It seems HomePlug certified powerline networking components aren't as interoperable as it would first appear.  I've been using Devolo Homeplug dLAN 200 desk units for a number of years now and they have been trouble free and constantly out perform wireless networking in terms of speed.  I recently bought another Devolo dLAN 200 unit to expand my network to enable streaming video to a Windows Media Extender.

I assumed it would be a case of just connecting it to the mains and using the Devolo dLAN configuration wizard to set all the units up with a new encryped password.  I soon realised that this wasn't the case.
The dLAN configuration wizard didn't even detect the new unit on the mains network.  After looking through the manual for a while scatching my head searching for a non-existant troubleshooting guide, I spotted a paragraph that mentioned that older Devolo products using firmware 1.x need their firmware upgraded in order to work with newer models.

Upgrading the firmware has now made all my dLAN 200 HomePlug certified devices compatible!  Thank God for standards

As an ASP.NET web developer, I think it's important to understand and know how to configure Microsoft's web server, Internet Information Services (IIS). Depending on the organisation you work for you may or may not get the opportunity to tinker with IIS, but this shouldn't stop you from learning the basics.

You could go out and buy a book on configuring IIS and then install IIS on your computer to practise what you've read, but thanks to the guys at Trainsignal.com who have kindly sent me some of their training videos, I've discovered a much easier way of learning.

Train Signal provides video training courses for Microsoft, Cisco and CompTIA certifications, including CCNA, A+, Network+.
I'll also be reviewing the Cisco CCNA training videos here soon.

Train Signal's IIS Web Server video training covers both IIS 5 and IIS6, and features topics including installing IIS, creating test websites, hosting more than one website using host headers, adding security, setting up an FTP server, and web server optimisation.

The course is taught by Scott Skinger, President and founder of Train Signal. Scott has many years of experience in the IT field, holds various IT certifications and is a competent instructor. The videos are easy to follow and Scott's narration is second to none.

The series of videos are backed up with a written guide in the form of the lab book, which comes as a printable PDF on the CD ROM, this goes through the same steps featured in the videos and includes network diagrams like the one above to help you set-up your own lab.

If you want to get up to speed on a particular Microsoft product, obtain an IT certification or you don't like reading IT text books then I definitely recommend you give these training videos a try.

Course Contents in full:

Introduction
Lab Setup
Setting up the lab
Computer 1
Computer 2
Computer 3
Lab
Scenario
Installing IIS on Windows 2000 Server
Creating an HTML file
Hosting Ben & Brady's site
Configure DNS so Internet users can find your website
Testing the website from the client
Lab
Scenario
Creating a test website using an HTML file
Creating an additional website on the web server
Creating host headers
Configuring DNS for the second website
Test and view website from client
Assigning site operators
Adding security to a website
Test and view the website from a client
Lab
Scenario
Downloading and installing service packs and hot fixes
Setting NTFS permissions
Disabling Netbios over TCP/IP
Download and run The IIS lockdown tool from Microsoft
Enable and view logging

Ever wanted to be a real web geek?
Well, you can get one step closer by following these steps and browse a website using a Telnet session via the Windows(R) DOS terminal.
Believe it or not you can actually use this method to diagnose HTTP issues, and it also provides an insite into how the HyperText Tranfer Protocol (HTTP) works.

HTTP Request using Telnet

1. Open a DOS prompt by clicking Start > Run and typing CMD and hitting Enter.
2. Clear your screen of commands by typing CLS and pressing Enter.
3. Start a Telnet session by typing telnet and pressing Enter.
4. Configure the Telnet session to echo typed characters to the screen by typing set localecho.
5. Instruct Telnet how you want to handle the Enter key by typing set crlf.
6. Open up a connection to the site you want over HTTP port 80, by typing o nikmakris.com 80.
7. Press Enter several times until the cursor lands on an empty line and then request a page from the site.
8. Type the following carefully without making errors:

GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: nikmakris.com

1. Then press Enter twice and you should receive the HTML response for the page you just requested from the web server, delivered to you by HTTP!

Here's what you should have typed, and the response from the DOS terminal and Telnet session. I've ommited the verbose HTML response from the web server.

Welcome to Microsoft Telnet Client

Escape Character is 'CTRL+]'

Microsoft Telnet> set localecho
Local echo on
Microsoft Telnet> set crlf
New line mode - Causes return key to send CR & LF
Microsoft Telnet> o nikmakris.com 80
Connecting To nikmakris.com...
GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: nikmakris.com

You may have read the scare stories about wireless networks in the press recently, and you may be wondering what you can do to avoid the potential health effects and still have a home which is fairly wire-free.
You may also have recently been given a free wireless router from your ISP.
Sky broadband, AOL broadband, BT broadband, Pipex, they nearly all bundle a wireless router in with your broadband contract these days, so what do you do?

Upgrade to a Powerline Network

Whether you believe the scare stories or not. I'll show you how you can still keep your wireless router but without the potential side-effects.

The answer? Upgrade to a Powerline network. A lesser known technology that uses your mains electrical wiring to distribute your broadband connection, which will allow you to connect a computer anywhere you have a power socket, and turn off the wireless signals so you don't have to worry about "WiFi smog".

Six Steps to Avoid Using WiFi

1. Purchase at least 2 Powerline wall-plugged adapters (Netgear, Devolo and Dlink all have Powerline products). This is enough to connect one computer to the Internet.
2. Plug 1 adapter into a wall socket near the wireless router, and connect your existing router to the Powerline adapter using an Ethernet patch cable.
3. Plug the other Powerline adapter into a wall socket near the computer you want to connect to the Internet and connect your computer to the second Powerline adapter using an Ethernet patch cable.
4. You should now be online!
5. Now you'll need to log-in to your wireless router console, usually via a web browser (see your router manual for details) and disable the wireless access point on the router. See the screen-shot below for a visual, obviously your router console may look completely different, but usually the instruction manuals are fairly good.
6. You can now surf the web anywhere in your home wire-free and without using WiFi!

Still confused? Check out Devolo's Powerline flash presentation, which explains all about Powerline networking simply and with animation.