Solwise NET-PL-200AV-PIGGY review

One problem with powerline networking is that each adaptor needs to plugged directly into a wall socket, making it easy to run out of sockets.

Solwise’s Piggy adaptors solve this by having a pass-through power socket. All you have to do is plug the adaptor into the wall socket and any other device, including a multi-way adaptor, into the socket on the front. They are a bit bulkier than most powerline adaptors, but they’re narrow enough not to get in the way of other plug sockets.

Each adaptor has a button on the front for enabling 128-bit AES encrypted security quickly and easily. Status LEDs on the front of the adaptor give a visual cue that security has been enabled. If you want to use encryption and the Piggy adaptors with other HomePlug adaptors that don’t support push-button security you’ll have to set a password manually using the bundled HomePlug AV Utility software.

The software also lets you update the firmware and set QoS on your network. This gives priority to time-sensitive traffic so that, for example, video plays smoothly even if you’re downloading a large file from the net.

Performance was good, with a throughput of 66.3Mbit/s. This is more than enough to watch two HD video streams simultaneously and faster than a lot of draft Draft-N wireless networking kits.

The only problem is price: each Piggy adaptor costs £42, so a pair will cost £84. Still, it’s well worth paying the extra for those rooms where you’re short on power sockets.