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Dave's HomeFree 10Mbps USB Adapter Page (WinXP Driver!)

Intro

Welcome to my page about the Diamond Multimedia HomeFree 10Mbps USB Adapter. This device allows you to use the phone wiring in your home as a 10Mbps network via the HomePNA 2.0 standard. HomePNA technology offers the promise of being able to enable your home with high-speed network access without the need to run CAT 5 cable through your house. However, it pre-dates the emergence of WiFi (802.11b/g) which has since become the mainstream solution to set up a home network. As such most vendors have abandoned HomePNA technology, and this device in particular has been discontinued. This page represents my attempt to collect as much information and resources about this USB adapter as possible.

Why HomePNA?

I picked up two of these several years ago when Surplus Computers was clearing them out, with the intent of setting up a HomePNA network. Why would anyone want to do that when you can simply set up an 802.11b/g router or access point? Call me paranoid, but the thought of blanketing my house in high frequency electromagnetic radiation 24/7 does not thrill me. Sure there is no evidence that it causes cancer, but it surely can't be good for you.

My house actually also has CAT5, but not everywhere, so I decided to set up a home network that combines a gigbit ethernet network on CAT5, an wireless 802.11G network via an access point that can be switched off, as well as an HomePNA network.

Here are some HomePNA links:

  • HomePNA.org
  • HomePNA.com

    And some links about the HomeFree 10Mbps USB Adapter in particular:

  • Surplus Computers
  • Surplus Computers (local copy)
  • Overstock.com

    HPNA Ethernet Bridges

    A HomePNA network in isolation isn't all that interesting. The HPNA 2.0 standard only has a theoretical limit of 10Mbps after all, and in practice 6 Mpbs from these devices is pretty good. So just tranferring files is not all that appealing. However since your normal broadband connection is only about 1 Mpbs, it is plenty good enough for web surfing and email. The problem is connecting the ethernet network to the HomePNA network.

    Enter the HomePNA Ethernet bridge. These devices allow you to bridge the two networks and once connected, any HomePNA network client appears to be directly connected to the ethernet network, DHCP and all. The HomePNA network behaves like a big ethernet hub. Since manufacturers have all but abandoned HomePNA, you cannot buy one of these devices new. However they do appear on eBay on a regular basis. I picked up a Netgear PE102 (see photo). There are at least 2 other Linksys models out there (HPES03, HPB200).

  • Netgear Site on the PE102
  • PE102 Install Guide

    How Well Does It Work?

    Once I got the Windows XP driver situation mostly sorted out (see below) I was surprised at how well it worked. I attached the PE102, and then walked to another room with the HomeFree USB Adapter, my laptop and a telephone wire. I found that I was able to obtain an IP address from my router, and surf the Internet just fine. I was very surprised to find that I was also able to smoothly stream a DVD compatible MPEG2 recording from my HTPC to WinDVD running on the laptop. That is something that even my 54 Mpbs 802.11g network has problems with. It does take a while to skip ahead in the file over the network, but normal playback is very smooth.

    Windows XP Drivers

    Because this HPNA USB adaptor (and others like the 3COM 3C420) were discontinued several years ago, a Windows XP device driver was not provided by the manufacturer. I installed the Windows 2000 driver on my laptop, and initially everything seemed fine. The HomeFree adapter came up, showed up in my Network Connections panel, and I was off to the races. Then I tried to unplug the adapter... BOOM! BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). Hmmm.... I restarted the computer, plugged the USB cable back in and this time tried to gracefully remove the device before unplugging it. BOOM! Same result. Tried again, this time I disabled the network connection. BOOM! Same result. Basically the Win2K driver always causes a BSOD if you try to remove the PC from the HPNA network. Not good.

    I was about to give on this hardware when I stumbed across this thread about a Windows XP driver for the 3COM 3C420 at www.driverguide.com. Turns out that all of these USB HPNA adapters use the same Broadcom chipset, and that Windows XP actually ships with a driver for the Broadcom, Linksys, D-Link, Netgear and Fallon versions. This person modified the netbcm4u2.inf file of the XP driver and added support for the 3COM device. I did the same for the Diamond HomeFree device and... it worked! No more BSOD.

    Here's some installation instructions:

  • Download the driver HomeFree10mbps-WinXP.zip and unzip it to your hard drive somewhere. THIS DRIVER IS PROVIDED WITHOUT WARRANTY OR LIABILITY. BY DOWNLOADING IT YOU ARE AGREEING TO USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!! IF IT SCREWS UP YOUR COMPUTER, IT IS UP TO YOU TO FIX IT.
  • Plug in the HomeFree device and when prompted, select the Advanced option of selecting the driver yourself. Enter the path and select the "Diamond MM Homefree 10mb USB Phoneline Adapter" from the list.

    Note that if you previously installed the Win2K driver, you must use the "Update Driver" option in the Device Manager to force Windows to use the updated driver. In this process you will also get a BSOD, so you may need to try it 2 times.

    For reference here's some other driver links:

  • Software And Stuff drivers
  • Drivers Collection Win2K and Win98 drivers
  • Driver Guide Win2K driver
  • DriverFiles.net Win2K driver