Networking over the power wires?

[maglite]

Hi, I've got a media center PC hooked up downstairs and a bunch of films stored on my desktop upstairs. Sometimes when I stream a film using my wireless network, it either gets jerky or the wireless just cuts out. So I was thinking about these new "plug-in" things. Apparently they can stream up to 200mbps over your electricity cables. Has anyone had any experience with these things? I just thought I would ask before I go and spend ?70 at Maplins.

Thanks.

[rickets]

I hear they are good. Get them from argos then if you need to return them no problem just dont wreck the packaging.

[maglite]

I hear they are good. Get them from argos then if you need to return them no problem just dont wreck the packaging.

Oh yeah, good old Argos.. Damn! It's 8pm now otherwise I could have got them now. Oh well, there's always tomorrow. I'll post back my findings.

[DavC]

not heard much about these. sounds interesting though. let us know how you get on

[terrybobs]

I bought homeplugs by solwise a little expensive but have proved to be an excellent buy
regards terrybobs

[UnitedPirate]

Can you not just run a cable? Cheaper and 100% reliable.

[Barryboy]

I bought some for exactly the same reason works great. All my computer stuff in the attic running a cat 5 cable down 3 floors was a no go'er. Anyone priced a 30 foot plus lenth of cat 5 cable plus drilling holes in both your floors and ceilings and trying to run the cable tidy sorry to much hasle. I paid about ?70 plugged one in to a socket in the attic one in to the socket behind the telly and in less than 5 minutes was watching films from my computer in the attic.

Next thing I am going to do is buy a hub and plug that in behind the telly so I can also connect the dreambox so I dont have to keep taking it upstairs to connect it to either my computer or the internet

[saseagle]

Hi, I tried a couple of these units but I had a problem due to the upstair and downstairs earths being different (or something like that). Because of the problem the units could not see each other and therefore would not work. I remember having the same problem many years ago with a baby alarm that we bought.

[nano_watt]

Homeplug

Great invention and have used them many times but end up taking them off. It is bad enough as it is the mains voltage dirty with spikes but when you put one of these beauties on your ringmain then anything in your house which is sensative to spikes in the mains need to have additinal filters like the UPS which smooths these out. If you are energy concious then make sure you switch these plugs off after you finished with them. I don't know about any other make but the one I got with BT Vision get hot enough to bake an egg.

[satansoft]

I saw a thread on another forum about getting a +12db wireless antenna for your network. . gave loads of posters a sweet wireless link over large houses and/or thick walls. . . was only about a tenner off ebay too. .

[algorithmicblues]

buy cheap buy twice

Firstly If your going to buy, then buy the devolo brand preferably 200mbps if you are going to stream muliple video streams at the same time.
secondly - make sure all the PCs are on the same electric ring mane.
Thirdly - They will not run if they are plugged into a surge protector - so plug your devolo straight into the wall.
fourthly - If you can afford it plug your router into its very own devolo - You will then be able to access the internet independantly otherwise you will have to have 2 Lan connections in one pc with a network bridge and shared internet connection.
They are 99% reliable - remember to use a firewall.