Aztech Homeplug 85Mbps HL105E Review
// February 26th, 2010 // No Comments » // Technical Know-It-All
Like all my reviews, I generally try not to cover too much of the technical specifications. Chances are, the fact that you are reading this, you would have probably covered the tech specs on the vendors website and looking for a users view on it.
So, a quick brief on the problem statement that I have and why my impetus for this product.
Recently, I was given a free gift (which happens to be small form factor PC, that works very well as a HTPC) from Starhub for renewing my SCV connection. I decided to deploy this in my bedroom as an extension for my Media Collection which is in the hall (running off my Synology NAS). The problem with this setup is that, the wireless connectivity between the bedroom and the hall is extremely week making video streaming unwatchable. In order for this to work, I needed a wired connection but I wasn’t ready to start running Ethernet cables all over the apartment.
In comes the Homeplug! I have always wanted to give it a try but have always been suss about the technology and how it works. I did a lot of read up on it in the past. The discussion of using electrical power lines to run data traffic, is usually something like a big taboo in the datacentre world. Interference, performance, data privacy and integrity usually the main concerns.
So, setting it up was somewhat a breeze. Just plug your network cable to the Homeplug and the other end to your router/switch/device and plug it into any power point in your home. Optionally you would want to set it up as a Private network cause you’d never know if your power lines at home is linked in someways to your neighbour’s. If it was the case, your neighbour can easily get a Homeplug and plug it into their power point, and you guys will be looking at data privacy being compromised. However, this can only be setup by installing the configuration software on Windows. (nothing for Mac)
While it is recommended that you setup a “Private Network”, by default it is set to “Homeplug Network” which is public. So if you choose to not configure it, just skip all of the above and plug in the cable and you are ready to go.
The top speed for the Homeplug is rated for 85Mbps which is a little short of the traditional 100Mbps. For the layman, usually when we talk 100Mbps, the max throughput would probably be rated at around ~75-80Mbps given the overheads in the IP Protocol. So when the same is applied to the Homeplugs, the max throughput expected is around ~60-65Mbps.
First bandwidth test was to stream a HD mkv file from the NAS on to the HTPC (running Windows 7). The video was very jerky and barely watchable. I then ran streaming for a 700+MB avi file. It was a little better but still choppy at times. For a moment there, it seemed that 65Mbps was not cutting it for video streaming. This doesn’t make sense given that I was able to stream HD movies wirelessly on my Macbook while sitting next to my wireless router where bandwidth is way less than 100Mbps. At that point, it seemed like a link stability issue could be the cause. I ran a latency test between the routers and the Homeplug units and they were all ~2ms which somewhat seem to suggest that the link hasn’t got any issues.
To cut the story short, in the end it was Windows 7 that was the culprit because of a new feature implemented during the Vista deployment called “Network Auto Tuning”. Instead of making things better it made it worst. Once disabled, everything worked like how a wired network should and even 4GB mkv’s were streaming effortlessly.
The bad thing about the Homeplug is that it will consume 1 power point to itself given the size of the unit. I tried running it on a multi-point power distribution unit and also a multi-adapter 3-point plug, and I must say that the performance was still good. Alternatively you can always consider the HL109EP that allows the point to we reused (which is double the price of this unit). One thing I did noticed as well is that the Homeplugs doesn’t heat up a whole lot even though its turned on 24/7 which can be a good thing for some.
In summary, I would recommend this product for those who do not require an extremely high speed network at home. It works well for video streaming, music streaming, Internet and the occasional file transfers. But if you are planning to run high bandwidth applications like video editing to a NAS unit or something along those lines, you would probably be better off running a physical ethernet cable. Also, for those who are non-tech-savvy, it doesn’t get any easier to setup your home network with this.
