I’ll confess my pair of Gigabit adapters have been gathering dust because they didn’t play well with the 85 Mbps Netgear Powerline bridges I already have in the house, so I’m looking forward to upgrading [...]]]>

Tom’s Networking has done a review of the Belkin Gigabit Powerline HD with the latest firmware revision, 2.0.

I’ll confess my pair of Gigabit adapters have been gathering dust because they didn’t play well with the 85 Mbps Netgear Powerline bridges I already have in the house, so I’m looking forward to upgrading the firmware and seeing if the devices now play well with other Powerline gear in some fashion.

Tom’s review says the throughput with the latest firmware revision is an  improvement in throughput and range for higher performance. It also suggests that there is still room for firmware improvement – something that I heard at CES from one vendor familiar with the Gigabit device – as well as as a way to work on a low power mode.

The devices also (still, despite being advertised almost a year ago) don’t yet support a mesh-network under the Belkin implementation.

Tomorrow, I’m going to upgrade the firmware and see what blows up when I plug them.

I have to confess, I have been tempted to shell out for Netgear Powerline AV 200 Mbps device, but it too, alas, isn’t compatible with the 85Mbps Netgear Powerline bridge devices.

Previous pieces on my Belkin Gigabit Powerline Adapter Adventure

Belkin gigabit powerline adapter firmware upgrade "increases the bandwidth"

Belkin Gigabit powerline network adapter – Tech support lame

Belkin plays catchup on gigabit powerline networking adapter

More tests with Belkin Gigabit powerline adapter

Initial tests of Belkin Gigabit powerline adapter – mixed results

Belkin gigabit powerline device – yes, I found one.

Today, about a week after I filed the tech support request — hmm, maybe the company and Verizon share customer values — I received a response.  The firmware upgrade “increases [...]]]>

Last week, I sent an email into Belkin technical support asking for more information on the firmware upgrade for the Gigabit powerline adapter (F5D4076).

Today, about a week after I filed the tech support request — hmm, maybe the company and Verizon share customer values — I received a response.  The firmware upgrade “increases the bandwidth.” End of story.

In real world terms, this is water under the bridge, I installed the beta-labeled firmware a couple of days after sending the email to Belkin tech support, but haven’t had a chance to retest the adapters to see what the difference might be. *sigh*

My current dilemma is to either A) Go buy another two pack of Belkin adapters and run all my devices as such or B) Trash them, and go back to the Netgear 85 Mbps wall-plugged bridges.

The Belkin devices do perform better than the Netgear bridges, but the Netgear devices 1) Have four 10/100 Ethernet ports and 2) Brighter/more visible LEDs for device operation.  The F5D4076 has its status lights behind black tint plastic — looks good, but the uncovered LEDs on the Netgear are much easier to read at a glance.

Does the Belkin Gigabit powerline adapter perform faster/better than the Cisco 200 Mbps AV powerline ? Dunno. Anyone want to swap a couple of NetGear 85 Mbps bridges for a pair?

Now, I’m not quite sure what it fixes, because Belkin’s support page doesn’t say and the firmware upgrade is labeled beta.  I emailed an inquiry earlier this week to Belkin tech support– it’s been at least a couple of [...]]]>

I bit the bullet yesterday and upgraded the firmware on my Belkin gigabit powerline adapters.

Now, I’m not quite sure what it fixes, because Belkin’s support page doesn’t say and the firmware upgrade is labeled beta.  I emailed an inquiry earlier this week to Belkin tech support– it’s been at least a couple of days — and haven’t heard back.   So, no joy there.

Running the upgrade on my set of adapters doesn’t tell you much.  During the process, you get a Jah-Jah Binks written warning: “Please, don’t remove neither the ethernet cable or power supply.”   Firmware version listed before upgrade is 22058.  After completion, 22207.

Initial results to date on the upgrade have been disappointing, with a lot of power cycling of devices, but I’ll see how it goes throughout the day.

And P.S. – There’s no option to roll back to the earlier firmware version, so you’re stuck if you upgrade to the beta.

One observation I’d like get confirmation on: It appears the Belkin gigabit powerline network adapter and the Netgear 85 Mbps powerline bridge don’t play well together.  Having both devices on the same home wiring seems to cause mutual assured soft failure, rather than both of them defaulting back to the standard 14 Mbps speed.

I have been encouraged by my more recent speed tests with the Belkin gigabit powerline network adapter, but the company is still playing catchup in terms of its support issues, me thinks.

On July 1, Belkin posted a “beta” firmware upgrade for the F5D4076 … but doesn’t tell you what the [...]]]>

Hello! Belkin! Hello!

I have been encouraged by my more recent speed tests with the Belkin gigabit powerline network adapter, but the company is still playing catchup in terms of its support issues, me thinks.

On July 1, Belkin posted a “beta” firmware upgrade for the F5D4076 … but doesn’t tell you what the firmware is supposed to fix/improve on the Gigabit adapter. No documentation or release notes, just an .exe to download and run.  And the Mac and Linux crowd will be ticked because you need a Windows box to run the firmware upgrader… but they should be used to that by now.

Running the package installs the Belkin “upgrader” with three little icons; one starts the flash for the firm ware, one is a blue “I” giving the version — a most reassuring v0.6.0, and and an exit icon.  I’d like to know more before I flash it in.

FYI, the CD shipped with the device only provides a user’s manual. As I noted before, the NetGear guys provided a software client to access its 85 Mbps Powerline bridges to give you an idea about actual speed connections without having to stare at the blinky lights on the outside of the box.

ANOTHER improvement both Belkin and NetGear could provide is a speed utility to test throughput between devices both from device to network and peer-to-peer between devices.  Doubly so for Belkin, since they’re bragging Gigabit speeds under some optimum configuration setup I have yet to witness.

I’ve had a chance to test Belkins Gigabit powerline adapter on some other machines and platforms in the house… I’m beginning to think that some of the [...]]]>

UPDATE: Belkin has issued a firmwire update for its Gigabit powerline adapter — but it is beta and there are no release notes telling what it corrects.

I’ve had a chance to test Belkins Gigabit powerline adapter on some other machines and platforms in the house… I’m beginning to think that some of the low-ball results (3-5 Mbps) I saw may be due to a bug on one of the machines I was using rather than to any Belkin flaws… I may have to blow the dust off another machine (my retired laptop) and use it for testing purposes.

Two devices, same floor, on a PC, registered throughput peak of about 44 Mbps, average of 30 to 40 Mbps on multiple tests.  This I consider pretty good because 1) The loaner Cox DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem service taps out at about 50 Mbps when measured at the router, so seeing 44 Mbps through Powerline (regardless of the alleged max), is pretty impressive and 2) I haven’t jury-rigged a test(yet)  for in-room Powerline to see if I can get into/up to 100 Mbps and beyond…

I’ll likely have some more results tomorrow after some further fiddling with configurations and part/device swaps.

I’ve had the Belkin Gigabit powerline adapter(s) in service and testing for about 12 hours and they may be going back to Best Buy in the next 24 hours if preliminary testing holds up; I may exchange them [...]]]>

UPDATE: You may want to check my updated testing of the Belkin Gigabit powerline adopter here.

I’ve had the Belkin Gigabit powerline adapter(s) in service and testing for about 12 hours and they may be going back to Best Buy in the next 24 hours if preliminary testing holds up; I may exchange them for another set, however… don’t know.

The devices I have seem to flake out after 5 minutes, dropping from about 17-20 Mbps initially to about 3-5 Mbps throughput… so, it could be a heat problem, could be a buffer problem. Either way, not so good; interestingly, the upstream throughput doesn’t take a hit.

It would help if Belkin had thrown in a software tool (like Netgear did for its 85Mbps bridge) to “look” at the throughput on the bridge for diagnostic purposes.

Testing protocol is simplistic: Speakeasy’s Speed Test. To make sure machine or network variables are ruled out, I’m testing two computers side-by-side, switching the Ethernet connection between them, and then using Wi-Fi to pull a “known” comparison speed test as a contrast.

Since I worship, er go to Best Buy on a regular basis, I ran down to see what [...]]]>

It looks like I’ll have to take back my snarky Tweets about Belkin not shipping its gigabit powerline device.  While advertised as available “immediately,” the Belkin PR peeps said I could find it at Best Buy.

Since I worship, er go to Best Buy on a regular basis, I ran down to see what was up. “My” story in Springfield (former FCC Chair Michael Powell also shows up there once in a while) didn’t have any units, and wasn’t going to be shipped any units in the next week or two, according to the in-house data base.

So, I went home and checked the Best Buy website. No joy last week, this week TA-DA,  the device showed up both on the website for purchase AND available at local stories.  Of course, no units at Springfield, no units at Potomac Mills (where I had checked last weekend, only to find a sticker and an empty shelf slot).

Today’s investigation of Best Buy revealed that there were two (2) units at the Landmark Mall location.  I drove up, looked for the device on the shelf under “Powerline” and at the “Belkin Networking” section — no joy.  Get the Best Boy to look in the back.  No joy.

Finally, I start wandering through, asile by asile (yes, I’m a little obsessive sometimes) and find the two units sitting on the bottom shelf of the graphics card section.

Stay tuned; expect to start to do testing this evening. If this device lives up to its billing of potentially doing gigabit speeds, I’ll be happy if I can pull a fraction (say 100 Mbps) of that, since I have Ye Olde (Well, New) Cox DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem and the 50 Mbps/5 Mbps service on loan.