Fast and Easy Integration Between Your Ethernet and Powerline NetworksInstant PowerLine ™EtherFast®10/100 Bridge The Linksys Instant PowerLine™ EtherFast®10/100 Bridge offers a complete Internet connection solution for your home powerline network.
The PowerLine Bridge makes sharing your broadband access easier than ever. Build a strong and simple-to-use home network by taking advantage of the most pervasive home networking medium powerlines.
The PowerLine Bridge is ideal for users who already have a router. It can be plugged into an Ethernet port on a router to equip a network with powerline capabilities and take advantage of the router’s features.
The PowerLine Bridge can also plug directly into a cable or DSL modem to allow Internet access and data transfer rates up to 14Mbps over home powerlines.
With the PowerLine Bridge, create a network in no time at all to share an Internet connection (a router may be required), files, and printers, or even play multi-user network games at blazingly fast speeds. It’s easy, convenient, and cost-effective.
- Connects 10/100 Ethernet Network to Powerline Network for Seamless Integration
- Share Internet Access Across Your Entire Home Powerline Network
1 Works best with one pc only.
I have a linksys router hooked up to a Power Line Bridge and on the other end another PLB hooked up to a PC. It works just fine. The problem is when I add a second PLB/PC. Sometimes it works for a while and then the line drops and sometimes it doesn't work at all. For some reason, the IP addressing goes off when adding a second (or third) unit. So I am constantly resetting the router, cutting the power, disabling and enabling the PC LAN connection to manipulate them into working again. Frankly, as you can see, it's driving me up the wall. I'm starting to debate laying cable under my house (wireless isn't an option because I use 2.4 gig. telephones.
Like I said, with only one PC, the system is flawless.
2 Does the job, but poorly
It works as advertised but it needs to be reset frequently - unplug, plug in, unplug, plug in, after owning it for a few months (probably when the warenty expires :-) ). Can get to be a major pain.
3 It works... sometimes...
As a networking "internals" guy, I was shocked to find that this product is fundamentally broken at the network layer.
What people are complaining about here is that the device suddenly stops working and must be unplugged and plugged back in again.
This is because the device is trying to be too smart, and is losing track of which power-line modules connect to which computers. Unfortunately, in doing so, it prevents the network-level broadcast facilities from working. The broadcast facility I'm talking about most (ARP, the address resolution protocol) would have automatically corrected the problem if the Linksys box wasn't so broken.
In essence, for all you tech guys and gals, is that a learning bridge should never "learn" the broadcast address.
If you have only PCs, and you load the Linksys driver, they do some magic to keep the devices from falling over dead... But if you mix in a non-pc (Linux, UNIX, Macintosh) using a hub off the end of your power-line device, you're guaranteed to be frustrated.
The symptoms are that some of the network works (whatever was working before the bridge tables got corrupted) and others stop working with no explanation. The box "selectively" forwards traffic, and becomes deaf to other traffic.
It's like being at a cocktail party, and having every third person not be able to hear you, and saying "Over here!" (as ARP does) doesn't help either.
Ugh. In my experience, this is somewhat typical of Linksys products... If you have a windows PC, you're fine. If you have anything else, they won't talk to you.
I switched to the Siemens power-line module, and it has been working just fine for me.
4 Not reliable for me
I prefer NetGear for a "HomePlug" compliant product. More reliable. Better utility software, let's user see other devices on the network and base speed of connection between "PowerLine" devices.
In general I like Linksys products and have used them a lot of them over the last 4-5 years. Friends home's, small offices. Work well.
I installed a pair of PLEBR10s and found that only about 30% of the outlet pairs I tested them in would work or even get a connection between the 2 devices.
Nothing in the Linksys Software to test speed. Resorted to simple file transfers and a clock. Using this method I found the best pair of outlets to use.
I continued testing over a one week period. Test pair would loose connection and need to be unpluged/pluged to restore the connection. Also experienced a lot of speed variation: ok to not useable. Variation could not be attributed to appliances or other devices in use. Just seemed to go from good to bad to no connection.
Replaced with the Netgear product and all my troubles disappeared. More pairs of outlets would connect (easy to see with NetGear utility), speed was constant, no lost connections even under harsh condidtions (various appliances running).
There is not a lot of information available for users to troubleshoot these devices or the conditions in which they are most likely to operate full. Only thing I found was that the maximum "wire distance" between the 2 outlets should be less that 1,000 feed. No surge protectors in the circuit.
Linksys technical support wasn't of much help. It may be that one or both of my units were defective. I will continue to test and continue to talk to Linksys.
My out-of-the-box experience was much better with NetGear product. I look forward to their new version (602?) of the device.
5 DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT
Had the product for 1 year including the USB adaptors and it was fine. Then the bridge just quits 2 days ago ...only 5 mths after the warranty expires and Linksys will do nothing to help replace the product. This makes my entire $400 investment in the network wortless.
I like the powerline for its security but go with another company that takes more pride in its products and shows more concern for its customers.
6 Works in a mixed Mac and PC environment
Although this product requires a PC to set it up, and Linksys doesn't support the Mac, this product is working just fine in a mixed environment. I have the Mac and DSL in my office and my wife has the PC three floors up. It's a much more reliable and secure connection than our WiFI system was. Not difficult to set up, even for someone who is not especially technically oriented.
7 Not Like Other Linksys Products
I purchased this and the USB PLUSB10 to set up a home powerline network. Plain and simply, it sucked. Everything else I have is Linksys (router, wireless B and wireless B+G). I had no problem working the listed items together and wanted to add Powerline. The Powerline items couldn't see each other and the setup instructions didn't tell you what components you needed to make the system work. I bought the NetGear Powerline products. They arrived and worked fine with full instructions. I'd go NetGear in this case...
8 OK but...
After considering a number of networking options, I decided to try powerline to connect the network in our basement to the network on our second floor. I read the reviews on Amazon as well as on .........com and ........... There was not much information in the newsgroups which I felt was a little worrisome. Our house is about 3 years old, so the wiring should be sound. Thus far, my experience has been that I get full connection between some outlets, and none between others. There is no obvious reason for this - some plugs next to each other don't work, while others across the house do. Some rooms have lots of things plugged in while others have none. Needless to add, the two outlets I wanted to connect were two of the ones that don't work. Oh well...
9 Problems
This is an interesting device. I bought three of the original versions a year ago to hook my TiVos up to the rest of my home network. In general, they've worked well. HOWEVER, when I tried to use one of them with an old Win98 laptop I've got, the software wouldn't install. It said something like the OS wasn't adequate (even though the machine and OS both meet the requirements). Emails and phone calls to LinkSys resulted in nothing. No response. That was ok, since I was merely experimenting. But, now, a year after I bought them (and conveniently just after the warranty expired), they seem to be failing. Two weeks ago, one of the PLEBR10s just died. No lights or anything. I replaced it with the new version, which seems to be working fine. Today, another of the original boxes stopped connecting. All the lights on the box indicate that everything should work, but no network traffic goes through. If I replace the box with the new version I bought two weeks ago, everything works fine. So, since I can't find an alternative means of connecting my TiVos to the internet, it looks like I'll end up buying yet another PLEBR10. Hopefully, these new versions will last longer than the old ones. This is getting expensive.
10 Ver. 2 is improved
I bought 2 of these, in Version 1. After 12 months, one device has ceased to receive ethernet packets consistently. I bought a Ver. 2 device, plugs into the wall socket (no cord). It has improved software, which indicates both other devices, AND the transmit rates between the current device and each of the other devices. Much more informative: I found that one location in the basement received only at 0.90 Mbs, instead of 2.5 to 10.0 Mbs.
11 Great product for the purpose it's intend to be used.
I read the reviews of this product prior to me buying it. One or two of them raised some concerns, but I obviously ordered it anyway.
My experience... Installed in a snap, just follow the directions (don't use it through a power strip, UPS, etc.) & it only took 60 seconds to get it working. It came with a utility with a few tools. One particular tool that I liked is that it shows signal quality/strength just like a 802.11b connection. The prodcut claims "14mb Max" throughput. According to this tool I'm getting 9.5mb with excellent signal quality (about 80-85%).
Overall... The product works excellent for what it was designed for, i.e. low speed LAN connection. It certainly does not have near the performance of a 100mb LAN.
12 Doesn't Work
This does in fact allow you to run ethernet over your home wiring. What they fail to tell you is:
It doesn't work reliably with DHCP provided by their own linksys hub.
It doesn't work through all the plugs in your house, even if your wiring is only a few years old.
Once you get it working, it stops working after about six months when one of the little boxes becomes unable to see the other one, though the inverse isn't true.
All in all, a shoddy product with shoddy software from a company I used to respect.
(Later addendum: after sending the boxes back to linksys, I have two working ones again. Still, they shouldn't have broken in the first place, and still have all the other problems.)
13 ONLY WORKS WITH WINDOWS 98 2nd EDITION!
Could not get drivers to load from CD or from Linksys website download to work with Windows 98 (1st Edition). Linksys info does not specify that. Had I known that before purchase, probably would have bought another brand (although I have had no problems with Linksys router.) When I finally got to talk to a "senior technical person"; even with newest driver download and beta patch could still not get to work with Windows 98. Had to buy W98 SE CD-ROM from ebay. Now, the powerline network works fine. The least that Linksys owes us is an update as to the real operating system requirements for this hardware!
14 No problems, using it as a bridge between two wireless APs
I have not seen this setup mentioned in any reviews, so I thought I mentioned it:
I have a DSL modem in my den, and a wireless 802.11b network there as well. However, since it is a former garage and the house was built in the 30's, the signal does not really penetrate through the wall. So I installed a second wireless access point under my house that "lights" the entire rest of the house. Both access points are connected through two of these powerline bridges -- I did not want to run cat5e between the two and I already had power in both places. It works like a charm, so if you are in a need to connect two routers or wireless access points and do not want to string cat5 cable, use these powerline bridges instead. They work!
15 Foolproof and noise free
I am using these in my home to share a broadband internet connection. They (you need at least 2) are easy to install and are not influenced by any other electronic devices in the house (I also have some X10 controlled devices). They even work across legs of the house power, which the X10 will not do. I have tested the speed, and they are as fast as being connected directly to the cable modem. The data is encrypted for privacy. I'd recommend these to anyone desiring to set up a home network who do not want to run cables or depend on the vagueries of wireless. You can connect up to 16 of them.
16 It worked exactly as advertised
I am a power user, so my experience may be different. I have an ATTBI cable modem in the livingroom, next to tv. It is too messy to run long cat5 cable from there to other parts of the house. I already have 802.11b wireless setup, but:
1. I want something faster, 802.11b is rated at 11mb, in reality, you get roughly half of that, less if you have more than one wireless clients (which I do, 3 laptops, 3 desktops).
This product claimed 14mb, which I should be able to get most of the rated speed as I am not planning on sharing with any other device.
2. 802.11b is not secure enough for this particular connection. WEP128 is too easy to crack, I've done it myself war driving in my neighborhood. I want to connect my cable modem to my gateway/server.
Given the requirements, I've done a lot of searching and decided that the PLEB is the best fit. I ordered it and got it within a week. Quick glance through the docs, installed the setup sw on my laptop (had to boot into w2k, as I usually run linux). Config both units, tested them out. Worked perfectly.
I did run into a few minor problems that was mentioned by others. The units have to be plugged directly into wall plug. Even just plugging into simple 3 to 1 adapter won't work. Glad I had the electricians added a lot of additional wall plugs when I remodeled the family room.
I put one PLEB in the family room where the cable modem is, the other in the laundry room in the back of the house. Moved my server back there, plug it in... and everything worked great. The speed is faster than I was getting with the 802.11b (I am using Cisco Aironet 352 AP and 350 PCM and PCI cards for laptop/desktop respectively.
Overall, I am very happy with this. Wish it was faster than 14mb, but that's just because I use that server as a fileserver.
I am thinking of buying several more, one for each bedroom as it's more secure than wlan and faster to boot.
17 Answer to 1st reviewer, An Electronics Fan
Hello. I think you are missing the idea behind the bridge. All the bridge does is send a signal using the house wiring. You need a USB Powerline adapter at the other end to plug into the wall socket and the other connector is the USB cable female that plugs into your PC. This essentially is a hard wired system and does not radiate anything. All it does is replace Cat 5 cable with house wiring (Romex) There is nothing wireless about it. Good luck.
18 There's a pretty good chance you will get stuck!
I purchased 2 of the plebr10 Etherfast 10/100 power line bridges to solve a specific problem.
So far, they have not done so.
Here is my situation.
I have a Comcast cable modem with a Linksys befsr41 4 port router.
A desktop and 2 laptops are usually connected to it, and everything runs fine.
My workshop is 300 feet away from the house, and I need an internet connection out there bad!
Thouble is, there are no phone or network lines out there, and no practical way to run any now that the concrete work is complete.
However, I did install underground power and put in a 200 amp panel when it was being built.
I had hoped the power line bridges would reach out there, but they do not.
They work fine in most outlets in the house, but not all.
They seem to either work, or NOT- no in between slow performance, etc has been seen.
Here is what I am going to try next.
Plug the house plerb10 box into the service outlet on the main power panel in the house and run a cat5 cable from it to a port on the befsr41 router attached to the cable modem.
I think a 50 foot cable will reach.
Then, plug the other plebr10 into the service outlet on the main power panel in the shop. This puts the 2 bridges ~300 feet apart, connected by 500mcm cables (read that LARGE, for household wiring.)
I am wondering if the large surface area of these wires causes the RF to radiate out more that a smaller wire would?
Any thoughts?
If anyone else has any experience with these dogs, please jump in here and share.
19 Great idea, great product, works great for most part
I had wanted to do a review on this for some time. For my setup, I needed 2 powerline products. One to hook into the Linksys router downstairs and plug into the wall. The 2nd was plugged into an outlet upstairs to get Internet access to the upstairs computer without running ethernet cables all over.
I only received 1 product at first, the 2nd was on back order and didn't show up for a month. When I finally received the second one, I could test them to see if they worked.
Initially I could not get them to function at all. I read in the manual, and found out that the products have to be plugged directly into the wall socket, and not through a surge protector like I had them. (It says in the manual plugging it into a surge protector, or power strip greatly diminishes performance).
So I plugged it directly into the wall outlet just to test it. This is very inconvenient for users who are low on outlets and need a surge protector or power strip for their computer peripherals. Also there is the issue of lightning with having it plugged directly into the wall. I don't know about you, but here in Florida lightning is rampant in the summer, and I have personally had a cable modem directly hit by lightning with blue-sparks shooting around the room. Put me out of Broadband access for two weeks while I got a replacement. I even had the modem surge protected. However the lightning comes over the cable line itself. Since then I had to get a special surge protector that protects the power aspect, as well as surge protection for the cable line.
I don't like the idea of having my powerline bridge plugged directly into the wall because of this. However, the manual claims that the product has it's own surge protection built in, and that it is safe to plug it directly into the wall. How good the built in surge protection is, I yet know not.
Once I had it plugged directly into the wall I was able to get the units to function intermittently. I tried using it with my laptop through various outlets throughout the house. I found that it worked with some outlets, and did not work with others. Upstairs where I wanted to use it, the performance was not good.
After furthur investigations I unplugged the Linksys Print Server that I also have on the network to share the printer with all the computers. This corrected the problem, and I now had sucessful, high-speed powerline networking throughtout every outlet. Even upstairs where I wanted it to be! This product works just as good as using an Ethernet cable direct. It's perfect for broadband Internet surfing.
There are 4 lights on the product (Two for powerline, two for ethernet). One indicates you are connected to the power outlet, the other indicates that data is being transmitted over your powerlines. The 3rd light indicates an ethernet connection to your computer. The 4th light indicates data is being transmitted, over the ethernet end of the device, to the computer. There is also a 5th orange light for collisions.
The product is very easy to setup, and very easy to use. Seemless integration, plus it also has password encryption for when the data goes over your powerlines. This is very easy to set up too.
I would have given this 5 stars, however the inability for it to co-exist with my Linksys Print Server is the reason for the four star rating.
If you are thinking about trying this product but are a little hesitant, I say go for it. It's a very unique product, and a new medium in the field of home networking. I'm satisfied with it so far. (..just have to find a different way now to share my printer with the networked computers)
