IOGEAR Homeplug Networking Reviewed

Chris Allen writes "Wired or wireless? This is always just about the first thing anyone thinks of when planning their new home/soho office. It always comes down to price/performance/practicality, in whichever order you feel is more important. Sometimes it just isn't possible to run CAT5, for a variety of reasons. The only options available for the average consumer is wireless, HomePNA, which uses your existing telephone network in your house, and HomePlug, using your existing power grid. HomePNA has been around for around 3 years or so, and has matured some, starting out transmitting at dismal speeds and lackluster reliability in regards to interference. HomePlug is short for HomePlug® Powerline Alliance."

Comments

First Plug!

[t0qer]

Gee first comment, and it wont be off or on topic, just an interesting side note...

Anyways there's an interesting side note to the history of the ricochet modem. It's parent company developed and deployed a network over powerline technology for some LA based power company years ago. Too bad they went bankrupt otherwise i'd have a link.

Don't be confused by speed specs

[lseltzer]

On an ongoing basis you can expect maybe 5-8Mbps from HomePlug. The newer HomePNA hardware is faster (steady 10Mbps) and works well. If you're basically using it to share an Internet connection, both are fine of course.

Also, make sure to set the password on your HomePlug hardware or everone on your street up to the transformer is on your LAN.

Re:Don't be confused by speed specs

[Dark Lord Seth]

Interesting suggestion though, add a couple of file and game servers on it, get some decent neighbohrs and you can have your own cheap and bloody fast LAN for some heavy duty trading and file swapping. Every puts down 100 bucks for equipment and a bunch of computers to act as servers... Sounds nice and definetely cheaper and more reliable then wireless, because radio transmissions are always susceptable to atmospheric distortions and shitty security. I don't think anyone is stupid enough to tap into my power mains just to sniff my packets.

Will it work as good?

[Drakonite]

I used to have one of those home intecom sets that works by transferring over the electrical wires... It sounded terrible and barely worked.

Will this work as good? ;)

How about power spikes? I live in a neighborhood that is on the top end of what voltages are tolerable, so the quick, small, and frequent power spikes are more noticable and damaging and burn up lightbulbs frequently. If I were using this wouldn't I have to worry about it burning up the modem every couple of months?

I assume putting it behind some sort of surge supressor to protect it from the spikes would ruin it's ability to communite on the power lines.

Wired...

[MosesJones]

Most people are going to go for Wireless, its simpler to install, you can move around, don't need new sockets for new devices, and every network should have a wireless element in it.

BUT if you are connecting key elements together, like a primary desktop, a server or even just the major working at home point (in front of the TV with the laptop on my lap) then wired rules the world. Why ? Well apart from being able to transfer things around the network quicker, no drop in quality if the next door neighbour sets up their own wireless LAN with the packet clash party that can grow into. There is one bigger advantage to wires (no not security as you do need wireless to work in the garden).

Wires are maintainance free, they won't require upgrading as broadband gets broader. Legacy kit comes with the connections built in.

Wires for infrastructure and key sections. Wireless for roaming.

Home* not entirely wireless, not as flexible.

[Duds]

Which the two "home" brand solutions do stop you needing wires all through the building, it's worth noting that you do have to have another wire going to a power socket or a local phone socket.

There's only phone sockets downstairs at my place, so HomePNA might as well be a slow CAT5. HomePlug would be more useful but how well does that work when plugged into a couple of extension cables and a 10-way multiplug? Would this affect speed or stop it entirely?

Incidentally in my case it is just for internet connection sharing so I use as cheap an 802.11 as worked.

Re:Home* not entirely wireless, not as flexible.

[DaChesserCat]

ExtremeTech did a review of the power-line networking tech back in April 2002; they have some comparisons of its performance relative to other networking technologies; the article in question can be found here. As it stands, the powerline networking was pretty slow; even 802.11b outperformed it.

Does anyone know of any other, more recent network tech shootouts? This was the most recent I could find for powerline. Extremetech has also done some testing on Bluetooth, for anyone who is interested in how it performs.

Alternatives to using your phone wiring...

[altgrr]

...just use the old TV aerial wiring.

We got cable a couple of years ago, which left all our old TV aerial wiring totally unused. This was great, because we needed a network cable running from a room downstairs with a TV aerial socket to a room upstairs. I found the other end of the aerial cable, poked a hole through the loft, and brought the cable down. Then it was just a matter of putting a BNC end on that cable, and changing the wall socket downstairs to a BNC socket. Hey presto - a nice, simple solution using existing wiring and technology! Who'd have thought it?

Not the best solution

[wowbagger]

The characteristic impedance of TV co-ax is 75 ohms. Thinnet Ethernet cable is 50 ohms, as is the impedance of an Ethernet card. This will cause a VSWR mismatch.

You are getting a reflected signal off each network card in the system. As you describe it, you have a simple point-to-point link, so your reflections are "only" bouncing from one card to another. This will cause errors in the system.

I would suggest that you get REAL network cable (preferably CAT-5), tie it onto the existing cable, and pull it through. You will then be able to run 100Mbit, you won't have the reflection problem, and I think you will be much happier overall.

(actually, I would suggest that you go to the local hardware store, and while you are picking up the CAT5, pick up a spool of nylon cordage. Strip the end of the coax, and securely tie the cordage to the shield of the coax. Then smoothly tape it over with electrician's tape, starting on the coax jacket and with a 1/3 overlap moving to the cordage. When you reach the cordage, wind one extra pass, then cut the tape and UNWIND and REWIND that last wrap with no tension on the tape. Then pull the cordage through. Once it is through, then tie the CAT5 to the cordage and tape as you did the coax. Then pull BOTH the CAT5 and a new run of cordage. Leave the cordage in place - it will save you grief later if you need to pull an additional cable.)

Re:Not the best solution

[macemoneta]

A balun (small inline impedance matching transformer) will take care of the problem. We used to use them all the time when we were running 3270 terminals over twisted pair.

You can use prebuilt units, like these, or build your own.

Over short distances, the signal loss wont be significant -- heck, it's working with the mismatch! :-)

HomePNA == Localtalk

[lordpixel]

Picture the scene, its the mid-80s. Apple engineers want a way to network their dinky 9" screen toaster macs. All they have is a serial port, and almost no one has heard of Ethernet.

More importantly, the wife (landlord or whoever) is not going to stand for rewiring the house with some computer nonsense.

Solution: AppleTalk networking over LocalTalk cabling. ie, use the existing phone sockets and cabling to send data. By modern standards it crawls, but it works well and is still in use today (by some unfortunate souls).

Almost 20 years later you have HomePNA. There aren't many new ideas in this world.