Home PNA "Phoneline Networking" Round Up

Like the other two cards, Intel's AnyPoint uses Broadcom's HomePNA chipset. It has an adequate display, with one miniature LED shared for both Link and Activity. As one of the HomePNA's founders, Intel has been making AnyPoint products for quite a while, and there are still HomePNA 1.0 (1Mb) adapters for sale on most of the sites we visited. Unfortunately, there weren't any of the newer adapters on any of the sites, so if you want the cards we tested, you have to buy them directly from Intel at a cost of $69.00.

Technical Specifications

• Highly integrated solution for 1Mbps phoneline, 10Mbps Ethernet connectivity
• Supports HomePNA 1Mbps phoneline specification effort
• Full IEEE 802.3 Ethernet support
• 5.0v and 3.3v PCI and CardBus interfaces
• Modem interface ready
• Dual PCI device functionality
• ACPI and OnNow compliance

Software

As previously mentioned, Intel is a founding member of the HomePNA, and they seem to have developed a very clear idea of where they want home phoneline networking to go. According to the plethora of promotional and technical material Intel sent us with the AnyPoint product, their main goal for the technology is to be so simple as to be accessible to everyone. Intel states that even a basic understanding of networking fundamentals sufficient for configuring a proxy server is an "unacceptable requirement" for the target users.

This commitment is evident in the Internet sharing software (aptly titled "ISS") that ships with the AnyPoint hardware. ISS was by far the easiest software to live with. It worked the first time, with no configuration on the part of the user. It allows for simple sharing of drives and printers as well as the Internet connection. In addition, because the proxy itself is invisible to the applications on the client, it works with virtually all client applications and, according to Intel, will work with new ones automatically.

A downside of this simplicity-first approach is the lack of any kind of real control of the proxy elements of the ISS application. Like with the other packages, there is no content-control or usage accounting, something we would've liked to see.

Intel Screen Shot 1

Intel Screen Shot 2

Intel Screen Shot 3

Warranty and Tech Support

Intel's warranty is three years from the date of purchase, as opposed to lifetime on the other products. The tech support is available for 90 days for free from the date of purchase, as opposed to forever, as with the others.

On first glance that might seem like a raw deal. Consider, however, that the card will probably not still be in your machine when the warranty runs out… three years is a long, long time in the world of computers. Also, in lieu of unlimited tech support, Intel provides not only a stable product with few technical issues, but a huge 83 page manual that goes into specific detail about everything you might run into during the course of trying to get the AnyPoint product running, from renaming your computer to updating printer drivers. It is quite probable that the user will never have to use the Intel tech support. If they do, it is available by email, web and phone, much like the others. The phone hours are short (especially on weekends, when the home user will probably be working on the computer) but there is an abundance of support materials on the website.