Home | Forums | Article Search | Subscribe & Shop | Contact Us | Log Out Plaster Networks PLN3 Email This Print This View My Personal Library Heavy Gear February 2010 • Vol.10 Issue 2 Page(s) 34 in print issue Add To My Personal Library Plaster Networks PLN3 PLN3 $149.95 (kit of two) Plaster Networks www.plasternetworks.com CPU Rating: 4 Specs: Dual 100Mbps Ethernet ports; 128-bit AES encryption; PHY rate: up to 200Mbps Imagine you’re in a lecture hall, trying to listen to someone speak on stage. Two people are whispering next to you. The guy on stage can’t hear the whisperers at all, but because you’re so close to them, they’re making it very hard for you to hear the lecturer. This is essentially how device noise affects powerline adapters, notorious for their shoddy performance over distance. Plaster Networks isn’t so concerned with raising the ceiling of HomePlug AV networking performance as it is with raising the floor. The company’s idea is to use better noise filtering and signal control technology for better throughput. We tested two PLN3 adapters, one connected to our Gigabit switch and the other to a 100Mbps-equipped netbook at the opposite end of a 2,400-square foot house. Without a single button press, the two paired and worked instantly. For our test, we upped the difficulty by plugging the netbook’s powerline adapter into a power strip that had three things already plugged in (the netbook’s AC adapter, a Linksys access point, and a lamp). As a reference, we copied a 2GB file collection from a Gigabit NAS box attached to the switch Cat 5e in 3:53 (68.67Mbps). We knew the netbook’s outlet was at the far range of many powerline adapters, with most hitting under 10Mbps on this test. The PLN3 kit managed the transfer at 19.48Mbps, which is a minor miracle. We then plugged the strip into Plaster’s IX2 Isolator ($24.95), which is designed to filter noise from attached devices in the 2 to 30MHz range used by HomePlug devices. We ran the transfer again and copied the file at a swift 25.72Mbps—a nearly 25% gain just from using the IX2 on the same outlet. At service.plasternetworks.com, you can sign up for a free 12-month subscription that will track the bandwidth of your PLN3 connections. With this, you can set up bandwidth alerts and monitor your performance history. If you need powerline networking, Plaster’s PLN3 and IX2 is the best powerline combo we’ve seen yet. by William Van Winkle  User Reviews Be the first to write a review of this product Want more information about a topic you found of interest while reading this article? Type a word or phrase that identifies the topic and click "Search" to find relevant articles from within our editorial database. Enter A Subject (key words or a phrase): ALL Words (‘digital’ AND ‘photography’) ANY Words (‘digital’ OR ‘photography’) Exact Match ('digital photography'- all words MUST appear together) Home      Copyright & Legal Information      Privacy Policy      Site Map      Contact Us Copyright © 2010 Sandhills Publishing Company U.S.A. All rights reserved.