I have ST&T powerline network adapters running at home. They were probably one my most intelligent techie purchase decisions. My home suffers from being an awkward shape - long, thin, internal brick walls. When I moved into the place I noticed my wireless network could not cope with the distance and walls, and I had no signal between ends of the house. Not very handy as my living room (SB2 and hifi) and study (where my main PC and slimserver are located) are at opposite ends.
I therefore purchased two powerline adapters (less than £70 each in 2003) and they were up and running in a couple of minutes. Each unit is sized about the same as a wireless hub (but without the antennae) and has one ethernet socket. They are simply transparant portals to your electric ring circuit. You do need a router to assign IP addresses to your computer devices, but no to the units. The units have a separate diagnostic utility to measure signal strength over your ring main. There is 56 bit Data Encryption with Key Management protection, in case someone plugs in another unit to the powerline network. However, it is effectively a sealed network as residential electricity wiring is closed to a single home via the consumer unit. Who else will be in your home, unauthorised, and trying to hack into your network from the inside? Not likely. Unless you're in a big student halls of residence that is... Ok, apart from that. As they don't rely on antennae to be strategically positioned to get maximum signal coverage you can stuff them in a cupboard out of site. The only limitation with my units is that they need to be plugged into a wall socket and not a surge protected extension cable. In case you were wondering, they are quiet - they don't buzz or hum etc. You can have up to 12 units connected across your home. They all use the same electricity wiring for signal transportation using IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.3U or HomePlug 1.0 standards. It doesn't matter which circuit they are connected on - they communicate via the common consumer unit in the home. My study and living room are on separate rings and they communicate just fine. The speed on my units are quite slow by today's standards - 14mbps (there is probably some transmission overhead in that gross figure), but it is reliable and doesn't suffer from noticable signal degradation like my wireless hub. This speed is fine for serving broadband throughout my home and for serving a SB2 and Slimpey concurrently in different rooms. I've taken a quick look on the internet and you get units today rated up to 85mbps for around £50 each. Excellent - I may have to upgrade! No doubt the speed ratings will improve yet further through time. I have a mix of wired, powerline and wireless G networking through my home. All works fine together. Cheers, John -- jhall_uk _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
