Homeplugs use your electricity cables to create a simple network in your home and the latest 200Mbits/sec devices are aimed at those that want to access content such as videos and music.

They are pushed straight into your wall socket and the computer connection is via a supplied Ethernet cable – unlike the usual oversized blue plugs usually favoured by Devolo, these come as two small box units and use ordinary figure-of-eight cables to connect to your electricity supply.

They work well as an addition to an existing wireless network, where you have a PC that cannot get a decent signal, or with devices that cannot hook wirelessly onto your network.

A good example here is Sling Media’s Slingbox, which allows you to watch and control your TV from anywhere in the world over the internet, or from another room in your house over the home network.

Here, the Devolo Dlan 200 AVdesk worked particularly well; over our home network there was a noticeable improvement in picture and sound quality, and far less buffering was needed to maintain a smooth picture. Over the internet, you are bound by your broadband upstream rate, but even so, we found the picture required less buffering than when using 14Mbits/sec Homeplugs.

We conducted some simple tests shifting 256MB of different data types between two computers in different rooms. Using the 200Mbits/sec plugs the time taken dropped from six minutes 32 seconds to just one minute 40 seconds.

The downsides to Homeplugs are that you cannot create a complex network using them (unless you invest in many of them) and their high cost. This starter kit consists of two devices and is a whopping £180; while we expect them to rapidly drop in price, it’s a lot of money for what you get.

So while we cannot fault Devolo Dlan 200 AVdesk in terms of performance – and would recommend them for anyone that wants to push video content around the home – they do need to come down in price.

Also consider:
Panasonic BL-PA100KT
Networking over the mains made easy, but they're not Homeplug compatible

Netgear HDX101
Fast mains networking but the awkward design can be annoying

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