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5 Powerline Networking Devices Reviewed
An anonymous reader writes "Most people who can't or won't hardwire for broadband have an obvious alternative: Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, there can be architectural anomalies between floors or even between rooms that can interfere with Wi-Fi signals, resulting in spotty, or even dead, signals. So what do you do? Well, you can try using a powerline device. Computerworld reviewer Bill O'Brien tests powerline units from Belkin, D-Link, Linksys, Netgear and Zyxel, and compares their performance to that of his wired and wireless setups."
I have a Linksys PLK200 set connecting my living room to my basement router and over that I:
Stream HD movies from Netflix
Stream tons of other content from my media server
Play online games over Xbox Live
Surf the internets
All without a problem. But then again I also use a wireless mouse and an LCD monitor to play first person shooters...
I've also noticed no problems due to microwaves or the dishwasher.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
I don't even worry about encryption. WiFi range isn't 10 acres with the standard antennas
Fixed that for you. You might want to rethink your policy about not encrypting your connection because you are out in the middle of nowhere.
I used to work for a WISP. One day I was out in the field doing tests with a 24db directional antenna. My laptop automatically associated to my home network before I could direct it to connect to the network I was trying to troubleshoot. My house was a little over a mile away and the AP at home had the standard issue dipole antennas on it. Had enough signal strength to surf the web at full speed and transfer files off my server.
Moral of the story: Don't underestimate what someone can do with a high gain antenna. Encrypt your network or don't come crying to us when the Feds kick down your door after someone uses your network to download kiddie porn, pirate software or threaten to kill the President.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
What kind of small office wouldn't be able to run a piece of CAT5?
One in an historic ('listed' in the UK) building where any form of drilling through walls or fixing cables to the structure is not permitted - at least not without a craplaod of inspections and paperwork.
Like my parents' 18th Century cottage.
AT&ROFLMAO
Since the "ground", the third wire, the bare or green wire, properly known as the "grounding" conductor, is, at radio frequencies, somewhat separated from the "neutral", the white wire, properly known in a 120 Volt circuit as the "grounded" wire (it and the "grounding" wire are tied together at the meter base only)(it's only the "neutral" in a 240 volt circuit where you have 2 "hot" wires 240 volts apart and each 120 volts away from the neutral), you should be able to insert a radio frequency signal between the "ground" and the "neutral" and have the "neutral" act as antenna, which would solve the "are you on the same leg or not" problem, since the "neutral" is common to both 120 Volt sides.
Don't know how Underwriters Lab and the National Electrical Code folks would feel about it, though, or whether it might "confuse" Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters.
Anyway, I hope it works better than those NICs that used (or tried to) the telephone wiring--Home Phone Network Alliance, or something like that.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Can't we wait till the interference issues with radio communication are sorted out? See The ARRL site on this issue.