CES - Something shocking: Powerline networks that work

Wireless networking gets all the buzz, but the HomePlug Powerline Alliance is touting yet another convenient way to connect PCs and other devices in your home: power lines.

In the works since the group debuted in April 2000, the HomePlug standard creates a network using your home's existing power outlets and lines. Linksys Group Inc., NetGear Inc., and Phonex Broadband Corp. are among the first vendors planning to ship products. Each demonstrated its wares here at the Consumer Electronic Show this week.

Getting juiced up

Linksys looks to be the first major player to roll out networking products based on the HomePlug standard, expecting to ship products later in January.

The company will offer three products in its Instant PowerLine series at launch: the USB Adaptor priced at US$129; the EtherFast10/100 Bridge, for $149; and the EtherFast 10/100 Router (with firewall) for $179.

Phonex plans to ship its first HomePlug-based products in March, says Dan Cook, spokesperson. The company's NeverWire 14 product, roughly the size of a day planner, will sell for $129. Connect the NeveWire to another product's Ethernet port, plug it into the wall, and you're ready to go, Cook says. "You don't even need a PC."

Finally, NetGear plans to launch its first products sometime this quarter, says Vivek Pathela, director of product management and marketing.

The company is developing HomePlug-based bridge products for about $150, and a router for less than $200, he says. The router product will include security and dynamic content filtering capabilities, because NetGear hopes to differentiate its products through better security and parental controls, he says.

Long road

Despite the product promises and announcements, networking skeptics may remember that powerline networks aren't exactly a new concept. In fact, the first products were quite unreliable and slow, which frustrated early adopters.

The HomePlug standard needs to win over those early skeptics, and must convince mainstream users that the technology is easy, useful, and safe, says Tom Reed, president of HomePlug. The last factor - safety - may be the biggest hurdle.

"We have to get past 200 years of people thinking of power lines as bad and dangerous," he says.

Reed says the technology is safe. After extensive in-home tests throughout North America, he says, it's proven reliable and fast, too.

In those tests, more than 98 percent of the homes supported data transfer rates of at least 1 megabit per second; 80 percent supported transfer rates of at least 6 megabits per second, he says. (HomePlug markets the standard as 14 megabits per second, but--as with all networking standards--network protocols use up a large chunk.)

HomePlug's current speeds are more than enough for today's home users, he says. And as new applications and services stretch that capacity, the group will be ready with a new, faster specification.

And what about wireless? Reed says powerline products don't compete with wireless networking products, but complement them.

"We're the backbone of the connected home of the future," he says. You'll plug in major network items like your PC, home stereo, and other stationary items, and mobile items like notebooks and PDAs (personal digital assistants) will connect to the same network using wireless technologies, he says.

Dryer-proof networks

Pre-HomePlug era powerline networks were notorious for crashing when people turned on hair dryers, microwaves, and other power-hungry devices. That's a quirk the HomePlug engineers worked hard to eliminate.

"The key is to maintain the connection," says NetGear's Pathela.

While the connection may slow briefly, it will continue to work, he says, demonstrating that NetGear products can flawlessly stream video--while a hair dryer runs simultaneously.