Letters from Santa

Product Review - Netgear HDX101 200Mbs Powerline Network Extenders

I have been thinking of buying these for some time, but they are not cheap at anything up to £140 a pair. However, I came across the kit at PC World at their own special price of £99 and I jumped at the chance to try them out. Since then, I discovered that they are available from Amazon at £93.99.

My own set up is complicated; I have previously had to rip out my phone extensions and rely upon DECT Wireless phones around the house. This came about because the internal wiring was having a detrimental effect on my ADSL signal, reducing the bandwidth even when plugging my router into the master socket.

I have all Netgear equipment with two WGPS606 Printservers and a WG101 Game adapter at remote locations - my router (Netgear WG834N) is sited at my BT Master socket with no PC attached.

Wireless is great when it works, but even g-rated wireless does not consistently provide speeds necessary to stream standard TV from a media center PC, let alone HD Television. You are also susceptible to electrical radio interference from phones, microwaves etc.

Where the powerline homeplugs score is that they are a simple plug and play solution. Stick one in the back of your router and plug it into the mains. Plug one (or more!!) into the mains at the remote location and you have an instant network.

It is fair to say that although these are advertised as 200Mbs units (there are also slower options available), the actual throughput is considerably less - a maximum of 125Mbs in my experience and usually hovering around 70Mbs. If you are considering streaming TV, do not opt for a slower speed Homeplug solution..... with these percentage drop-downs to actual throughput, you will regret purchasing the slower plugs.

An important to note is that whilst the slower range of homeplugs will co-exist with the 200Mbs extenders, they are not compatible with each other and you will limit your future upgrade options.

These 200Mbs plugs are perfectly brilliant. They take the mystique out of setting up a network and do exactly what they say on the tin.