BT Wi-Fi Home Hotspot 500 Kit review
Good, simple means of extending the reach of your Wi-Fi network
Specifications
If your Wi-Fi router’s signal is too weak in certain parts of your home, the BT Wi-Fi Home Hotspot 500 Kit could be a good solution. The kit is comprised of two powerline adaptors that pass data through your electrical mains wiring. One adaptor connects to your router and the other can be placed wherever you can’t currently access your wireless network, or where you experience a weak wireless signal.
Although the adaptor that connects to your router has the rather exciting name of Broadband Extender Flex, its job is simply to relay information to the second adaptor, nothing more. Conveniently, the Broadband Extender Flex has a pass-through plug socket, so you can plug another electrical item into it.
The second adaptor, the eponymous Wi-Fi Home Hotspot, is the highlight of this kit. It has two Fast Ethernet ports in addition to its ability to provide Wi-Fi access to your network, which makes it especially useful if you have static devices that require internet access as well as your smartphone or laptop. You might, for instance, want to connect the smart TV and games console in your bedroom to the Home Hotspot’s Ethernet ports to ensure those devices are receiving the best network speeds. The Home Hotspot only operates on the 2.4GHz band, but this does at least mean that the vast majority of Wi-Fi devices will be compatible with it.
Setup is intended to be straightforward, and it is. The two adaptors are pre-configured to speak to each other securely, so all you have to do is plug them into a mains socket and turn them on. The Home Hotspot has a recess in which you’ll find a pull-out card that contains wireless password for connecting to the adaptor, along with the password needed to access the Home Hotspot’s web interface.
Our adaptors connected to each other with no problems, and provided a data transfer speed of 90Mbit/s in our powerline adaptor test. This involves placing the two adaptors next to each other and repeatedly passing data from one computer to another. The further apart the adaptors are spaced, the lower the speed will be, but the kit still produced a data transfer speed of 90Mbit/s in our powerline adaptor test with the adaptors placed roughly 10 metres apart. That really isn’t bad.
To test the wireless performance of the adaptors we placed them in adjacent plug sockets. The Broadband Extender Flex was connected to our test PC directly via an Ethernet cable, and we connected to the Wi-Fi Home Hotspot via Wi-Fi. The kit produced transfer speeds of 45.9Mbit/s at one metre and 45Mbit/s at 10 metres. It failed to complete our Wi-Fi test at 25 metres.
We’re unhappy that that kit failed our test at 25 metres, but the other speeds are pretty good and are on par with a decent 2.4GHz-band router. You’ll certainly have no problem using Wi-Fi in a large bedroom, and adjoining bedrooms should be able to connect to it as well.
It’s slightly annoying that you have to select the Home Hotspot’s SSID from the list of available wireless connections, but this is a small price to pay for the ability to connect to your network wirelessly in a place where you otherwise wouldn’t be able to. Continues on Page 2
Details | |
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Rating | **** |
Powerline networking standard | HomePlug AV |
Homeplug stated speed | 500Mbit/s |
Power consumption active | 3W |
Number of adaptors in box | 2 |
Security | |
Push-button security | no |
Physical | |
Size | 126x66x78mm |
Ethernet ports | 2 |
Number of power sockets | 2 |
Buying Information | |
Price | £90 |
Warranty | one year RTB |
Supplier | http://www.shop.bt.com |
Details | www.bt.com |