power line

Actiontec PWR511K01 power-line kit extends Internet to the far corners of your home

At a street price of around $50 for a kit of two units, the Actiontec 500 Mbps Powerline Network Adapter Kit is a bargain. And that's not the only good thing about it.

The kit, retail model number PWR511K01, comes with two identical adapters, currently the smallest of their type, that offered very good performance in my testing.

The only real complaint I have is that these adapters don't support Gigabit Ethernet, hence offering the limited data rate of the regular Ethernet standard at most. However, the affordable price and the supercompact design still make the kit an … Read more

Home networking explained, Part 3: Taking control of your wires

Editors' note: This post is part of an ongoing series. For the other parts, check out the related stories.

Now that you have learned about the basics of home networking in Part 1, and how to optimize your Wi-Fi in Part 2, in Part 3, it's time to get your hands dirty and learn how to take control of your network completely.

All home networks start with a network cable. Even if you plan on using all wireless clients, in most cases you will still need at least one cable to connect the wireless router and the broadband modem. … Read more

Home networking explained, Part 2: Optimizing your Wi-Fi network

Editors' note: This post is part of an ongoing series. For the other parts, check out the related stories.

Since my last post on the basics of home networking, which is Part 1 of this series, I've been flooded with even more e-mails than I had been before (which explains why some of you haven't heard back from me). The good news is that nobody is asking about what a router is anymore. I guess I did an OK job explaining that in my previous post.

Most of the e-mails this time asked about how to have the … Read more

Home networking explained, Part 1: Here's the URL for you

Editors' note: This post is part of an ongoing series and was updated on February 13, 2013, to add information about hubs, switches, and the new 802.11ad Wi-Fi standard. For the other parts, check out the related stories.

As the guy who reviews networking products, I generally receive a couple of e-mails from readers a day, and most of them, in one way or another, are asking about the basics of networking (as in computer to computer, I am not talking about social networks here.)

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate e-mails because, at the very least, it gives me the impression that there are real people out there amid the sea of spam. But I'd rather not keep repeating myself. So instead of saying the same thing over and over again in individual e-mails, I'll talk all about home networking basics, in layman's terms, in this post.… Read more

Power-line networking data rate to double, HomePlug says

LAS VEGAS--Your home's electrical wiring is about to get supercharged for data speed, should you choose to use it as cabling of a computer network.

The HomePlug Powerline Alliance (HPA) announced today the availability of the HomePlug AV2 specification. This is the upgrade to the current HomePlug AV, used in Powerline AV 500 products such as the D-Link DHP-501AV, the Netgear XAV5001, or the D-Link DHP-540, that offers up to 500Mbps throughput speed.

HPA says that this new HomePlug technology enables significant performance and coverage for broadband networking over power-line wires while remaining fully interoperable with existing HomePlug AV-based … Read more

D-Link shrinks 200Mbps power-line adapters

D-Link today announced its three new power-line solutions, the PowerLine AV Mini Adapter (model DHP-310AV), PowerLine AV Mini Adapter Kit (DHP-311AV), and PowerLine AV 4-port Switch Mini Adapter Starter Kit (DHP-348AV).

All of these new devices come in a compact design that's much smaller than similar products of the same standard. Unfortunately, they offer throughput speeds of only up to 200Mbps. Other power-line products on the market, such as the Netgear XAV5501 or even the D-Link AV 500 switch, support the faster 500Mbps power-line standard.

Nonetheless, the new adapters will make a great wireless alternative for the far corners that a Wi-Fi signal can't get to.… Read more

Zyxel ships its first 500Mbps power-line adapter

Zyxel announced today that it has now officially joined the Powerline AV+ 500 club with its first adapter, the Zyxel PLA4205.

Similar to the D-Link DHP-501AV and the Netgear XAV5501, this new adapter from Zyxel is designed to offer up to 500Mbps throughput speed via a home's electrical wiring.

In real-world usage, the speed is likely to be much slower than that but probably still faster than a traditional Ethernet connection, which would make it more than fast enough for streaming HD content and other heavy home-networking needs.

Zyxel says its PLA4205 adapter is backward-compatible with previous power-line standards … Read more

D-Link DHP-501AV review: Powerful power-line networking

If you can't live with the huge physical size of the Netgear XAV5501, there's now an alternative: D-Link's DHP-501AV PowerLine AV 500 Adapter Starter Kit (model HDP-501AV).

This kit includes two adapters, model DHP-500AV, which are based on the HomePlug Powerline Alliance's new Powerline AV 500 standard, the same standard that the XAV5501 is based on. The D-Link's DHP-500AV adapter, however, is much more compact, just about 40 percent the size of the Netgear.

The smaller size doesn't mean it's slow, and in our testing the kit showed superfast performance, significantly faster than … Read more

German auto companies support power-line standard for plug-in cars

The HomePlug Powerline Alliance announced today that German auto manufacturers Audi, BMW, Daimler, Porsche, and Volkswagen have agreed to support HomePlug's Green PHY standard for electric-vehicle charging technology.

HomePlug is a technology that turns electrical wiring into data cable, hence eliminating the need for a separate set of wires for networking. Currently the most popular application of the power-line technology is in HomePlug AV-based devices used for home power-line networking, such as the WD Livewire, or the Linksys PLK300.

According to the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, the power-line standard that the five German car manufacturers--"after intense case studies … Read more

Google-backed $5 billion power line clears hurdle

Google and its partners cleared the first major hurdle with U.S. regulators today to build a $5 billion transmission line that would transport electricity from wind farms off the Atlantic coast.

The companies backing the project can earn a 12.59 percent return on their equity investment in the proposed power line, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled.

The project, which consists of two parallel transmission lines stretching from northern New Jersey to southern Virginia, could transport up to 6,000 megawatts of electricity that would provide power to 1.9 million households.

The transmission lines would each extend 250 miles along the mid-Atlantic coast. The electricity carried by the lines would connect with the main electric grid at onshore sites in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.

The project still needs approval from the Interior Department, several state agencies, and the regional power grid operator, PJM. The project's backers are Google, Good Energies, a private firm, and Japan's Marubeni Corp.

The companies hope to have the first phase of the transmission line operating in 2016.

The transmission line project will help the mid-Atlantic states meet their goals to… Read more