Yesterday, my pair of HomePlug powerline Ethernet bridges arrived. I have to say they work as advertised. I can plug a bridge into any electrical outlet in my house and instantly have a 14Mbs Ethernet connection there. It’s really pretty slick. You can even remotely manage other bridge endpoints in-band (changing their password, for instance).

The only drawback for me is that a Windows software utility is needed to set any encryption or do any management to the bridge. Maybe WINE can alleviate that problem. I haven’t had time to try it.

Another thing I haven’t had time to try is seeing how many other homes near us can receive the signal. My ultimate goal is to create a neighborhood network. Maybe I can catch up with my neighbors before this weekend and try pushing some bits.