Powerline Ethernet

I bought a TP-Link powerline ethernet starter kit.

It’s a TP-Link TL-PA7017P kit, with passthrough power socket.

CAT-5 cable plugs in the bottom of these li’l boxes, power cords can plug in the front. It was easy to set up, involving plugging the adapters in power sockets (on the same circuit!) and pushing a couple of buttons. According to the TP-Link blog on the subject, the TL-PA7017P is only “Superfast”. I’m guessing that means these use the HomePlug AV protocol, not the Ultrafast “HomePlug AV2” protocol, so limited to 600 Mbps. The box does say “1000 Mbps” on it. That’s the trouble with baby talk - it’s unspecific, and does not have a fixed meaning.

Years ago, someone gave me an X10 starter kit. I messed around with it a little, mainly using it to annoy my kids by turning a lamp on and off at unfortunate times. I had a little fear that these adapters would turn out to be just as clunky and nearly as useless as the X10 gizmos. Instead, they’re pretty much invisible and forgettable. I have my two adapters about 20 feet apart, from where the house CAT-5 wall socket is, to under my desk. This connection seems to work well. I don’t notice any weird lags or slowness. The HomePlug AV protocol is said to be pretty elaborate, doing all kinds of frequency division multiplexing over a 2-conductor connection.

The problem with both X10 modems and these ethernet adapters is that they can only communicate with other modems or adapters on the same continuous electrical circuits. I was lucky in that outlet under my desk and the 120V outlet near the CAT-5 socket were both on the same circuit. If I’d wanted to use these adapters to carry comms from basement to ground floor, I’d have been out of luck: none of my house’s electrical circuits cross that boundary.

I give these adapters my tentative approval.