[sclug] Power line ethernet tips

[David Given]

I'm currently using wireless to allow the two main computers in my house 
to talk to each other. This works, most of the time, but it's unreliable 
and slow and is generally a pain to use.

As an alternative to plumbing in Cat-5, I see that mains ethernet 
widgets are now moderately cheap. They claim to do between 85Mbps and 
200Mbps depending on the brand, which is way better than the 11Mbps 
wireless networking, and I get to avoid the horror of wireless driver 
configuration (because they all use ethernet to talk to the outside 
world). (I also see that Newlink do a combination mains networking and 
wireless access point, which looks like a rather good idea.)

Does anyone have any experience of these? For example, do you get 
anywhere close to the rated speeds? Are the different brands 
interoperable? Am I going to be broadcasting my intranet to all the 
houses on my street? Any recommended/disrecommended brands?

-- 
David Given
dg at cowlark.com