Extend Your Wireless Network with Tenda’s HomePlug Starter Kit

Tenda HomePlug wireless kit and packaging.
Typical home and small office setup for the two HomePlug units. (Adapted from Tenda instruction sheet).

Having reception problems with your home or small office wireless network? On top of the simple factor of distance from the router, these are also frequently caused by walls and other parts of buildings getting in the way. All three can degrade the signal and make it harder to connect to your “WiFi”.

The problem is, most such networks only have one access point (“AP”), and that’s usually the one built into the router or modem. (These include Virgin’s Super Hub or BT’s Home Hub and Smart Hub). Unfortunately, it’s often near-impossible to find a suitable location for the router/AP that gives good reception everywhere you want it without any gaps or weaknesses.

The solution is to add another wireless AP that covers these gaps better, and lets you connect reliably further from the main AP than you used to be able to. That’s exactly what this kit does. It uses “HomePlug” technology to extend your network over your existing power lines (no additional cables required!) and provide a second AP.

(At this point we’ll say that if you’re getting bored with the details, skip forward to “Disc Depot St Andrews Can Help You With All Your Networking Needs”).

About HomePlug

We’ve already said that HomePlug lets you transmit data over your existing electrical power lines, but how does that come into wireless networking? Let us explain.

Basically, you can extend a network by plugging one unit into a power socket, and the other into a different socket elsewhere. (There may be some restrictions to this, but you’d be surprised how flexible it is). The typical HomePlug adaptor has a single, regular network socket you can connect to at either end. So far, so good.

The diagram shows a typical HomePlug setup. The purple router sends data (via a regular Ethernet cable) to the blue HomePlug adaptor. This then forwards data over the power cables (shown in red) to the green adaptor. Finally, the green adaptor sends it to the PC over another network cable.

The bit we’re interested in here is the red powerline segment- this replaces countless yards of network cabling. All very nice, but what does this have to do with extending a wireless network?

HomePlug Helps Extend Your Wireless Network- Here’s How It Works

This kit contains two HomePlug units- both contain the expected network socket, but the larger of the two also has a built-in wireless access point. So, rather than connecting to the main AP (with poor reception if you can get it at all), you connect your smartphone, tablet or computer to the new AP (shown in green) instead.

The green AP/HomePlug unit then sends your data over the powerlines, where it’s forwarded by the other HomePlug unit via a standard network cable to the router, and on to the Internet. So, you can enjoy using the Internet in more locations than ever before.

(While you can buy wireless extenders which don’t need HomePlug at all, these need the two units to be within wireless communication distance with good reception. The HomePlug ones don’t have this restriction. If you’re unsure which one would suit you better, ask us– that’s what we’re here for!)

Disc Depot St Andrews Can Help You With All Your Networking Needs

Didn’t follow everything above, or simply aren’t interested in the technical details? Don’t worry. We can listen to your requirements, and figure out what equipment you need to extend your wireless network- or indeed, for any other network-related task! In fact, you don’t need to know anything about the subject at all- our technicians can design and install everything for you. Contact us online, telephone us or visit our store at 1 City Road, St Andrews, and we’ll be pleased to advise you.

We’ve got a large selection of equipment for all your networking needs, including various HomePlug units, routers and wired (Ethernet) and wireless (WiFi) networking equipment. Why not drop in today?