Choosing your HomePlug network layout

HomePlug ethernet over power adaptors are amazingly flexible, giving you almost unlimited choices on how to arrange and configure your home network. Here we explain how to set up the adaptors, and suggest some configurations which you might like to use or tweak for your own setup.

Think about where your computers/consoles/laptops/tablets will be in your home/office

The first thing is to decide where you are going to need internet access in your home. This will dictate the best location for your HomePlug ethernet over power adaptors. Generally HomePlug adaptors have a very long range - more than enough for a normal-sized home - but if you intend to extend your network into, say, a detached garage, you might find that it won't work because your garage might be on a separate electricity breaker box. If you're just looking to extend your network within your home, then most of the time HomePlug adaptors will work out of the box.

Ethernet over power adaptors extend your existing network cabling (ethernet) coverage

Ethernet cables are the ones that look a little like wide phone cables (see the picture on the right). They'll usually say 'CAT 5' or 'CAT 5e' on the casing of the cable, meaning 'Category 5 cable'. Any link between networked devices in your home which currently uses that type of cable can be extended by HomePlug ethernet over power adaptors. This is worth bearing in mind when you decide where to install your adaptors.

For example, if you are a Virgin Media customer, you might have a separate cable modem (the box which the cable from the street goes into) and wireless router, which are connected by an ethernet cable. On the one hand, you could use HomePlug ethernet over power adaptors to extend the link between the router and your computer, like this: This is potentially inefficient, however, because the network is limited to one extended network point, accessible by only one machine (the desktop computer). A better configuration is to put the router at the other side of the extension, thus moving all the expansion capabilities of the wireless router to the furthermost point on the network.

See an example of this sort of network here.

Of course, if you don't have more than one computer or device that you want to extend your network to connect with then the first HomePlug configuration makes perfect sense!

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