POWER CONNECTORS FOR INTERNET

[Fareastdriver]

I live in a part of an old listed building which has two foot granite internal walls. The modem's signal has severe difficulty with these cutting the speed down from 35m/s to 5 or 6. To overcome this I have installed power connectors on the modem and computer power sources. There is now a good 36 m/s continuously.

What worried me is whether somebody else in the building can just plug there computer in another power connector and access my modem and possibly access my computer. I was told the power connectors can only work through ONE circuit but mine jumps from one ring circuit to the other. What is to stop it migrating out though the main switch and into the building.

I worry because I have had a couple of warnings from my antivirus about accounts being breached. I have changed several passwords and they have gone away but the worry remains as to whether my computer is accessible.

[Saab Dastard]

If you don't take steps to secure your powerline network, then yes, someone else could attach their adapter and share your network. However, you can create a secure network by pairing your adapters together, using encryption to secure the traffic, prevent eavesdropping and prevent anyone else from joining your powerline network - very similar to securing a wifi network. Assuming that your adapters support this, of course.

The power wiring can be used by multiple networks without devices on each network having access to each other, but as this is a shared access medium, this may reduce the throughput on each network. The more adapters that share the wiring, the more the "bandwidth" has to be shared. It's a bit like wifi in that respect also.

SD

[Fareastdriver]

The powerline adaptors are the ones sold by TalkTalk. They have buttons on the side which I used when I set them up so I think that they are secure.

Thanks

[Loose rivets]

Saab seems to have covered all bases but I have a friend who'd just gone over to Talk Talk and links his TV and other odds by this method. I raised this issue the other day, and he was surprisingly confident. However, I got the impression he was rather relying on the distance to the next house and it's damping effect on the higher frequencies etc., so I'll broach the subject again. He was an electronics design engineer and teacher, so I don't know why he's not more worried.

I'll certainly be relaying Saab's information to him.

[ORAC]

The buttons set a quick secure network, but if you are worried download the instructions and you can go into the units as administrator using an internet lead and set up a new admin password and encryption manually, just like you can in any other router or bridge.

[Helix Von Smelix]

I expect the "power connectors" although on different circuits are on the same phase.

[Jetstream67]

Unless you actively set the powerline devices to have no security all the ones I have ever had came in pairs (or more) sets with a random password for them all. . . . and any units or pairs more I added needed to be 'added' to the existing password network to work with them. As others have said they work best on the same power circuit, reasonably across all circuits in the same house and not well on another supply Phase (which will generally be found in the houses on either side)

Ideally use the administrators tools and set them up with your own complex password