Lots of specifications, statistics and wildly inaccurate quotes abound in IT no more so than network speeds.

A long wet Easter weekend was therefore put to good use as i conducted a non scientific, non technical but hopefully realistic test on homeplug powerline vs 802.11g wireless thoughtput in the real world.
The real world being my humble 4 bedroom detached house of standard brick construction, full of noisy electronics, power saving bulbs, microwave, multi-sockets gangs in every socket, 3 kids (v.noisy) with DS & computers, Wii, xbox360, loads of power sockets stuffed with chargers and everyday run of the mill geek heavendom.

The Test
Standard white BT homehub in the sitting room would be the core, connected to the router was a Lacie 500gb NAS with a Ubuntu 8.10 file 699mb all in one big ISO file.

Results
Not surprising to be honest. None of the network speeds are actually acheivable outside of a lab. 802.11g wireless dropped of the quickest due to walls etc whereas homeplugs suffer most on each link on the mains,  one socket in, one socketout and a change of ring main through the fusebox to the upstairs.

But…
Homeplug  adapters are the easiest to setup and the 85mbps model provides a very usable broadband sharing speed around the house, online gaming would be fine.

Homeplug 200mbps where pretty good with throughput, a Blueray movie is 25mb sec so would perform the media streaming even on the extremes of my house, again the AV stands its ground.

Wireless networks are the most flexible on location due to the no wires, but is ultimately limited for the same reason.
WiFi signals are prone to interference, the environemt can chage rapidly, even people walking between the base and client can blip the signal.

Conclusion.
none from my simple test sadly, I need more data and my wife needs DIY done

PLEASE comment on this thread with any data you have regarding manufacture and throughput and i will compile a chart to give a better day to day reality of Homeplug Vs WiFi.

Test conducted with netmeter