Powerline Communications- Anyone use?

[Venkman]

Awhile back I had read about some company in Texas experimenting with building a home LAN by plugging stuff into electrical outlets only. This was years ago. I decided to see where it's at today, but after some Google'ing, I've only found press-sheets and some near-$100 products.

Before I make the experiment at home though, I'd like to know if anyone else has been using it.

Anyone use it?

Is it secure? Like, Ethernet cabling requires more effort than wireless to hack, so I assume powerline stuff is closer to ethernet?

Is it reliable?

Can I just use this tech for LAN stuff, and have it plug into my cable modem?

[Furiously]

does it still work ok when I have a blender plugged in?

[Viin]

I'd try it if you can return it.

It's an interesting concept that's been around awhile but I don't really know of anyone using it. I would imagine things like a blender or vacuum or other "noisy" device could cause problems for the connection but I suppose that depends on the frequencies.

Last I looked into it wasn't very fast, and Wifi was much faster. Plus I already don't have enough outlets.

Edit: if they actually had specs on their hardware and connectivity it would be more appealing

[Lum]

I had it set up at my old apartment It's a little faster than Wireless-G. Wireless-N is faster. It's encrypted so security isn't an issue.