Neat New Reviews
We get a lot of gadgets, devices, appliances, etc. in to play with for our editorial work. And we try hard to mete out the best of the bunch, or to shed light on where things are going with the early versions of new stuff.
Below you can find stuff that we simply liked for various reasons, enough to put in our own homes or at least would have no problems telling others to do the same. We are constantly adding to this listing so check back here often.
- Siemens/Efficient Networks Speedstream Powerline Router/Adapters - There's a lot about these products to like. First, they are very inexpensive. Second, the cover almost all the bases you'd need for a home computer network -- Ethernet, USB, 802.11b, router, access point, and a backbone over the electrical lines that make this truly "plug (into the nearest electrical outlet) and play." Third, Efficient Networks has long been a great brand for broadband networks, so the technology is pretty solid. What we did not like about these products can be easily fixed in software, and indeed that's the direction of the company -- to issue follow-on software releases to resolve issues like we had. The issues were not so much installation issues -- they all installed quite easily. The issues were more how the different modules saw each other on the network, and how you could tell at any particular time what your whole network health looks like. We think they'll fix this by the end of 2003. If you are looking for a quick, easy, cheap home network to connect your computers and other devices to a broadband connection, this is about as easy as it gets. Now, a word of caution: Powerline transmission does fluctuate with what is on at home at the time; if you are in-line with a dishwasher or washing machine, you will likely see degradation in speeds when you are washing something. You might find that you need to move the outlets around to maximize your throughput even when there's a lot of noise on your electrical lines (because someone is doing something electrically intensive). A wired home LAN continues to be our highest recommendation, using CAT-5e and RG-6 coax cabling. You will get your most reliable and fastest speeds on those connections. But for a retrofit -- the Speedstream is a tough product not to like.
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