Back in March we published a review of Solwise's Powerline ADSL router. An alternative to wireless networking, it uses your existing mains wiring to provide a network without the need for reams of Ethernet cabling.

Despite this sort of mains networking being easy to set up and use, there are times when wireless is more convenient.

For these situations, Solwise has the Powerline Wireless G Access Point 2060G, which provides wireless devices with a link to your mains network.

One potential problem is that the main body of the adapter protrudes down from the plug socket, making installation tricky with low power sockets.

Since the instructions recommend not using extension leads, this could cause you some issues.

However, setting up proved to be an easy and hassle-free process. There is no network socket on the back of the access point, so all settings need to be changed over the Powerline network.

To test it out, we used a Powerline Ethernet adapter plugged into a broadband modem router. We then fired up a notebook with Wifi to test out the access point.

After pointing the notebook to the access point, our Internet connection was shared without any problems.

The web interface is for the access point is basic in appearance, but houses all the features you might need.

Both WPA and Wep security are supported and a Radius server is built in for extra security.

Wireless devices can connect on either the 802.11b or 802.11g wireless standards for a theoretical maximum speed of 54Mbits/sec.

Bear in mind that the network connection over the power line is limited to a theoretical 14Mbits/sec, but it's still more than enough for a 2Mb Internet connection.

However, it will struggle if several wireless devices attempt to pull data from a single wired source.

For ease of use the Solwise Powerline Wireless Access Point is hard to beat and a good way to make a mains network more convenient, especially if the modem router is placed too far from devices for conventional wireless connectivity.