Devolo dLAN 200 AV Starter Kit

I would thoroughly recommend the Devolo 200Mbps kit but you need to be aware that it's not very happy (won't work in my case) through surge protectors. That said, I have to report that I'm tickled pink with these, as they've sold by far the biggest problem I had across my home network - connectivity.

Many products offer the earth in terms of performance, and disappoint almost immediately. Not so with the Devolo. I'd hesitated buying yet another piece of untried kit but wireless reception across my home is patchy and that's being generous.

Like most people I don't do what I should, that is read installation manuals. Luckily for me I found that plugging in the Devolo into the mains along with plugging the ethernet cable into my router and then doing likewise at the other end of the house with my wife's laptop produced immediate success.

I also installed the software and encrypted the signal - very straightforward.

Probably the best bit of news is the performance. No kit ever gets close to its stated performance figures and the truly ancient and complicated wiring in the house had me as worried as buying the unknown kit in the first place. However, I'm currently looking at 119Mbps upstream and 131 Mbps downstream. The connection is rock solid and very reliable.

The units reduce power by 30% when they detect that there's no connection through them - neat.

If the price is right for you, go get 'em.

Only had 2 days so can't comment on reliability of hardware but connection seems very stable and as fast as 54Mbps router allows. Easy to set up, really does work out of the box with Linux (Ubuntu 6.06 anyway), large house and works fine upstairs. I'm going to get another box for downstairs Windows PC when price falls. If you've wasted years trying to get Linux to work with wireless just go and buy a pair of these.