ISP Tiscali UK has begun offering customers an alternative to wireless (Wi-Fi) networking, Homeplug. Many will already be familiar with these adaptors, which essentially allow you to convert a buildings power sockets and cables into a local network.

Unfortunately the Broadband-Finder.co.uk item reports that the hardware will cost £89.99, which is somewhat more costly than their wireless option. Typically wireless can be less secure and suffer from performance problems in urban areas due to interference from similar setups:


It's not clear whether the "specially trained engineers" are an absolute requirement, although the wording would appear to suggest so. Quite why this would be we do not know as Homeplug is no more complex than setting up an ordinary network.

In addition, Tiscali's choice of using the slower 14Mbps adapters over more modern 45Mbps, 85Mbps and 200Mbps ones is poor since the real-world performance will take a huge hit. In retail the 14Mbps adaptors typically cost roughly £20 inc. VAT.

BroadbandBuyer has a 200Mbps Netgear adaptor for £64.60 inc. VAT (here), although we've seen them as low as £55 from some places and many use the same internal chipset.