To call power line networking a bandwagon is perhaps too much of a cliché, but debating the lexicon of the English language is irrelevant; more and more networking vendors are jumping onto it. But quite why is a mystery. The core reason for buying a kit that can network non-wirelessly with high throughput is about to fall away with the arrival of 802.11n.

True, wireless is still less than easy to set up and configure, while 802.11n will remain far from established even a year from now. Yet the key selling point of 802.11n is that it can stream high bandwidth files, including HD video. That's a shame for D-Link then, because that's exactly what its new plugs are designed to do.

Just a quick recap in case you don't know. Powerline networking uses the electricity cabling in your home as a network - critically, this means that powerline kit can be used to network in situations where wireless networks don't cut the mustard, such as in very tall houses or even to extend a network to a basement. And, of course, it removes the need to trail wires anywhere. You can also use powerline throughout your house, providing you stick to the same mains loop.

Still standards

Despite the fact that powerline adaptors from different manufacturers aren't designed to work together, they can if they use the same standard - much like wireless networks. D-Link's adaptors conform to the DS2 standard (www.ds2.es), but in reality this is meaningless - if you're going to set up a power line network we always recommend all your kit is from the same manufacturer.

As you would expect, the plugs are easy to set up. Power line is designed to be simple. Just plug in, connect the Ethernet cables and install a software utility on one PC. The software part of the process - currently incompatible with Vista - configures the plugs and makes sure they have the same password, ensuring security, which has previously been perceived as a problem in the past.

Such perceptions are misguided, since although there have been scare stories about plug networks being accessible to your neighbours, a simple password is enough to prevent any problems and make sure the signals along your electricity cables are encrypted.