aztech homeplug - network your home without using electricity

If you are like me, living in a two storey house and would like to have your cat5e cable on different location other than where your router is, and if you want to have a more stable and bigger than the 54mpbs of wifi, u should consider buying the homeplug.

Frankly I was sceptical at first, not sure if it would work out of the box like it says, especially after reading unsuccessful stories over the internet.

In the end, I am glad that I tried it anyway, cos it worked like a charm!

By the way, to state the obvious,  you will need purchase two units for it to work - though I reckon Aztech should have sold it in pairs cos buying just one unit doesnt make sense.

Unboxing the package you will get:

- the home plug

- cat5e cable ( a very short one though, I substituted it with my 3mtrs)

- a simple guide ( though its not exactly necessary, it was very simple to setup)

- the installer CD ( not sure what it was for because I had mine working without needing to install anything)

So first, you just plug in one unit on any plug point close to your router, in my case - upstairs at my TV room/area. As you can see, I actually just plugged it in on one of the power extension strip, and it was working okay. Then hook it with a cat5e cable which goes to the cable port on the homeplug on one end and the router on the other end.

  Next, plugged in the second unit in the same manner on a plugpoint which you want it to be, eg, downstairs. 

Its worth to mention that some people commented that it doesnt work if you have three phase wiring and if the two locations are in different phase. My house is a three phase, but it was working okay with one unit upstairs and one unit downstairs. Perhaps it so happens that the two locations were on the same phase, i dont know. Will update if it wont work elsewhere later.

As you can from the images above, there led indicators on the unit to indicate power, (dunno what the middle on is), and network. It goes green when it picked up signals, it goes amber when it doesnt. It took less than a minute for it turn green in my case, which surprised me at how easy and simple it is.

Overall I am very happy now that I can have a network downstairs without having to run long exposed cable.

The cost:

About RM200 - around RM100 each unit. Well worth the investment :)

More information can be found at http://www.aztech.com/prod_homeplug_hl112e.html

Below is copied from Aztech website to illustrate how it works: