[tridentinecanon]

I think the biggest shortcoming is not the surge protector issue, but the hit-or-miss when it comes to your building's wiring. How are you supposed to know if the wiring is "sufficient" or not? By how old the building is? (Then do you ask yourself if it 10 years or newer to make that determine if the wiring is sufficient? 20 years? 30?) Or is it where it was built? Who built it? I mean, the ONLY way to know is to buy these things and try them.

Wireless setups have options to overcome thick walls and the such: antennas, multiple hubs, just plain ethernet. With the Powerlines, if they don't work, they don't work.

I not sure what the point of the extension cords is in plugging two of these into the same outlet? What benefit is there to extension cords? Why not just plug both the suckers directly into the same outlet?

In any event... I'm disappointed (as I originally suspected I would be) to say the least. I've never had this kind of trouble with my 802.11n-only setup, whether it be playing movies, surfing the web, or transferring files. Until I get the opportunity to try this in my "new" house, which was built around 1988, I can't vouch for Powerline adapters.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by tridentinecanon 

I not sure what the point of the extension cords is in plugging two of these into the same outlet? What benefit is there to extension cords? Why not just plug both the suckers directly into the same outlet?

I suggested that just as a test setup. Doing that will allow you to see if the powerline boxes are working by taking the building wiring out of the picture. I suggest plugging them into extension cords plugged into the same outlet because there may be issues with having them so close to each other (electrically as well as physically); the extension cords provide a bit of separation to allow for that.

[tridentinecanon]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

I suggested that just as a test setup. Doing that will allow you to see if the powerline boxes are working by taking the building wiring out of the picture. I suggest plugging them into extension cords plugged into the same outlet because there may be issues with having them so close to each other (electrically as well as physically); the extension cords provide a bit of separation to allow for that.

Gotcha. I'll try that.

[amazing]

If you've got an old building with plaster lathe walls, namely a wire mesh in the walls, wireless becomes pretty useless. Or if you've got a detached garage office, connected by beautiful copper wiring to the main board, then you've got a wonderful setup for powerline adapters.

You can pair the powerline adapters together by connecting them to the same surge surpressor, but when you separate them, that's when it's useful to not have a surge surpressor in between. They may work for awhile, but it might become erratic over time.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by tridentinecanon 

I think the biggest shortcoming is not the surge protector issue, but the hit-or-miss when it comes to your building's wiring.

Like amazing, said, you have the same hit-and-miss with using wireless.

-t

[turtle777]

Good deal here, set for $ 40, I just grabbed one:

Panasonic BL-PA100A HD-PLC Ethernet Adaptor Powerline Network Starter Pack 1 x 10/100Base-TX Network 190Mbps-Best Computer Online Store Houston Buy Discount Prices Texas-Directron.com

-t

[Le Flaneur]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Good deal here, set for $ 40, I just grabbed one:

Panasonic BL-PA100A HD-PLC Ethernet Adaptor Powerline Network Starter Pack 1 x 10/100Base-TX Network 190Mbps-Best Computer Online Store Houston Buy Discount Prices Texas-Directron.com

Yup. I just bought a pair from Amazon.com for $40, which is an incredible price. In my informal testing, they were significantly faster than the Netgear XDX101 (about 5 MBytes/sec up vs. 3.7 MB/sec up and both were about 3.7 MB/sec down) when connecting computers between two rooms. As far as I know, the Panasonics are the only units that aren't better off by having a Windows computer configure them. I found a really interesting comparison of the powerline options here. The Linksys units mentioned in the comparison may be fastest, but you'll need Windows to set them up.

It looks like Netgear just released a XAV101 unit that gives a real speed indication, like the Panasonic.