Internet on the powerline. Bad idea?

[Glisse]

I use several of them - I live in a 100yr+ old place with thick walls, and wiring that spans a few generations of electricians. So I need a combination of these with wired internet and wi-fi to get full coverage. There is supposed to be a standard, something like AV Home Plug, IIRC. But I find that different brands don't talk to each other as well as the standard promises.

As others have mentioned, performance drops off quite quickly if they are placed in power strips, etc. they work best straight into the wall socket. Some models have a pass through socket, and some even filter the output, apparently.

They do not cross circuits well, and if you have each circuit protected at the breaker box with earth leakage trips, then possibly not at all.

The Netgear ones I use have a useful utility that lets you see the quality of the transmission, so you can see which wall outlets work best, etc.

Unlike others, I find they do affect audio. It depends entirely on the individual component. I first noticed this with my guitar amplifiers - I could hear static through them every time the HomePlug was pulsing a signal. I had the same issue with my Burmester 100 phono preamp. Pretty diverse components in terms of their power supplies!

In theory, this shouldn't happen, because the carrier signal is between 2 to 28 MHz. But there must be some harmonic ripple - which I'm sure Caelin could work out.

I now run my guitar amps off a Shunyata Hydra 8, and it got rid of the noise. I have just got a Cyclops, and it does too

Even if it is not as obvious as hearing hash, these things do create noise on the AC line that can subtly affect sound quality. If you need to use them, I would also use a suitable power conditioner on your audio products. Hope this helps.