| IOGear GHPB32W4 PowerLine Networking Kit |
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Model: GHPB32W4
Brand: Iogear
Manufacturer: IOGEAR
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 13
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, HomePlug 1.0
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| Features: |
Brand New
High Quality |
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| Description: |
| IOGEAR's Powerline Networking Kit allows you to network your home computers, networking devices and gaming devices through the most pervasive medium in your house - the electric powerlines - and share Internet connections, printers, transfer files, play games, and more. This kit can be used to network two computers with a 10/100Base-T adapter through powerlines. Another application of this kit is to use it to extend a WiFi network to the furthest part of the house or facility by using powerlines. It is a very simple and convenient way to circumvent WiFi dead spots. It can also be used to link through a powerline two network devices such as a gaming device and a Broadband router, in order to allow playing games through Internet. This kit is compliant with HomePlug Powerline Specifications 1.0, offers up to 14 Mbps bandwidth, and is less prone to interference. Installation requires only that a 10/100Base-connection on the computer or the device. By offering 56-bit DES encryption, it is also much more secure than other home networking technologies such as wireless Ethernet. |
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| User Reviews (13 total): |
Page 1 of Total 1 Pages
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EZ or Not Home Networking, July 13, 2007
By Zenbob (Santa Maria, CA)
Well, it worked sometimes, it requires frequent reconnections, and sometimes will just stop during transmission for no evident reason. I understood that common AC wiring was necessary, but even with very close proximity rooms and wiring, it still was balky. When it worked, it was relatively fast, although not as fast as hard wired CAT6 runs, of course. We finally just adapted the Linksys wireless router, access point and linksys USB wireless devices on two computers and they are all happy campers, without the pluggy thingie. It's a great idea, and may work for some installations, but if you really want high speed and reliability, this is not likely a best solution for you.
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Does not live up to expectations, July 5, 2007
By bmgmusic (Washington, DC Metro)
I ordered a set of these, because the wireless reception in my home office was poor.
We have 15 MBPS down, 2MPBS up, and a wireless router with 10/100 ethernet ports.
The best throughput I could get, when each Homeplug was in the same room, was 5 down - that's one third of the possible throughput. Furthermore even though the ethernet connection registered as "100" when the PC was plugged in to the router, when the PC was plugged into the Homeplug which went via the other Homeplug into the same router port, the connection registered as "10" so I don't see how it would be possible to get the maximum 14 MBPS throughput that the specs for this product claim.
IOGear were very helpful via e-mail and suggested that I return them for replacement which I did, but the same experiences occurred, so it's looking that they were actually functioning as designed. Yes I know 5 MBPS is better than nothing if your wireless doesn't work, but in the room I needed to use as my office, the best I could get was 500K not 5M and not 14M, and it bothers me that the ethernet card connection registers as 10 rather than 100, even when both homeplugs are in the same room, and even though the specs say that they are 10/100 compatible.
Another issue is that the units come with crossover ethernet cables which are just a few feet long, so in many cases you would have to provide your own, longer cable. Note that even though they provide crossover cables, the units actually support regular cables and autosense the type of cable - which makes me wonder why do they specifically provide crossover cables?
In the end I returned this product, got a refund and solved the problem a different way, by buying a Wireless G Universal Range Extender which works well.
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Beats all others hands down!, June 2, 2007
By Christian Bartz (Flint, MI, USA)
These things are AMAZING! They do exactly what they advertise, I am getting good pings in counterstrike, and the unit is plugged into a wall outlet where the other outlet has a surge protector and all my computer power and perephs plugged in! And these ones do it for cheaper than Netgear, Linksys, and other brands! Also, the units can be plugged in almost 24/7 7 days a week. Many other brands get really hot and cannot be plugged in longer than 24 hours before something burns out. Not these. I have had them plugged in for stretch as long as 4 days without being unplugged. (I suspect they could be plugged in indefinently fine...but why take the risk) These little beauties beat the crap outta wireless for about the same or cheaper cost!
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Easy ethernet extension., March 14, 2007
By Axel T. Schreiner (Pittsford, NY United States)
The plugs work as expected -- they extend your ethernet over your power line. They also interoperate, in my case with a Siemens SpeedStream Homeplug-compliant plug and wireless access point once you match the passwords. It is a good idea to read the instructions for all plugs involved.
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Faster and more reliable than wireless, April 16, 2006
By Anonymous
I was a little hesitant to try this technology for home use especially after having had very poor success with various wireless (802.11b/g) solutions. But I had one device that could not accept a wireless card and wanted some way of connecting it to my small home network.
So, after receiving the kit I installed it and got the whole thing working in minutes without even needing to install any of the IOGear software - that's only needed for more advanced configuration. Though the rated speed of this is 11Mbps, the practical speed and reliability when used with my laptop is far better than my 54Mbps wireless network (which comes and goes over time). As a result I would highly recommend this to anyone who is trying to decide between a wireless network or a powerline network. In fact, if you have two or more PCs (not laptops) that you want to network together then choose this over wireless. Wireless does have the convenience of being able to move around the home, but if the PCs stay pretty much in the same place all the time, why do you need this flexibility and all the hassles of wireless?
The next test is to try and use it with the other device(s) - not PCs - with which I'm unable to use a wireless card. [UPDATE: These other tests worked just fine, so I ordered two more.]
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Junk or NO Quality Control?, March 16, 2006
By rah1234 (SONORA, CA USA)
I got it working once over a short distance with the help of a null modem cable. And that was the only time I got data over it. These devices and my routers both automatically sense the wiring on the ethernet connection. I have to wonder if there is trouble negotiating between them since the indication lights on the devices seem to say that they are working. It was simpler to run 200 ft of wire.
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This is an Outstanding Product, March 9, 2006
By Ken (Huntsville, AL)
I bought this to hard wire my son's computer into my home network. i have real issues about wireless networks and wanted something with the simplicity of a wired network without having to run the cabling. This filled the bill completely. It was simple to install and has worked flawlessly. We get a consistent high speed connection and have had no problems with line noise. If you want an alternative to wireless, this is for you.
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Great Product, little cinfiguration required, January 30, 2006
By A. AHMED (Baltimore MD USA)
I got tired of Wi-Fi signals getting dropped when the microwave got turned on, or if a 2.4 Ghz phone was used. This makes establishing an ethernet bridge very easy and conveniant, not to mention that this kit is relatively inexpensive.
One plug can go into your router and the other plugs into your PC's NIC. That's it!
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It worked well, for a while, November 18, 2005
By Paul Gifford (Maryland)
I bought this to connect a computer in a wireless trouble spot in our house. I used this item for over a month and finally returned it. It worked great for the first couple of weeks, but then I started losing the connection. I couldn't figure out why the signal strength would go from "Excellent" to "Poor". It didn't coincide with any electrical device being used in the house - in fact, sometimes the connection would disappear late at night when everyone else was sleeping. There was no way to bring back the connection except wait. I tried resetting the passwords on them, unplugging them for a while, even swapping them. No luck. The connection would be restored...eventually. IOGEAR's website is not very helpful at all either, so I just returned the product.
I still needed a network connection so I went with a Linksys USB wireless adapter with a 16' USB cable. The length of the cable allowed me to find a spot where I could maintain a solid wireless connection. Since I've done that, no problems!
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Easy to get working, but demanding, October 18, 2005
By Greg Bulmash (Lynnwood, WA United States)
I bought a new home a couple of years ago. Sadly, the room I wanted to use for my home office wasn't wired for cable. I tried using a cable modem with a wireless router downstairs and then a wireless bridge upstairs hooking into the office LAN. I had no end of troubles with drop outs and other issues.
I finally ended up getting 6 Mbps DSL through Speakeasy, because the phone came into the office. It was a little pricy, but it worked great.
Recently, though, Comcast started offering 8 Mbps speeds for less than half of what I was paying for DSL. That meant saving over $600 a year. It was worth investigating.
I didn't want to go back to all that wireless craziness, so I read a lot of reviews and decided to try this BPL (Broadband over Power Line) kit to bridge between the cable modem downstairs and the office LAN upstairs.
It's worked beautifully.
You plug it into the wall, you plug the cables in, and it works, just like that. Only where you plug it in and how you plug it in seem to have an effect on how well it performs.
For example, in my initial set up I had it in the top socket of a two socket wall outlet, and a power strip was plugged into the bottom. On a cable modem that tested at 8511 kbps internet throughput at the source, it slowed down to 3077 kbps via the bridge.
So I moved the bridge across the room (cutting the distance between bridges by maybe 12 feet) and plugged it into a 2-socket wall outlet with nothing else plugged in. Despite needing two separate ethernet cables and a hub in between to reach the computer (I just need to go out and get a 25 footer to remedy that), the internet throughput jumped from 3077kpbs to 4398kbps. I'm still experimenting in getting maximum speed from them.
So, yes, it works easily, but as far as I can tell, the more you try to minimize the distance between them and minimize interference on their circuits, the greater throughput you'll get.
UPDATE
By moving the base downstairs a bit closer (other side of the bookshelf) and setting up a single cable between the bridge and my router (instead of using a hub to bridge two shorter cables) I'm seeing between 4.5 to 5.1 Mbps speeds on my Comcast 8 Mbps line. Considering I was paying twice as much for 6 Mbps DSL and getting comparable or lower speeds, I'm pretty happy. I'm not getting the full 8 megabits, but I'm saving over 50% without a speed drop. That ought to hold me until Verizon brings 15 megabit fiber to our neighborhood.
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Very easy to setup and works fast, October 6, 2005
By quasar9 (Mountain View, CA USA)
Excellent way to bring ethernet to any corner of your home. I had been dealing with a poor wireless connection in my home office. It is faster than wireless. It is plug and play. WORKS WITH MACs!
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Superb technology with ease of use, August 22, 2005
By desi gadget freak (Virginia, USA)
I shared my friend's internet connection. He lives two floor above me. We tried wireless network but it wasn't strong enough. At times, it would disconnect and I could use it only in the hall of my apartment.
With the Powerline Networking kit, I set up a wired network, without using any wires. This kit was very easy to setup and use. Comes with two units. I plugged one in wall outlet in my friend's apartment and one in mine. Connected the unit in my friend's place to the DSL modem/router and connected the unit in my apartment to a wireless router and it's done. Now I can use wireless network anywhere in my apartment at great speed.
The software that came with the kit gives you additional options. You can encrypt the signal with a pasword so that someone else cannot sneak in on your network. It also shows you the available bandwidth. For my network, the connection speed between two units was 8mbps which is as good as wireless network.
I am pretty impressed with the technology and hope to see more such products in future.
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Just Works, June 21, 2005
By --chris (New Jersey)
Not much else I need to say. I purchased this because Wireless in my house was just not working.
Setup for this consisted of:
1. Open package.
2. Plug one Adapter into the wall.
3. Plug Supplied Ethernet Cable into my Router and the Adapter.
4. Plug the other Adapter into the wall.
5. Connect the second adapter to PC with supplied Ethernet Cable.
Done.
For more complicated set up, the individual adapaters can have the default Password changed with the supplied software. Software also lets you measure the signal.
Adapaters cannot be plugged into a powerstrip or Surge protector.
Given the price, this is definitely an option worth considering.
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Page 1 of Total 1 Pages
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