Update #1: We reviews these adapters! Check out our NETGEAR Powerline AV 200 adapter review.
We have been waiting for revised, higher performance Ethernet-over-Powerline adapters since our “How to build a high performance Powerline home network” article in June of 2007. It seems that after the initial HomePlug 1.0 spec which was a 4 or 7 Mbps spec, things were going quick. We got the HomePlug 1.1 spec that bumped us right up to a theoretical 200 Mbps (not that any devices was getting anywhere near those speeds).
There was a sparkle of hope this last May when news came out that the HomePlug 2.0 (aka “AV II”) specification was nearing completion with the expectation of devices early next year.
Now, what seems to be an odd time to announce a new HomePlug 1.1 compliant device (200 Mbps), NETGEAR has announced that they have released two new Powerline devices:
Update #1: Chris Geiser, the product line manager from NETGEAR, emailed to correct the listing information for the products below, they have been updated. Thanks Chris!
- $149.99, Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit (XAVB101) – Pictured Above
- HomePlug AV Certified
- QoS-enhanced networking for Video and VoIP
- $169.99, Powerline HD Plus Ethernet Adapter Kit (HDXB111) – Pictured Below
- UPA Certified
- Filtered Passthrough (the plug)
- QoS-enhanced networking for Video and VoIP
Besides the QoS, both seem to be very similar except for the “HD” tagline and the plug passthrough associated with the HDXB111. Both have the one-touch “security” button to enable 128-bit AES encryption.
Update #2: Both devices are similar offering the QoS support for Video and VoIP to enhance streaming media applications as well as the 1-button 128-bit AES encryption. The difference is that the HDXB111 is UPA Certified with an included filtered passthrough plug, and the XAVB101 is HomePlug certified and no filtered passthrough plug.
We think this is a nice step, but if all goes well with the HomePlug AV II specification, we should be writing stories and making announcements about what we can only hope would be close to 1 Gbps Powerline devices later this year… now that is a home network.
Thanks EngadgetHD!
I appreciate that these make connecting about anything in your house simple and easy, but for that price I’d rather run some Cat5 cable. Still, it is nice that these are getting better.
Agreed… especially with Wireless-N getting ready to come out of draft and offering more performance/convenience, I think these things should be atleast priced down around $50 a pop, and even that feels generous. I wouldn’t mind paying the $70/80 each for a GB solution, but for a theoretical 200 Mbps which is actually more like 50 in practice… meh… waste of money.
I had a bunch of HD programs on my TiVo that I wanted to keep, but I needed to move them onto my computer to free up space on the TiVo. I ordered the XAV101 Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter online from Netgear and it arrived promptly. I plugged one unit into my Comcast cable modem and the other into my TiVo in another room. It works great! But it takes two hours to move a one-hour HD program.
Anet,
Were you on Vista, could you expand the “details” box to see how fast it was transfering?
I just got a new, custom desktop computer. Ubuntu linux and XP. I am really resisting Vista and doing everything I can to move to linux. The free TiVo desktop program accurately showed the transfer time for each HD program. Apparently, I can play the TiVo programs on my computer if I will submit to the invasive questions required to set up Windows Movie Viewer. I am resisting because I did not have to answer those questions before in order to use the program. I guess I’m just resisting Microsoft in general.
What I would like to know and can’t seem to find is… Can I have multiple pairs of these things, thereby creating multiple 200mb/s networks? Or is the powerline backbone just that, a shared network of 200 mb/s?
You can use multiple ones. It just makes your household wiring a LAN.
I understand it makes it a LAN, the question is, can it be used to make many LANs, if so, how many and what is the performance of each LAN?
desmolift, you mean take 4 of them, and make 2 networks, where 2 are paired together and 2 others are paired together in a *separate* network?
I’ve never seen anyone do that with Powerline adapters, and I’m not sure what control you have over them to change their IPs and subnets to create alternative networks.
Sorry
Yes exactly. I have been reading the spec on Homeplug AV. Seems it is spec’d to create and work with multiple LANs, they refer to them as AVLN’s (AV Logical Netowrks) and NN’s (Neighboring Networks). The Central Coordinator (CCo) is suppose to deal with this and create separate and independant networks using the membership key. But it sounds like the bandwidth of the network is shared between the networks. So, I think, but I am not sure the way to think of this is a 200Mb/s backbone network that supports VLANs. So, I don’t believe I get 200Mb/s per pair. I posed the question to Netgear but have not received a reply.
desmolift,
Thanks for the extra data — didn’t know about this. Also I lean towards what you said, not expecting 200Mb/s per pair here, but more likely shared on that entire circuit.
I’d also point out (not sure how much you have played with powerline adapters in the past) that the theoretical speeds and actual speeds are drastically different, more than likely in normal conditions I would count on getting around 100 Mb/sec total performance on that network. That’s one of the (unfortunate) reasons that I’m not super-pumped about HomePlug 1.0 devices and keep praying that these new upcoming HomePlug AV II spec devices will be able to operate at a much higher level, offering some serious home-networking potential for folks that want it without the wiring or wireless concerns.
Yes, I am aware of the actual bandwidth, the Homeplug 1.0 devices seem to be around 50mb/s and the Homeplug AV devices are around 80-100 mb/s. Homeplug AV2 looks like its targeting 600mb/s. I actually haven’t played around with these devices yet, just been reading about them. I am designing an HD megapixel network camera surveillance system and was looking at networking options; wireless, powerline and ethernet.
I bought a HDXB 101 kit today and plugged them in with high expectations. When I loaded the supplied configuration software, and the remote adapter was connected at 25Mbps and was unable to stream video to My Xbox 360 or to my IPTV Settop box. I then moved the remote adapter into the same room (circuit) as the adapter connected to my router and it was connected at 100Mbps. But that defeats the purpose, as I could have just run a cat5 cable to the same location in the room for $5 instead of $100 for the kit. Just as a comparison, I put the remote adapter into the top half of the electrical outlet that had the local adapter plugged into the bottom half of the outlet, another words, only an inch or less of copper was connecting the two adapters in the same outlet. The software said the remote was connected at 165Mbps. Bottom line, expect a lot less than the box advertises. I’ll play around with this some more tomorrow, but if I can’t get it to work for my Xbox or IPTC settop box, it’s going back!
Sportdeck,
Thank you for taking the time to followup with regard to these adapters. That has been my experience with Powerline tech as well which is why I’ve been hoping-beyond-hope that they either figure out a way to get it acting like ethernet and not have that insane amount of attenuation, or boost the spec to something like 500mbps so the “real world” will be closer to actual 200mbps.
Any more experimentation you do, we’d love to know about.