Home networking through the house electricity cables
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Home networking through the house electricity cables
Hi All,
It would appear that I can now get 512kb BB from BT. Whilst I have yet to have my line tested my thoughts are turning towards setting up my first network.
I have two desktops and a lappy. The two desktops sit at opposite ends of a large 'L' shaped house. The lappy and the second desktop are rarely used together simultaneously. The area outside the house is heavily wooded. The line of site distance from one desktop to the other across the 'L' would be about 20metres, one being upstairs.
I have read stories about wireless running out of range due to internal walls, and being affected by outside obstacles. I have no idea if this would be the case but I don't want to spend money on a router etc. to find that my house is too big.
I note that there are now networking kits available in the UK that connect two or more computers via the mains. I believe these have been around for a while elswhere but are new here.
Can anyone tell me if they are worth the £100 being asked? Are they secure? Are they limited to two computers only? Must they have sole access to the plug socket or can you take the feed off anywhere?
I understand that they are good for 11mbs which is all I would need, so it sounds a good idea for me.
Thoughts and advice please?
It would appear that I can now get 512kb BB from BT. Whilst I have yet to have my line tested my thoughts are turning towards setting up my first network.
I have two desktops and a lappy. The two desktops sit at opposite ends of a large 'L' shaped house. The lappy and the second desktop are rarely used together simultaneously. The area outside the house is heavily wooded. The line of site distance from one desktop to the other across the 'L' would be about 20metres, one being upstairs.
I have read stories about wireless running out of range due to internal walls, and being affected by outside obstacles. I have no idea if this would be the case but I don't want to spend money on a router etc. to find that my house is too big.
I note that there are now networking kits available in the UK that connect two or more computers via the mains. I believe these have been around for a while elswhere but are new here.
Can anyone tell me if they are worth the £100 being asked? Are they secure? Are they limited to two computers only? Must they have sole access to the plug socket or can you take the feed off anywhere?
I understand that they are good for 11mbs which is all I would need, so it sounds a good idea for me.
Thoughts and advice please?
I used to have an intercom system from Radio Shack which used the house mains to communicate between stations. (It's still somewhere on the top floor - I came across it the other day). Living in a three storey house, we used it to get my son out of bed and ready for school some time before lunch!
On one occasion we were treated to one of the neighbours doing exactly the same for their children (never did find out who, but they must have lived at least fifty yards away as there weren't any other kids closer), so I guess that using the same system for linking computers wouldn't be exactly secure - rather like hanging around trying to find hot spots on other peoples' wireless networks to get a free connection. There would appear to be nothing to prevent data being transmitted back through to the mains for other people to pick up, or someone linking into your machines.
GG
On one occasion we were treated to one of the neighbours doing exactly the same for their children (never did find out who, but they must have lived at least fifty yards away as there weren't any other kids closer), so I guess that using the same system for linking computers wouldn't be exactly secure - rather like hanging around trying to find hot spots on other peoples' wireless networks to get a free connection. There would appear to be nothing to prevent data being transmitted back through to the mains for other people to pick up, or someone linking into your machines.
GG
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The Oracle
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BoeingBoy,
Running the network though your electrical wiring was never a very good idea.
I would try wireless before going that route.
Take Care,
Richard
Running the network though your electrical wiring was never a very good idea.
I would try wireless before going that route.
Take Care,
Richard
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I agree with Richard. Bad idea.
If you have a chat to any of your radio techs/engineersthey'l probably curl up and die with anguish at the abuse of the radio spectrum.
What you get with mains wiring (and transmission line) systems is a huge increase in the noise level across the bottom end of the radio spectrum. Mains wiring needs a carrier frequency to be applied to it which carries the data signal. The data signal has to be quite broadband (can be 11MHz if a crappy encoding algorithm is used!) in order for you get the promised bandwidth for your PC network. The reason CAT5 & 6 systems work so well is that they use properly terminated transmission lines which are effectively impedance matched so that there is minimum loss of signal bewteen the sender and receiver. If you have a bad match, that results in what are known as standing waves which can lead to all kinds of dire consequences one of which is radiated signal from the transmission line ( e.g. house mains wiring).
Another drawback is that mains wiring isn't screened (normally) and that means that it can pick up signals as well. That in turn could mean that your data gets corrupted and so the network has to resend it, which reduces the overall efficiency of the thing. You'll be lucky to see 5Mb/s in a real home situation.
I would suggest that if you do go down the mains wiring route that the security issue wouldn't be a big one anyway because Id hope that the designers/manufacturers of the units would have implemented some sort of security protocol which you can configure to make sure only your network can use the data.
Please please please don't encourage the abuse of the radio spectrum with this "technology".
Whichever way you go, good luck.
ST
If you have a chat to any of your radio techs/engineersthey'l probably curl up and die with anguish at the abuse of the radio spectrum.
What you get with mains wiring (and transmission line) systems is a huge increase in the noise level across the bottom end of the radio spectrum. Mains wiring needs a carrier frequency to be applied to it which carries the data signal. The data signal has to be quite broadband (can be 11MHz if a crappy encoding algorithm is used!) in order for you get the promised bandwidth for your PC network. The reason CAT5 & 6 systems work so well is that they use properly terminated transmission lines which are effectively impedance matched so that there is minimum loss of signal bewteen the sender and receiver. If you have a bad match, that results in what are known as standing waves which can lead to all kinds of dire consequences one of which is radiated signal from the transmission line ( e.g. house mains wiring).
Another drawback is that mains wiring isn't screened (normally) and that means that it can pick up signals as well. That in turn could mean that your data gets corrupted and so the network has to resend it, which reduces the overall efficiency of the thing. You'll be lucky to see 5Mb/s in a real home situation.
I would suggest that if you do go down the mains wiring route that the security issue wouldn't be a big one anyway because Id hope that the designers/manufacturers of the units would have implemented some sort of security protocol which you can configure to make sure only your network can use the data.
Please please please don't encourage the abuse of the radio spectrum with this "technology".
Whichever way you go, good luck.
ST
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As far as I know, all wireless routers also have 4 (or so) regular wired Ethernet ports. Your computers may well have wired Ethernet ports already.
Thus if you find that wireless doesn't work for one or another of your machines, you could wire those directly to the router.
I wouldn't care to run wiring the 20 meters, especially if you are married to a "Fine Arts Commission" who will judge your installation. Is there a loft/attic? From my experience in interconnecting computers, it often takes about 10 meters of wire to get from one side to the other side of the same small room!
[Pardon the US spellings.]
Thus if you find that wireless doesn't work for one or another of your machines, you could wire those directly to the router.
I wouldn't care to run wiring the 20 meters, especially if you are married to a "Fine Arts Commission" who will judge your installation. Is there a loft/attic? From my experience in interconnecting computers, it often takes about 10 meters of wire to get from one side to the other side of the same small room!
[Pardon the US spellings.]
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Us radio hams also take a dim view of wide-band "hash" radiating from a nearby house wiring. Makes "It are not raining also in Tokyo" very difficult to copy.
Tony H (RIP)
Tony H (RIP)
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Thread Starter
Thanks for all your help. I have purchased Belkins 802.11g modem and router, along with new WiFi cards for the second PC and Lappy.
I will not have BB until next week, so at the moment I'm afraid to try to set up the wireless network before the modem can work. (Don't know if it's a problem really, but a friend tells me that BT seem to lable everything with a threat of death if you connect an ADSL modem before they connect you)
As it looks as if I will need at least two phone sockets at the entry point (one for the modem, the other for the phone, would this be a good time to buy a combined filter/socket? I think they are called MDK face plates or something like that?)
Your's very confused, and nothings out of the box yet!
I will not have BB until next week, so at the moment I'm afraid to try to set up the wireless network before the modem can work. (Don't know if it's a problem really, but a friend tells me that BT seem to lable everything with a threat of death if you connect an ADSL modem before they connect you)
As it looks as if I will need at least two phone sockets at the entry point (one for the modem, the other for the phone, would this be a good time to buy a combined filter/socket? I think they are called MDK face plates or something like that?)
Your's very confused, and nothings out of the box yet!
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The external filter has two sockets on it, one for phone and the other for ADSL. You should have a filter on each socket, with a phone attached, in the house, although I ran the network at home with at least one of the ext sockets not having a filter and it seemed fine. Not sure if the filter is to protect the quality of the phone or the ADSL side. Probably a bit of both.
I did notice that if we also ran the PCs fax modem into the phone socket on the filter that the fax was a bit unhappy at times. Took a while to connect, send , receive etc. That would be a function of bandwidth limiting through the speech part of the filter.
Anyway, it's worth the wait
ST
I did notice that if we also ran the PCs fax modem into the phone socket on the filter that the fax was a bit unhappy at times. Took a while to connect, send , receive etc. That would be a function of bandwidth limiting through the speech part of the filter.
Anyway, it's worth the wait
ST
