I’ve decided to make a few posts going on at the moment about some new gadgets I’ve got, or will be getting, my mitts on in the last few weeks and months, and this latest one is certainly more technical than personal, hence it’s posting here.
I’m talking about the devolo MicroLink dLAN powerline Ethernet adaptor, which was first brought to my attention by my friend, and former colleague, Derek, when he sent me the link to the Register’s review.
The adaptors are a simple idea. You plug them straight into your mains sockets, and it routes ethernet traffic over the line. This is useful if you’ve a house that makes wireless tricky between certain spots (as I have), or computers quite far apart (as I have), or just want to get more consistent traffic between one machine and everything else (as I have). It’s important to stress that they in no way interfere with any systems in the house, and work (in my tests) quite happily on surge protector strips or 4-way plugs. Ethernet technology is improving in leaps and bounds, and the small variation they make to the electrical signalling is negligent over the copper involved in household mains supplies.
So I’m really quite chuffed. I’ve now got my Elgato EyeHome plugged into the TV, and one of the adaptors into the wall socket behind the TV. The other is plugged into a wall socket next to the router, and from there straight into the router. My iMac hosts all my historic EyeTV recordings, plus all my music and pictures, so it streams content right down to the EyeHome without problems. We can now watch TV, movies, look at pictures and listen to music (regrettably apart from the stuff bought on iTunes Music store) on the television, streaming off my iMac two floors up in the loft.
Setup was a doddle, although I did have to connect both adaptors directly into the Mac’s ethernet port first so that the security was properly setup. I hadn’t realised this, so there were a few futile dashes up and down the loft ladder as I tried to setup the other interface when it was already in situ.
I imagine some folk may be thinking “but surely wireless is great”. And it is, most of the time. But we have a few far flung corners where it drops right out, and that includes the corner the TV is in. Plus my old powerbook is 802.11b, and that degrades my otherwise 11g network when it’s in use (which is often the case). The consistency of the ethernet speed makes a big difference when streaming video content.
So, a big thumbs up from me, and it opens up all sorts of networking possibilities that previously just hadn’t been possible. A snip at £100 (from dabs.com), or - if you want to help support this website, Amazon (with free P&P):
Entries (RSS)
July 1st, 2006 at 1:42 pm
[...] See also: New Gadgets (part 2): Devolo dLAN Ethernet over mains. [...]
July 4th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
[...] and… Gadgets part 1 - The Magic Mitre Gadgets part 2 - Devolo dLAN over mains power [...]
July 15th, 2006 at 9:57 am
Interested to see this as I normally avoid your techie musings for no other reason than technology going faster than my tiny little mind can keep up !
BUT….. I’ve been wanting to go wireless for ages but haven’t because I’m not sure I’m going to get value for money by payig £100 for a decent wireless system that I would only use in my spare time (not even with my staff discount at PC World….ahem, sorry…).
Anyway, I did go onto a rival etailer’s site and saw a devolo product for mains internet coverage that made me think. Whilst it was a cheaper model than the one you’ve reviewed, it was a darn site more competitively priced than the wireless model your good self had recommended to me a few months ago. I would be interested to know if you are still as happy with your devolo now as you were a couple of weeks ago, and whether it is more reliable and better value than traditional wireless kits….
August 16th, 2006 at 7:43 am
[...] So here’s where Screenselect is quite funky. I select the videos I want to watch, I wait, I get a DVD in the post. I then play it via my EyeHome device (we don’t have a DVD player attached to the TV, so I stream it off of my computer via the devolo ethernet over mains kit). I then post the DVD back, and await the next movie. It works like a charm. My only complaint is really that I don’t get the DVD’s I want, when I want them. But that’s supply and demand for you: I suppose there are lots of people after the latest titles. That said the three priorities they offer isn’t really enough (I’ve had a couple from my lowest priority group I wasn’t expecting) when there’s absolutely no indication of the demand for particular titles, which would help juggle things slightly. [...]