homeplug

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

The Wi-Fi Alliance and HomePlug Powerline Alliance have joined forces to promote the adoption of powerline and Wi-Fi networking technologies in smart-grid applications, which could mean more streamlined connectivity for consumers.

The Wi-Fi Alliance tests and certifies Wi-Fi products, including Wi-Fi Direct, to ensure their interoperability, and the HomePlug Powerline Alliance does the same thing for powerline devices.

The agreement, announced today, enables cooperative efforts for the joint technical review of Wi-Fi Alliance's and HomePlug's specifications and standards that facilitate interoperability of smart-grid applications. Both parties will also promote the adoption of wireless and powerline technologies.

The collaboration … Read more

It is a good idea to buy Wi-Fi products certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance if you want to ensure the interoperability between products of different vendors.

Similarly, you want to look for HomePlug-certified products when shopping for power-line network devices.

Power-line devices are those that enable the electrical wiring of your home to transmit data signals, hence allowing for extending the network to different parts of the property without running network cables.

Most of these devices are based on the HomePlug AV standard, but products from different vendors are not guaranteed to work with one another until they are tested … Read more

A big shortcoming of powerline adapters is the fact that they tend not to interoperate across vendors. For example, the adapters made by Cisco are unlikely to work with products made by Netgear. This is because the powerline market has been fragmented and does not have a common standard. However, this is about to change.

The HomePlug Powerline Alliance announced Tuesday that an initial sponsor ballot was passed for the IEEE P1901, the working group that develops the global standard for high-speed powerline communications. This is an important step toward establishing a global standard for powerline (PLC) networking.

According to … Read more

It doesn't matter how powerful your home wireless router is, there might still be some corner in the basement the signal can't reach. This is when you need an alternative solution, such as a pair of Powerline adapters. Powerline adapters basically extend the length of the network cable by using the existing electrical wiring--this means you can bring your network port anywhere in the house where there's a power outlet.

For that reason, it's pretty exciting that Cisco on Monday will announce its third release of Linksys by Cisco Powerline adapters. The new lineup includes both … Read more

There are many devices that aim to let you share the multimedia content stuck on your PC with that large HDTV in your living room. Zyxel's DMA1100P digital media adapter is the only such device, however, that uses HomePlug AV Powerline technology to do so. (Netgear's Powerline HD Ethernet Adapter isn't certified as a HomePlug AV device, but it promises the same 200Mbps theoretical throughput as the Zyxel DMA1100.)

Still, for those looking to stream HD video and music and can't do it wirelessly--perhaps your TV and your home theater are too far apart or you … Read more

Even in this age of Wi-Fi ubiquity, nothing beats a wired network for enhanced security and guaranteed bandwidth, especially in A/V applications. The latest iteration, Powerline, taps on your existing in-house power grid for data transmission. To further simplify installation, Singapore-based Aztech is debuting two products from its HomePlug series during CES 2008.

The HL109RN is possibly the world's first all-in-one WiFi-N router with integrated Powerline connectivity. Not only does it eliminate the need for a dedicated Powerline adapter, but it also minimizes cable clutter while supporting up to 200Mbps of theoretical fast data rate for standard- and … Read more

It's a little ironic, don't you think, that with all the push for wireless this and wireless that, we're suddenly awash in PowerLine Ethernet adapters? One of Linksys' announcements at CES yesterday was for the HomePlug AV-compliant PowerLine AV Ethernet Kit (PLK200), which includes two Linksys PowerLine AV Ethernet Adapters (PLE200).

Setting up a PowerLine Ethernet network is one of the simplest ways to create a network capable of throughput fast enough to transfer high-definition data--such as video--smoothly. Simply plug in your first adapter to your router via an Ethernet cable and then plug it into an … Read more