Phil Thompson wrote: > Ethernet over power does have emission issues which may cause conflict > with other users of radio spectrum. >
Do you have any references for this? I have once heard someone mention the radio issue but it was anecdotal and I never got much of substance. I'm interested because we sell Homeplugs (have done for years, anyone who's been to a meeting at our place will probably have seen them at some point), and we like to know the pitfalls of a product as well as the benefits. The 200Mbps plugs from Solwise (www.solwise.co.uk) are, in our view and backed up by some reviews, the best variant of the technology out there, although they do all talk to each other. (The Solwise plugs do better at achieving a decent throughput in less than perfect situations.) It's the Solwise ones we re-sell [*] for this reason. It's true you're unlikely to get 200Mbps throughput - you're unlikely to get 100Mbps through standard Ethernet or 54Mbps through wireless either. However our experience is that if you compare with wireless (which is the technology it competes against) the Homeplugs in their various forms are far better, and ideally suited to Linux and appliance use because they don't need drivers. They should work throughout the house (whether or not you have more than one ring), although the more obstacles you put in their place the more likely they'll fail (some surge protectors cause no problems, but many do). A typical street will be fed from a 3-phase mains supply, with the three phases feeding houses in turn A-B-C-A-B-C-etc. Homeplugs will not cross phases so in theory the people three doors down might be able to share your network (but the two in between will not); in practice the distances involved go beyond workable limits so your network will stay confined to your home. The communication is encrypted on the network, but homeplugs all ship with the same encryption key as standard (so you can plug a new one in and it'll work) so you need to use the supplied software to change the encryption key to keep your network secure if you worry about that. (Compare with wireless security and you'll see that homeplugs are far more secure out of the box because they're not transmitting over air, but I'd usually change the key.) Most of the software for changing the keys is Windows-only that I've seen, although newer homeplugs have a pushbutton on them to change the key randomly and synchronise with your other devices. If you do like wireless but find it to be troublesome, there are wireless homeplugs (ie get the network onto your mains and plug a wireless transmitter in in the room you want to use your laptop in, so the route from your router to the room is homeplug for reliability, and the wireless is just for convenience). [*] Just for the record, not only do we sell Solwise gear but we undercut them on price and in many cases you can collect from us in Peterborough, although we don't always carry stock as Solwise also ship direct for us. If this thread sparks an interest and several people want stuff in one batch we could probably get a good bulk price. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG _______________________________________________ Peterboro mailing list Peterboro@mailman.lug.org.uk https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/peterboro
