Create a Home Network Using Your Electrical Wiring

D-Link Corporation, Fountain Valley, CA is shipping it's new DHP-303 PowerLine HD Ethernet Adapter Starter Kit, which allows you to use your home electrical system to set up a simple home network. You can connect devices such as TiVO, Game consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, as well as ethernet enabled computers to your network.

You need at least two PowerLine wall plugs/adapters, both of which are included in the $140.00 starter set to create a network. Each adapter should be plugged directly into a wall socket on the same circuit in your home. ( A side note: avoid plugging the units into power-surge outlets ). Any other device that you add to the network must have its own adapter.

D-Link make activation of the adapter quite simple, to activate simply press a button on each adapter a device is connected to. For example you have the starter kit and you want to add a SlingBox to the network. Simply attach the SlingBox via an ethernet cable to a DHP-303 adapter and press a button on the adapter and presto the adapter is activated and the SlingBox is on your network.

Some of the features include:

• Extends wireless LAN by connecting an access point
• Simple push button security
• Shows up in Windows Vista "network map" locator
• Up to 200Mbps throughput
• QoS support
• Supports enhanced network security

I have a client that uses the earlier PowerLine model and is quite satisfied with it. For him it was a very cost effective solution to running cable throughout a 100 year old row house. Wifi didn't work well either, at least two repeaters were needed for whole house coverage. The PowerLine adapters were the best solution and really worked well. I would recommend to anyone who doesn't want to mess with cabling and WiFi to seriously consider D-Link's new PowerLine HD Ethernet Apapters when creating a home network.