Home > Consumer Reviews > Linksys PLEBR10 Powerline To Ethernet Bridge

As a networking "internals" guy, I was shocked to find that this product is fundamentally broken at the network layer.

What people are complaining about here is that the device suddenly stops working and must be unplugged and plugged back in again.

This is because the device is trying to be too smart, and is losing track of which power-line modules connect to which computers. Unfortunately, in doing so, it prevents the network-level broadcast facilities from working. The broadcast facility I'm talking about most (ARP, the address resolution protocol) would have automatically corrected the problem if the Linksys box wasn't so broken.

In essence, for all you tech guys and gals, is that a learning bridge should never "learn" the broadcast address.

If you have only PCs, and you load the Linksys driver, they do some magic to keep the devices from falling over dead... But if you mix in a non-pc (Linux, UNIX, Macintosh) using a hub off the end of your power-line device, you're guaranteed to be frustrated.

The symptoms are that some of the network works (whatever was working before the bridge tables got corrupted) and others stop working with no explanation. The box "selectively" forwards traffic, and becomes deaf to other traffic.

It's like being at a cocktail party, and having every third person not be able to hear you, and saying "Over here!" (as ARP does) doesn't help either.

Ugh. In my experience, this is somewhat typical of Linksys products... If you have a windows PC, you're fine. If you have anything else, they won't talk to you.

I switched to the Siemens power-line module, and it has been working just fine for me.

I had wanted to do a review on this for some time. For my setup, I needed 2 powerline products. One to hook into the Linksys router downstairs and plug into the wall. The 2nd was plugged into an outlet upstairs to get Internet access to the upstairs computer without running ethernet cables all over.

I only received 1 product at first, the 2nd was on back order and didn't show up for a month. When I finally received the second one, I could test them to see if they worked.

Initially I could not get them to function at all. I read in the manual, and found out that the products have to be plugged directly into the wall socket, and not through a surge protector like I had them. (It says in the manual plugging it into a surge protector, or power strip greatly diminishes performance).

So I plugged it directly into the wall outlet just to test it. This is very inconvenient for users who are low on outlets and need a surge protector or power strip for their computer peripherals. Also there is the issue of lightning with having it plugged directly into the wall. I don't know about you, but here in Florida lightning is rampant in the summer, and I have personally had a cable modem directly hit by lightning with blue-sparks shooting around the room. Put me out of Broadband access for two weeks while I got a replacement. I even had the modem surge protected. However the lightning comes over the cable line itself. Since then I had to get a special surge protector that protects the power aspect, as well as surge protection for the cable line.

I don't like the idea of having my powerline bridge plugged directly into the wall because of this. However, the manual claims that the product has it's own surge protection built in, and that it is safe to plug it directly into the wall. How good the built in surge protection is, I yet know not.

Once I had it plugged directly into the wall I was able to get the units to function intermittently. I tried using it with my laptop through various outlets throughout the house. I found that it worked with some outlets, and did not work with others. Upstairs where I wanted to use it, the performance was not good.

After furthur investigations I unplugged the Linksys Print Server that I also have on the network to share the printer with all the computers. This corrected the problem, and I now had sucessful, high-speed powerline networking throughtout every outlet. Even upstairs where I wanted it to be! This product works just as good as using an Ethernet cable direct. It's perfect for broadband Internet surfing.

There are 4 lights on the product (Two for powerline, two for ethernet). One indicates you are connected to the power outlet, the other indicates that data is being transmitted over your powerlines. The 3rd light indicates an ethernet connection to your computer. The 4th light indicates data is being transmitted, over the ethernet end of the device, to the computer. There is also a 5th orange light for collisions.

The product is very easy to setup, and very easy to use. Seemless integration, plus it also has password encryption for when the data goes over your powerlines. This is very easy to set up too.

I would have given this 5 stars, however the inability for it to co-exist with my Linksys Print Server is the reason for the four star rating.

If you are thinking about trying this product but are a little hesitant, I say go for it. It's a very unique product, and a new medium in the field of home networking. I'm satisfied with it so far. (..just have to find a different way now to share my printer with the networked computers)

I am using these in my home to share a broadband internet connection. They (you need at least 2) are easy to install and are not influenced by any other electronic devices in the house (I also have some X10 controlled devices). They even work across legs of the house power, which the X10 will not do. I have tested the speed, and they are as fast as being connected directly to the cable modem. The data is encrypted for privacy. I'd recommend these to anyone desiring to set up a home network who do not want to run cables or depend on the vagueries of wireless. You can connect up to 16 of them.

Dec 2006 - updates to my review. I've had a few years (4) of using this. Since then, there are faster version (85Mb) and 200Mb coming out soon. It's rated at 14Mb, I get consistently in the 6-7Mb range. It depends on how many electrical devices are sharing that particular circuit. So if you have unshielded or "noisy" motor appliances (vacuum cleaners, blenders, etc.) plugged into the same circuit, your speed will drop.

I've tested 85Mb and 200Mb at my house. The best I can get is 36Mb with the 85Mb, and 90Mb with the 200Mb. So keep in mind that max rated speed is just that, theoretical max but not real world.

November 21, 2002

I am a power user, so my experience may be different. I have an ATTBI cable modem in the livingroom, next to tv. It is too messy to run long cat5 cable from there to other parts of the house. I already have 802.11b wireless setup, but:

1. I want something faster, 802.11b is rated at 11mb, in reality, you get roughly half of that, less if you have more than one wireless clients (which I do, 3 laptops, 3 desktops).
This product claimed 14mb, which I should be able to get most of the rated speed as I am not planning on sharing with any other device.

2. 802.11b is not secure enough for this particular connection. WEP128 is too easy to crack, I've done it myself war driving in my neighborhood. I want to connect my cable modem to my gateway/server.

Given the requirements, I've done a lot of searching and decided that the PLEB is the best fit. I ordered it and got it within a week. Quick glance through the docs, installed the setup sw on my laptop (had to boot into w2k, as I usually run linux). Config both units, tested them out. Worked perfectly.

I did run into a few minor problems that was mentioned by others. The units have to be plugged directly into wall plug. Even just plugging into simple 3 to 1 adapter won't work. Glad I had the electricians added a lot of additional wall plugs when I remodeled the family room.

I put one PLEB in the family room where the cable modem is, the other in the laundry room in the back of the house. Moved my server back there, plug it in... and everything worked great. The speed is faster than I was getting with the 802.11b (I am using Cisco Aironet 352 AP and 350 PCM and PCI cards for laptop/desktop respectively.

Overall, I am very happy with this. Wish it was faster than 14mb, but that's just because I use that server as a fileserver.

I am thinking of buying several more, one for each bedroom as it's more secure than wlan and faster to boot.

I have a linksys router hooked up to a Power Line Bridge and on the other end another PLB hooked up to a PC. It works just fine. The problem is when I add a second PLB/PC. Sometimes it works for a while and then the line drops and sometimes it doesn't work at all. For some reason, the IP addressing goes off when adding a second (or third) unit. So I am constantly resetting the router, cutting the power, disabling and enabling the PC LAN connection to manipulate them into working again. Frankly, as you can see, it's driving me up the wall. I'm starting to debate laying cable under my house (wireless isn't an option because I use 2.4 gig. telephones.

Like I said, with only one PC, the system is flawless.