Aztech, a member of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance which standardizes powerline networking products, is showing off the smallest and most energy efficient products yet seen in this market.
Their new HL106E is the smallest HomePlug adapter in its class, offering 85Mbps bandwidth over your powerlines to any device connected to its Ethernet port. This unit only uses 12W of power meaning your desk lamp is drawing more power than the adapter even if it is equipped with a compact fluorescent bulb. And who needs light when you have an 85Mbps pipe anyway?
Also on display is the world’s smallest 200Mbps adapter (take that 85Mbps!) intended for high bandwidth AV streaming.
But my favorite product by far was the HL110EW Wireless N extender. This HomePlug adapter will allow you to set up a 200Mbps Wireless-N hotspot anywhere you have an AC outlet, carrying the data across your electrical infrastructure to your HomePlug enabled router and out to the Internet. A perfect solution for Chateau Nero which, I assure you, is so palatial that one Wi-Fi access point would never cut it.
While HomePlug solutions have struggled to catch on, they are clearly become robust, fast and flexible enough to solve a lot of consumers’ home networking challenges.