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Linksys Incorporates HomePlug Networking

Posted by Hemos on from the cool-new-tech dept.

mattyohe writes "It seems that Linksys is one of the first to prepare release for their ethernet router that uses the HomePlug 1.0 spec. Linksys claims the Instant Powerline EtherFast Router performs well by using the OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) scheme. OFDM forms numerous signals into a single signal for transmission and then is used again to find and automatically adapt to the specific frequency combination that enables successful communication. This product currently uses 56 bit DES encryption and would be excellent for networking in the home enviroment. Never worry about not having enough rj-45 jacks at a lan party, bring some power strips!"

2 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. Latency? by iconian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From Linksys's page (http://www.linksys.com/edu/part6.asp):

    "Q. Will there be problems if I turn on or plug in devices like a power drill or hair dryer?
    A. No. If the powerline characteristics change during a session, the Instant PowerLine products will sense the change and automatically adapt to provide the most reliable data path connection."

    Will this "automatic adaption" interrupt data transmission? How would this affect latency?

    Imagine people complaining about getting fragged by a hair dryer.

  2. Home networking at this level? No thanks. by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Between this story and the one about setting up a dedicated server room at home, I'm thinking of tossing my PC completely and buying a used Atari 800. Well, not seriously, but it crosses my mind occasionally.

    The amount of system administration required to run a PC home takes much of the fun out of computing for me. I'm a programmer and a technical kind of guy, but I really don't want to to be a sysadmin as a hobby. It's bad enough chasing down video card drivers and keeping track of all the related software incompatibilities--and having to upgrade everything every 18 months or so, even when I don't need it, as a brute force method of reducing conflicts--but having to deal with running servers and such at home is crazy. Sure, sure, the people who love recompiling kernels and running video card benchmarks and so on might not mind, but that's what those people _want_ out of a computer. Not everyone is like that.