powerline

Chipmakers team up for home-networking standard

Leading chip and consumer electronics companies say they are pursuing powerline networking on the road to the completely connected digital home.

Intel, Texas Instruments, Infineon, and Panasonic said Tuesday that they are working on a home-networking standard that uses electrical and phone lines and coaxial cable that consumers already have wired into their homes, according to a Reuters report.

The four are the largest members of what they are calling the HomeGrid Forum. The group says it plans to work closely with the International Telecommunications Union to promote the standard the ITU is already developing, called ITU-T G.hn. The … Read more

Zyxel media adapter uses HomePlug AV

There are many devices that aim to let you share the multimedia content stuck on your PC with that large HDTV in your living room. Zyxel's DMA1100P digital media adapter is the only such device, however, that uses HomePlug AV Powerline technology to do so. (Netgear's Powerline HD Ethernet Adapter isn't certified as a HomePlug AV device, but it promises the same 200Mbps theoretical throughput as the Zyxel DMA1100.)

Still, for those looking to stream HD video and music and can't do it wirelessly--perhaps your TV and your home theater are too far apart or you … Read more

Aztech aims to simplify Powerline networking

Even in this age of Wi-Fi ubiquity, nothing beats a wired network for enhanced security and guaranteed bandwidth, especially in A/V applications. The latest iteration, Powerline, taps on your existing in-house power grid for data transmission. To further simplify installation, Singapore-based Aztech is debuting two products from its HomePlug series during CES 2008.

The HL109RN is possibly the world's first all-in-one WiFi-N router with integrated Powerline connectivity. Not only does it eliminate the need for a dedicated Powerline adapter, but it also minimizes cable clutter while supporting up to 200Mbps of theoretical fast data rate for standard- and … Read more

Bust your home network through the walls without busting walls

In my folks' house, built in the early 70s, it is impossible to get a Wi-Fi signal to travel beyond one room. We've tried numerous routers, always with the same head-scratching result. And I know many others who've encountered similar Wi-Fi Kryptonite issues. So how's a home user supposed to ferry their Internet connection from, say, the downstairs den to an upstairs bedroom?

Answer: a powerline networking kit. Buy.com's got an IOGear package for just $46.49 (shipped!) after a $20 mail-in rebate. (First-time Google Checkout users can knock another 10 bucks off the price.)… Read more

Leak of the day: Sonos ZoneBridge BR100

If last week's FCC leak wasn't proof enough, the UK's Automated Home (via Gizmodo) has pretty much filled in all the details on an as-yet-unannounced networking accessory for the Sonos Digital Music System. The Sonos ZoneBridge BR100 will act as a wireless bridge between other ZonePlayers in the Sonos' proprietary mesh network. That's useful because the Sonos system requires at least one of its boxes to be tethered to a wired network connection. Previously, that meant one of the two included base stations of the Sonos system would need to be near an Ethernet port, or … Read more

Linksys delivers a PowerLine network

It's a little ironic, don't you think, that with all the push for wireless this and wireless that, we're suddenly awash in PowerLine Ethernet adapters? One of Linksys' announcements at CES yesterday was for the HomePlug AV-compliant PowerLine AV Ethernet Kit (PLK200), which includes two Linksys PowerLine AV Ethernet Adapters (PLE200).

Setting up a PowerLine Ethernet network is one of the simplest ways to create a network capable of throughput fast enough to transfer high-definition data--such as video--smoothly. Simply plug in your first adapter to your router via an Ethernet cable and then plug it into an … Read more