Requires annoying updates and tweaking to work effectively

Bottomline: Requires annoying updates and tweaking to work effectively

Price: £110

Manufacturer: Zyxel

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The P-660HWP combines an ADSL modem with an 802.11b/g Wifi router and a four-port 100Mbits/sec switch.

But the star feature is integrated Homeplug AV networking, which makes every electricity socket in your house a possible network point. It’s neat to integrate Homeplug into a router, but Zyxel’s implementation is incompatible with cheaper Homeplug 1.0 and Turbo (85Mbits/sec) devices, which rules out many early adopters of Homeplug technology.

Initially, internet access was consistently lost and only after a series of messy firmware updates and changing security settings could we get it working.