Setup And Administration
Both the AV200 adapters come set so that they will just plug and play if you don't feel the need to mess with their settings. Like HomePlug adapters, they use a Network Identifier to let you keep your network separated from your neighbor's. It ships with a blank setting, which is essentially as good as the default "HomePlug" that the other guys use. This Network Identifier also serves as the key for the combination of DES and 3DES encryption used to secure data between AV200 adapters.
Both AV200 adapters are a bit unusual for these types of devices in that the adapters have IP addresses and built in web-based administration. I'll touch on both as I describe the devices' settings. The AV200 comes with its IP address set to 10.10.1.69, so Corinex' Quick Start Guide advises changing the computer you use to set up the adapter to an IP of 10.10.1.1. Of course, since all adapters come set to the same IP address, you should power up only one device at a time if you want to access its web-based admin features. Figure 7 shows the main page of the web admin that you are presented with upon login.
Figure 7: Web-based admin main page
(click image to enlarge)
The interface departs from the design found in most networking devices in that it doesn't have a navigation bar to direct you to its various sections. Instead, there are only the subtle "Further information" and "Change configuration" links that aren't even underlined to help announce their existence. The PLC Connections section shows information about other connected AV200 powerline devices, including the Phy receive and transmit throughput. The "Phy" rate is that of the physical interface, i.e. the best-case "raw" bit rate. Of course, you'll never get this throughput in your actual network connection, but it's the same game played by every other networking product manufacturer.
If you are running Windows, you can opt to install the AV200 Configuration Utility, which has its settings organized into separate pages, instead of the single long page used by the web interface. The other plus the Utility provides is that you don't need to futz with your computer's IP address settings, since the utility can find and connect to AV200 adapters with any LAN IP address scheme. Note that this utility is relatively new and didn't come on the CD included with the product. Corinex said the utility has since been added to the CD, but it would be nice if it were also posted for download.
Figure 7: Corinex Setup Tool Search screen
(click image to enlarge)
Figure 7 shows the Windows-based Configuration Utility's opening screen. The Search for devices button will find only "locally connected" AV200 devices, which means that they need to plugged into the same Ethernet LAN that the computer running the Utility is on. Once you find a device, you just double click on it to proceed into the admin and status pages of the Utility.
Alternatively, if you have copied down the MAC address from the label on the bottom of each of your AV200 devices, you can enter it into the MAC address field at the right of the page and click the Configure button. I think I prefer the utilities that came with the HomePlug Turbo devices I recently reviewed, an example of which is shown in Figure 8.
