Belkin Gigabit Powerline isn’t Wifi, but it Is Still Good
In my house, I have a mixture of WiFi and Powerline networking technology. Almost everything needs WiFi, but for my DVR systems, Powerline was the only way to go; unfortunately, my Powerline adapters are painfully slow. Belkin has released a 1GB Powerline kit called the Gigabit Powerline HD kit. My DirectTV video on demand would love me if I were to purchase these.
If you are unfamiliar with Powerline networking, the premise is very simple. You plug one adapter into a wall outlet near your broadband router, and connect it via a networking cable. Then, in other places in your house, you plug in the other Powerline adapters, and connect the network cable. Shazam! You have a network, and you did not have to run any cable. The problem is that Powerline technology has been capped at 200 mpbs, which is painfully slow for HD television On Demand. These Belkin Powerline HD adapters bump up the speeds considerably, which would allow me to download video amazingly fast. These Belkin Gigabit Powerline kits can even handle multiple video streams at once, which make them the perfect companion to a home media server.
The starter kit, which includes 2 adapters and RJ-45 networking cables, will be available soon in Europe and the US for $149.99. This might seem expensive, but considering you do not have to install any infrustructure into your home, and many media appliances and set top DVR units are not WiFi compatible, $150 is a steal for such high speed devices.
Via UberGizmo
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By Aisha, January 2, 2010 @ 8:37 pm
Yeah, it would be great if mine worked. I bought it and it didn’t work. Belkin chat tech support couldn’t help. Supposedly it was escalated, but they never called me back. I’m returning it to best buy tomorrow and buy the NetGear one.
By ben, February 4, 2010 @ 1:57 am
Hardly a review when the reviewer hasn’t even tested the product.
A real review would mention that the connection is flaky at best, drops out when most needed for seeming no reason at all. Belkin’s claims of a 1 Gigabit network are an absolute joke, you’re lucky to get that when the two adaptors are placed in the same outlet. This may be a solution for “in room” networking, but will not cover a house.
Belkin also claim that adding more adaptors will improve matters, this also appears not to be true as the two closest adaptors will pair up and ignore the rest of the world.
Belkin’s support for these adaptors is poor, the only firmware update currently available being retrograde.
By JakeR, February 24, 2010 @ 1:25 pm
I’m also wondering exactly how in-house wiring increased the speed at which HD content is downloaded. Unless you have a gigabit connection to the house your bottleneck will be your cable modem/dsl speed, which will surely be below 200 mb/s for most people. Maybe if the reviewer is talking about transferring content from one dvr within the house to another, but it that doesn’t seem to be the case.