devices (2 x Netgear and 2 xActionTec) and all worked fine.  So my conclusion is that PlugAV truly is a standard and there is interoperability between compatible devices.

One thing that ActionTec doesn’t supply is a utility to monitor the network.  They rely upon the indicator lights on the units which give a broad estimate of the throughout.  I had to dig through their website and online documentation to find the meaning of the green/yellow/red indications (red means less than 50Mbps, orange means 50-100Mbps and green means more than 100Mbps throughput), but fortunately the Netgear utility was able to recognize the ActionTec devices.

In the above screenshot, device 04 is the single port ActionTec adapter at the modem end of the LAN.  Device 03 is the 4-Port ActionTec device in the kitchen feeding a laptop.  The Media Center device is my Linksys DMA2100 connected by a Netgear Powerline adapter.

In the 7-8 months I’ve been using Powerline  Ethernet for my LAN, I’ve made some discoveries.  When I first used the devices, I lived in a 30 year old house with antiquated power wiring.  The throughput I realized was fairly constant and only varied when we ran the clothes dryer which seems to introduce electrical noise in the power wiring, slowing the LAN speed.  Since then I have moved to a 10 year old house with modern AC wiring and cannot get consistent speed results.  Who would have thought that I’d have better connections in the older house.

I was able to able to trace some of the problems to a set of L.E.D. under cabinet lights, which when turned on make the LAN unusable.  Also, during the evening hours the throughput is affected by something I have yet to find and quite frankly, it has become annoying.  This problem is the same whether using the ActionTec or Netgear equipment and seems to be an issue with the underlying technology.  I hope to solve the problem by replacing the Powerline gear with the new MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance) technology which would use the cable TV outlets I have in every room, but the price will have to drop appreciably before I go that route.

At the moment, Powerline Ethernet is my most cost effective option short of tearing down walls and running Cat 6 cable.  I’ll give the same advice I gave in my first review of the technology:  if you wish to go this route, buy the hardware from a merchant with a liberal return policy.  That way if it doesn’t work for you, then you only lose a little time.  The ActionTec Plug AV Powerline Ethernet Kit is a viable solution and worked as advertised.  One of the advantages of the 4-Port switch device is that you can use it at the modem end if you need more ports and use the single port adapter as the remote.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, Wireless

Tagged: A/V, Networking

ActionTec MegaPlugAV 200Mbps Powerline Ethernet Kit Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 9, 2009 at 8:49 am.

The SimpleNET from SimpleTech is a super simple (sorry, couldn’t resist) way to turn a USB hard drive into a NAS device (network attached storage). Just plug this small module into your wireless router and then plug one or two USB hard drives into the USB ports in the module and you’re done. It’s compatible with Linux, Windows and OS X and supports FAT32, NTFS, HFS+ and EXT3 files systems. The price is $79.99 and is available now from various online stores like Best Buy and Amazon.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Wireless

Tagged: NAS, Networking, Storage, USB

Turn an external USB hard drive into a NAS device originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 14, 2009 at 5:46 pm.

A technology that’s been running below the radar solved one of my networking problems in 3 easy steps:  1) buy it, 2) plug it in and 3) turn it on.  The Netgear Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter is a truly plug and play device and is a cost effective solution for those who can’t hardwire or don’t want to deal with the vagaries of WiFi.

The challenge that led me to this solution was my recent purchase of a Windows Media Center Extender from Linksys.  I bought it for the DVR capabilities without having to pay a monthly fee to Comcast or Tivo.  Unfortunately, I ignored the product specs which suggested an 802.11N network and used my 802.11G setup.  It worked somewhat, but my streaming  video from the PC tuner would sometimes freeze, with an error warning of network issues.  Using the Media Center diagnostics, it was clear that I had a bandwidth issue.

The best solution would have been a direct cable connection between my router and the extender.  I had to rule this out, because it would have meant running a cable from my second floor office to the family room on the first floor.  Quite frankly, I wasn’t interested in poking holes in the floor and ceiling.

The obvious answer would have been to upgrade the network to 802.11N.  However, after I dug into the costs, it was more than I wanted to pay.  Not only would I have had to buy a new router, I would need to upgrade my other wifi devices to the N standard.   After doing some research on powerline Ethernet, I decided to purchase the Netgear  XAVB101.

The package included  2 powerline Ethernet adapters,  2 ethernet cables , a CD and installation guide.

Features
*    Turns any electrical power outlet into an Ethernet network connection
*    Delivers fast 200 Mbps speed
*    Secure your Powerline AV network by just pushing a button
*    For use with both wired and wireless routers and gateways
*    Simply plug one XAV101 into your router and another XAV101 into any Ethernet-ready device

After opening the box, I wanted to see how easy the setup really was, so I followed the instructions on the side panel, which directed me to plug one of the adapters into an electrical outlet near my router and the other adapter into an outlet near the device I needed to connect.  I then connected the ether net cables between the adapters and their respective devices and in a matter of minutes my media center was recognized on my local area network and connected to the computer.  At this point I was effectively done, however, I decided to see what the buttons and CD were for, so I read the manual.

Installed in 2 steps

The included CD contains a configuration utility that allows you see details of all the adapters on the network.  It displays information such as link rate, MAC address, firmware and allows you to set your own encryption key for the units.  There is also the ability to generate a new encryption scheme via the buttons on the units.  I could only see the need for this if you were using the units in an apartment house and others had a similar setup.  Then it would be conceivable that they could tap into your powerline network.  As I live in a private house, unless someone plugs their powerline unit into one of my outlets, I am perfectly secure.

Click thumbnail for full-size image

Even if you don’t use the configuration utility, there are 3 indicator leds on the unit that give you quite a bit of information.   Most important is the center led which is Green for a link rate < 80Mbs, Orange for between  > 50 and < 80 Mbps and Red for < 50 Mbps.  The other 2 indicate power and a working connection.  Personally, after a month of use I tired of the blinking leds and using the configuration utility I was able to turn them off.

Now that I’ve been using these devices for several hours a day, for over a month, I have made some discoveries that may affect some people’s decision to go this route.  Firstly, if you’re unfamiliar with the powerline technology, I suggest you look up the details on the web.  Simply, it’s a process where Ethernet data is converted to signals that are superimposed on the 60 Hz power available via your AC outlets.  Given that there are multiple power outlets in a home, it makes setting up a network very flexible.

There are some caveats though.  The signal quality is dependent upon the distance of wire between the units.  The specs say these devices work for up to a 5,000 sq ft house.  Also, electrical noise affects the link speed.  I noticed that when we were running the clothes washer the links speed led would change from green to orange, indicating a lower speed.  This did not have any effect on my streaming video, but should be noted.  I wouldn’t use this setup in a machine shop or commercial office with many copiers and printers.   Another factor to consider is, are the outlets on the same phase of the power from the breaker panel.  I’ve read on several forums that this could be a problem, which I didn’t personally observe.  Are you planning to add additional units in the future?  Unfortunately the powerline standards are not always compatible.  This unit is Homeplug AV compatible, but not backward compatible with Homeplug  1 and 2.  If you are going to add additional adapters, you’ll need to get Homeplug AV compatible units.

The only problem I had with the installation was the configuration utility.  It would not run under Vista, even though it is supposed to be compatible.  This wasn’t a show stopper and I just installed it on one of my XP machines.  You should also be aware that while the hardware is OS impartial, the configuration software doesn’t run under Mac or Linux.

This is truly a plug and play solution for extending a home network.  If you’re concerned about any of the caveats I mentioned, do as I did.  Buy it at a big box store with a liberal return policy.  And the $129 MSRP, for the pair, is cost effective when looking at the alternatives.   Additional individual units would be less.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, Wireless

Tagged: Networking

Netgear Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 20, 2009 at 1:19 pm.