WD sells one with four or five ports on each end, so you don't need a switch with those.
On Feb 2, 2013, at 1:18 AM, Harry McGregor <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > On 2/1/13 9:15 PM, Winterlight wrote: >> When using a powerline network do need two powerlines for each IP address ? >> Do you plug Powerline one into the router and Powerline two into end user >> device.. is that how it works? They sell them at 200Mbps and 500Mbps... do >> you really get those kind of speeds. >> thanks > The power line devices are at layer 2 (in this case ethernet) for transport. > The devices them selves will normally request an IP vi DHCP for their own > management, but they do not route, just bridge. > > That being said, this is more like an old school bus network, is shared > bandwidth, just like WiFi is shared bandwidth. So the 200Mbit and 500Mbit > are really not "reachable" but you can still get decent bandwidth. > > Also power line condition (how your electrical is wired) greatly impacts > bandwidth, just like walls and how the walls are build greatly impacts WiFi. > > If the price spread is not very high, I would recommend getting the 500Mbit > gear. I used the 85Mbit stuff at my in-laws house to replace a wifi to > ethernet bridge that was being flaky, and it linked at 40Mbit, and it's > getting about 30Mbit throughput. > > It's best to install a switch on each end (or use the switch built into your > router on one of the ends, and a switch on the other end) so that near by > devices can just be straight cat5/ethernet instead of installing "many" of > the powerline devices. > > -Harry >
