INTRODUCTION

   Most people i know connect all of their computers with their modem/router wirelessly mainly because they don't like having many cables around and quite honestly who can blame them. I on the other hand use Wi-Fi on very rare occasions and only when I’m neither at my office or at home. The reasons behind is that i don't like people using my wireless connection without authorization (there are plenty of hacks out there that enable one to use your Wi-Fi even if you have password protected it) and also because i want to enjoy the highest possible transfer speeds. So i have chosen the best possible solution by routing Ethernet CAT5 cables throughout the walls of both my home and office something which may however not be easy for most people. For those who can't do something like that and don't really trust or like the speed of their wireless connection current Powerline adapters could be the solution and today we are testing the latest ICY BOX IB-PL550D 500Mbit/s Powerline adapter kit.

   RaidSonic Technology GmbH was founded in Hamburg 1999. To realize our future visions and the rising requirements, RaidSonic moved to Ahrensburg (20 min. away from Hamburg) in May 2004.The capacity of our new warehouse, our permanent improving logistic and the expanded technical support lets us look into the future very optimistically. Our vision in a constantly growing IT market is to develop products, which will become your future dreams. Our extensive product portfolio, which we distribute Europe-wide, combines all internal and external solutions for the application of mass storage, for industrial and professional applications as well as for the private sphere, too. Through our all along increasing know-how, good results in research and development and our good cooperation with our long-time customers we could achieve a dynamic growth.

   Powerline adapters are very convenient and easy to use because you just plug them into your wall socket and in turn they use the building's existing electric grid to transmit data from one adapter to the other. This automatically means that you don't have to worry about someone gaining access to your modem/router/systems however it's far from perfect since the data transfer speeds between Powerline adapters is directly affected by the quality of the building's electric grid/wiring so you will probably achieve much better speeds at a new house than at an old one. Certainly the same can be said about wireless connections due to the variety of materials used in houses so some may have thin walls made out of plasterboard or wood while others may have thicker ones made out of concrete, rock or bricks so neither solution is perfect. Still we can see just how well the new IB-PL550D Powerline adapter set fairs against a wireless connection inside the same building and at the same range and that's what we are about to do.