 With
the advent of faster and faster broadband speeds more homes are
becoming wireless and sharing this fast internet connection around
the house. While wireless may seem the natural answer it comes with
some drawbacks which will be only too familiar to most of your
reading this review. While WiFi is great at connecting multiple
devices it is also a security risk, even when running the latest WPA
systems (WEP is pointless now) and also unreliable through lots of
walls or in a big house.
So when we saw a system that offered the same kind of freedom and
didn't need us to rewire the office it had to be worth a go. The
system uses Ethernet over mains and often overlooked method of
sharing a network connection through structured main wiring. The
system on test with us is the Solwise homeplug, you need to buy them
as a pair as one connects to your router or firewall as an RJ45
connection and the other box sits connected to your PC or laptop
again by RJ45.
The principle is simple enough your incoming broadband connection is
distributed over the mains system in your home and can reach up to
200 meters and at speeds of up to 14mbps (some units can go to
85mbps) which is plenty for all but the fastest of ADSL connections.
It is not operating system specific and will work with any machine
or laptop with an RJ45 Ethernet port on it. Power is taken from the
mains as both units are already plugged in and there are 3
indicators on each unit to show power. link status and traffic.
We unboxed our 2 units to start a simple test, we plugged the first
into the same plug board as our Linksys router and connected the
supplied RJ45 cable to a spare Ethernet port on the Linksys. The
Solwise unit lit up as soon as we plugged it in and needed no pre
configuration at all. Next we took the 2nd unit to our main desktop
PC and plugged it into a spare socket on the plug board. A word of
caution, the Solwise plug is a little chubby and we found it had to
be in the end slot as it could not fit between 2 ordinary plugs on
the board (a small over sight by Solwise). Once plugged in the link
light came on within seconds having picked up the network link and
we then disabled the wireless connection on the main PC and forced
it to acquire an IP address using the new Ethernet over mains
connection.
Within seconds we were on and connected at top notch speed and with
a high quality of connection too as we tested using demanding
application like the latest second life client, we streamed for
hours with no interruption to service, something wireless users can
only dream of. The Ethernet over mains solution really makes the
most of every kbit of broadband connection ensuring a low latency
too which gamers will love. Plus with its simplicity it is ideal for
linking your playstation or Xbox to broadband without running cables
or using wireless adaptors.
We did see some small issues and there are two worthy of note that
only became apparent after a prolonged test period. Firstly the
units get quite hot and therefore you need to be careful that they
do not become covered and have sufficient airflow to keep them cool.
Second we did get a lock up where both units were connected but no
bandwidth was passing, the solution was to reboot both units which
takes just a few seconds. This occurred after 10 days continuous use
so is probably related to a time period or an event that sometimes
happen on the power system.One possible omission which may be of
concern of those on a shared power supply is that you cannot
password protect or paid the Solwise homeplugs which means that your
broadband connection would be available to anyone who can plug into
that ring main or phase.
Priced at around "20 per plug the Solwise system is easy on the
pocket too and far cheaper than a wireless set-up, in fact add in
its simple plug and play set-up and it is ideal for helping relative
get on the net without all the grief of WPA keys and SSIDS on
wireless networks.
Published - 23/07/2007
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