Billion BiPAC P106 Pocket-Sized HomePlug AV 200 Ethernet Adapters

After experiencing lots of problems with 54-G wi-fi networking for sometime, mostly due to signal drop out and the ever increasing number of wi-fi networks cropping up in my neighbourhood, I decided to set up a wired network by using the Billion BiPAC P106 Pocket-Sized HomePlug AV 200 Ethernet Adapters kit a try.

I've been interested in networking using existing house electrical wiring for many years but I was always put off it by the negative reviews that were posted by so called experts. These reviews were always critical of this method stating that it's very limited, you must always have all of these components plugged into the same ring-main and never ever plug them into anti-surge sockets as they will affect it's signal strength & transmission etc. Well I can tell you that those *experts* don't know what they're talking about. This technology works fantastically well.

I connected one to these units to my Billion 5200S router via a 10/100 switch connected to this PC. I then plugged it into a Belkin anti-surge socket and then went upstairs & did the same with the other homeplug adapter by connecting it to my laptop and plugging it into yet another Belkin anti-surge socket that's in the upstairs ring-main. I then went back downstairs & powered the first adapter on & pressed the SYNC button on it. Now I have a full 2 minutes or so to go back upstairs and powered that adapter on & press the SYNC button on that one, which, well synchronise them into the same network & hey presto! They worked instantly. I've tried them in my outhouse where they also work great!

Now I'm enjoying networking gaming, streaming music from my NAS or watching any one of the various TV players such as the BBC's iPlayer on my laptop when I'm in bed without any loss of signal strength.

If I had my arm twisted and was forced to give one negative point, then I would say that as far as I know this technology does not allow Gigabit communication (YET!) which some may want. However, for what I use it for, it's perfect!