Give friends gifts that won't need you to provide ongoing tech support until next Xmas: One is TP-Link powerline adapters that do faster-than-wireless networking without the fuss.
Improve a friend's network speed (or yours) this Xmas with powerline adapters
Giving technical presents with complex setups or which are likely to require expert understanding of the technology to unskilled friends is not a good idea. Give a non-techie an advanced router or NAS and you may as well put a sign on your head that says "free tech support for the next year."
So we have the ideal present for tech-challenged friends who are having trouble getting fast internet connections from their router to devices in their house: a powerline adapter kit. This uses a home's electrical wiring to connect computers and is ideal for those who want to stream HD movies between devices but their Wi-Fi is not fast enough, or anyone whose thick concrete walls reduce the strength of Wi-Fi signals.
There are several powerline networking options in the market, but the one we recommend is TP-LINK's TL-PA211 Kit. That's because it requires no technical prowess whatsoever (nana can set it up, seriously) and it works, and it's incredibly effective.
Plug one of the TP-LINK kit's two adapters into a standard power socket and its network cable into your router. Then stick the other adapter (the kit comes with two) in another power socket in your house and connect it via cable to the Ethernet port of the device you want to connect. That's it. It just works, with the connected device immediately showing a network connection and throwing up Windows's "Select a Location" dialog box . No configuration, no time wasting. Instant network.
The first adapter goes into a power socket - in this case, in our home simulation in the APC labs, next to the router's power adapter.
The cable goes into the router, and ...
The second adapter goes into the power socket near the device you want to connect.
And the cable into the device needing the connection. And Voila, it works first go.
So without requiring additional wiring you can get data transfer rates between the router and device fast enough to allow for HD video streaming and online gaming.
The TP-LINK TL-PA211 pack gives you two adapters to start a basic powerline network, for AU$120. The adapters are quite small, 93mm by 56mm and just 30mm thick, so they won't stick out and hog the adjacent sockets, and you can add others for additional networked devices. They come with inbuilt Qos and AES encryption, and work on a power circuit length of up to 300 metres (we weren't able to test that).
