Comtrend 902 Powerline Ethernet Adapters review

Power plug adapters allow you to create a PC network using the electrical mains wiring in your home.

Unlike Ethernet, it doesn't require new cabling, and unlike WiFi, there are no reception issues. Just plug an adapter into a mains socket and connect a PC to the adapter via the Ethernet port. Any adapters within your mains circuit detect each other automatically. It's a very user friendly technology.

There are two standards for mains networking, HomePlug and Powerline. The Comtrend 902 is a Powerline device, unlike our previous Good Buy, the Solwise HomePlug AV Simple Connect. It lived up to the promise of easy installation: within seconds of plugging in the pair of test units, we had a functioning network.

Each adapter has a status light that shows you whether there's an active Ethernet connection, helpful if you ever need to diagnose a problem. There's also a security button that generates a network encryption key with one push, simplifying secure setup. The adapters will work whether you use fixed IP addresses (as in many business networks) or dynamic IPs allocated by DHCP (more usual at home). If you want to use fixed IP addresses, however, you'll need to do a bit of configuration using the adapters' built-in web console.

In our first test, the sustained transfer speed was 12.5 megabits per second, compared to Comtrend's claim of 50Mbit. We're quite used to over-optimistic speed claims, but in the interests of accuracy we investigated whether anything could be affecting performance. Each adapter had been plugged into one gang of a double wall socket. We switched off everything attached to the other gang, and the speed rose to 47.5Mbit.

The Solwise HomePlug AV Simple Connect was slightly faster, managing a full 50Mbit/sec, but it costs £20 more. If you have good mains wiring and enough spare sockets, the Comtrend 902 kit is a bargain.