network through the electrical system?

[nick]

MY current wireless set up is at the limit of its range and keeps dropping connection (especially at night when, I think, there is interference from neighbouring wireless networks).

Does anyone know any thing about these things ? - which seem to allow you to run the network through your home electrical system.
Sounds like a good idea, but I would appreciate comment from anyone with knowledgte of this as I have a sneaking suspicion that it could just be a case of pouring good money after bad.
cheers

 

[Bob_the_lost]

They can work, but i wouldn't myself.

Another WAP perhaps?

 

[Crispy]

I looked into theme a while back. Reviews are all positive as far as I could tell.

 

[souljacker]

MY current wireless set up is at the limit of its range and keeps dropping connection (especially at night when, I think, there is interference from neighbouring wireless networks).

Does anyone know any thing about these things ? - which seem to allow you to run the network through your home electrical system.
Sounds like a good idea, but I would appreciate comment from anyone with knowledgte of this as I have a sneaking suspicion that it could just be a case of pouring good money after bad.
cheers

From what I've read, they work a treat. Very popular in the US apparently.

 

[dlx1]

network through your home electrical system

that was on the Gatget show last seres.

see jasonbradbury.com site hes a Presenter or five.tv/thegadgetshow

 

[dervish]

They look great, and much cheaper than I expected.

Anyone actually got one?

 

[chio]

Don't do it!

This internet-via-the-mains thing has already been banned in several countries due to the horrendous interference it causes to radio signals in the medium and short wave bands; in areas where it's in use, those bands are almost unusable.

By buying into this, you'll be helping to destroy the hobby of amateur radio, as well as cut off one of the few truly free means of communication across the world.

 

[Dask]

Got a link a regarding the interference mains ethernet causes the radio frequencies?

Am potentially interested in using it but would like to know more about it.

 

[jæd]

MY current wireless set up is at the limit of its range and keeps dropping connection (especially at night when, I think, there is interference from neighbouring wireless networks).

Have you looked into which possible networks might be interfering and tried to change the channel you are using to avoid them. Or get another access point or a repeater...

 

[Crispy]

Don't do it!

This internet-via-the-mains thing has already been banned in several countries due to the horrendous interference it causes to radio signals in the medium and short wave bands; in areas where it's in use, those bands are almost unusable.

By buying into this, you'll be helping to destroy the hobby of amateur radio, as well as cut off one of the few truly free means of communication across the world.

You have your technologies confused. The OP is talking about home netwroking devices that you plug into the 13amp socket in your wall. The interference you talk of comes from trying to run complete internet connections around the country on high-voltage transmission lines. Similar tech - vastly different scales. The version in your home is fine - it's passed all the relevant tests.

 

[chio]

You have your technologies confused. The OP is talking about home netwroking devices that you plug into the 13amp socket in your wall. The interference you talk of comes from trying to run complete internet connections around the country on high-voltage transmission lines. Similar tech - vastly different scales. The version in your home is fine - it's passed all the relevant tests.

I still wouldn't want to live next door to someone with one of these devices - I value my radio reception!

What's wrong with just doing what jaed said; getting a repeater or even a better aerial for the existing network?

 

[nick]

Have you looked into which possible networks might be interfering and tried to change the channel you are using to avoid them. Or get another access point or a repeater...

Yeah - messed with that for a while, but made no difference.

to be honest, I've found wireless to be a bit flakey and have already spend a fair amount on access points (I needed one hard wired into the router to from a bridge to the next one downstairs) , and it is still less than perfect. what I really want is the convenience of cabling without the hassle of laying it neatly throughout the house.

If I can use the house mains circuits to give a hard connection between acess points at far ends of the house (perhaps with another hard link into the back of the Xbox ), before terminating in a wireless thingy in relevant rooms so that I can "roam" with a laptop - then I'll be a happy bunny.

problem is that, I still haven't got any feedback from anyone that has actually tried to use this - the gap between how good things are in theory and the actual "first generation" is often a little too large for comfort - certainkly if the hassles I had with 54g are any indication.

Keep the comments and advice coming though - much appreciated
nick

 

[jæd]

Yeah - messed with that for a while, but made no difference.

to be honest, I've found wireless to be a bit flakey and have already spend a fair amount on access points (I needed one hard wired into the router to from a bridge to the next one downstairs) , and it is still less than perfect. what I really want is the convenience of cabling without the hassle of laying it neatly throughout the house.

What kind of size of house are you trying to get the wireless to work in...? If truely is too large for wireless and repeaters then why don't you get a pro to look at it...?

Wireless is "flakey"...? Um... Nope... Only if it is set up wrongly. What have you tried and what problems have occurred...?

 

[Radar]

Wireless can have problems with particular building materials, especially 802.11a which uses 5 GHz, 802.11b/g are both 2.4Ghz and have better penetration characteristics than 11a. Luckily 11a is almost never used for home networking.

I'm with Jaed on the flakey aspect of Wifi. If it's surveyed and installed correctly, you should have a totally stable network.

Those homeplug devices look interesting for a quick and dirty workaround. I'd only seen analogue modem extenders for phone lines, before, these are the first high bandwidth versions I've come across. However you might have problems if you're in a block of flats and others are already using such devices. You might find there's sod all bandwidth available, especially if they start conflicting with each other

Buy a spool of cat 5 and get crimping. You know it makes sense

(The last place I worked at, one of the head traders had his whole belgravia apartment floodwired, with a 48 port 10/100 switch under the stairs. I installed WiFi with multiple Orinoco APs and he could could wander the whole apartment streaming audio without a glitch or skip. Only the balcony had problems, and I think that was due to a combination of the wrought iron work and italian marble cladding on the flat )

He had better network coverage in his house than many corporates, but then he could afford to throw money and people at getting it all working

The rest of us mere mortals can have problems

 

[Crispy]

Buy a spool of cat 5 and get crimping. You know it makes sense

Without a doubt In an old shared house of mine (before wifi) we managed to convince a friend of ours in IT to bring all his kit round. Proper breakout boxes in every room and a switch under the stairs. Felt all professional (and was actually a better job than the networking where I currently work

 

[Pingu]

my home set up would make most SMEs weep.


i know of someone who uses the network though home power cables very effectively but from a wireless POV :

have a look at the linksys srx kit or invest in a more "industrial" ap like a ciso areonet box. therese both have far better coverage than a standard .g network

wireless b is 54 meg but has much pooerer penetration than wireless g... but suffers less from interferance. Microwave ovens and freezers are particularly bad for interfering with wireless g.

 

[tom k&e]

Without a doubt In an old shared house of mine (before wifi) we managed to convince a friend of ours in IT to bring all his kit round. Proper breakout boxes in every room and a switch under the stairs. Felt all professional (and was actually a better job than the networking where I currently work

Still have a proper wired network here, none of that pansy wireless shite. 100mbps, 100% uptime

 

[Radar]

wireless b is 54 meg but has much pooerer penetration than wireless g... but suffers less from interferance. Microwave ovens and freezers are particularly bad for interfering with wireless g.

Pingu, I think you mean 802.11a, not b (Bloody alphabet city)

Both b & g share similar charactistics as they use the same 2.4 GHz frequency band, a uses the 5 GHz band, which suffers less interference from bluetooth/b/g. Also any use of 11b will force 11g to step back to a compatability mode, buggering your 54 or 108 Meg connection (if you use that bonded version)

The aeronet kit is indeed the dogs, you can even install IOS on it and you'd swear you were on a modern mid range cisco router If you have them sitting on certain switch ports, then you can use the unused strands in cat5 to even run power to it Fantastic if you're sticking one somewhere out of the way with no convenient power point.

 

[scott_forester]

MY current wireless set up is at the limit of its range and keeps dropping connection (especially at night when, I think, there is interference from neighbouring wireless networks).

Does anyone know any thing about these things ? - which seem to allow you to run the network through your home electrical system.
Sounds like a good idea, but I would appreciate comment from anyone with knowledgte of this as I have a sneaking suspicion that it could just be a case of pouring good money after bad.
cheers

About 15 odd years ago I used this type of technology to install a system that synchronised British Rails platform clocks around Ascot. It’s been around for ages.

 

[Iam]

Still have a proper wired network here, none of that pansy wireless shite. 100mbps, 100% uptime

I've got both. Same uptime.

 

[nick]

What kind of size of house are you trying to get the wireless to work in...? If truely is too large for wireless and repeaters then why don't you get a pro to look at it...?

It needs to get across 3 storeys of an 1890s terraced house.
Yes - I probably ought to get a pro to look (I know Belkin do a set up set up service now). TBH I want to learn about this as a kind of semi hobby/interest and would like to get it sorted though I don't have the time to spend ages doing it in detail.

As for setting it up wrongly - you're absolutely right. I managed to get WEP encryption set up, but then had to do a firmware update on the router and had to start again. Have been unable to network the WIN 98 PC (cabled to the router) to the WIN XP laptop that is on wireless. Tried to install XP on the PC, but it took about 2 hours and then told me that I didn't have hard disk and something about RAID - so gave up there. I now have an exta access poin, bu haven't had time to take it out of the box yet

Cabling would probably make sense, but I am about as useful with my hands as Stephen Hawkins and know that if I started lifting carpets etc my house would look like a bomb site for about 6 months and the wife and kids would pobably leave me.

 

[Pingu]

Pingu, I think you mean 802.11a, not b (Bloody alphabet city)

Both b & g share similar charactistics as they use the same 2.4 GHz frequency band, a uses the 5 GHz band, which suffers less interference from bluetooth/b/g. Also any use of 11b will force 11g to step back to a compatability mode, buggering your 54 or 108 Meg connection (if you use that bonded version)

The aeronet kit is indeed the dogs, you can even install IOS on it and you'd swear you were on a modern mid range cisco router If you have them sitting on certain switch ports, then you can use the unused strands in cat5 to even run power to it Fantastic if you're sticking one somewhere out of the way with no convenient power point.

nope meant b erm a... no c... erm... yeah wot u said

three main standards#

a802.11a An IEEE wireless networking standard that specifies a maximum data transfer rate of 54Mbps and an operating frequency of 5GHz.

802.11b An IEEE wireless networking standard that specifies a maximum data transfer rate of 11Mbps and an operating frequency of 2.4GHz.

802.11g An IEEE wireless networking standard that specifies a maximum data transfer rate of 54Mbps, an operating frequency of 2.4GHz, and backward compatibility with 802.11b devices.

a is less prone to interferance but doenst have the same range as g\b

 

[nick]

Ok - I've bitten the bullet and ordered it - we'll see if it's as straight forward as advertised. I'll post back if and when it is up and running

n

 

[jæd]

Ok - I've bitten the bullet and ordered it - we'll see if it's as straight forward as advertised. I'll post back if and when it is up and running

Still not sure why you're doing this rather than a professional installation with proven technology. Will be interesting to see what happens, though...

 

[nick]

Still not sure why you're doing this rather than a professional installation with proven technology. Will be interesting to see what happens, though...

to see if I can do it and out of interest I guess. also a bit of bloody mindedness - I've started so I shall finish and getting in someone who knows what they are doing would be a form of emasculation

However, oUt of curiosity, any idea how much someone would be likely to charge to set it all up? (broadband wireless router, hard wired to PC, couple of access points to bridge across the distance, plus some sort of hard wiring from one of the access points to an Xbox. A laptop picking up the wireless. all with WEP etc)

 

[jæd]

to see if I can do it and out of interest I guess. also a bit of bloody mindedness - I've started so I shall finish and getting in someone who knows what they are doing would be a form of emasculation

However, oUt of curiosity, any idea how much someone would be likely to charge to set it all up? (broadband wireless router, hard wired to PC, couple of access points to bridge across the distance, plus some sort of hard wiring from one of the access points to an Xbox. A laptop picking up the wireless. all with WEP etc)

I would guess at about £200 - £300 inclusive of boxes... But if you take your time and do it properly it would only cost you your time. If I were doing this I would research it carefully, make sure all the bits were from one vendor. And then spend a weekend getting it fixed up perfectly.

I'd also ditch the Windows 98 pc. Why anyone would want to still have *that* around...?

 

[nick]

Ta - I'll call the pros in when/if I hit a brick wall.

Win 98 PC because when I tried to install XP it almost completed and then decided it couldn't see the HDD - all in a good few hours to get nowhere. If I suddenly have some spare time (lose my job or the family leave me perhaps ) - I'd quite like to stick Linux on it just to see what happens (I have a copy of knoppix but haven't got round to doing more than running it once for 10 minutes to see what it looked like)

 

[nick]

bought it a couple of weeks ago and finally got round to plugging it in tonight. the whole process took about 3 minutes - result. i have now attached an access point to one end of the new network gubbins and am able to post this wirelessly from my ipaq whilst sitting on the sofa as mrs nick watches olymopic figure skating.

connclusion - recommended. next task is connecting to xbox live

 

[nick]

and the next task is to learn how to type on a pda

 

[jæd]

bought it a couple of weeks ago and finally got round to plugging it in tonight. the whole process took about 3 minutes - result. i have now attached an access point to one end of the new network gubbins and am able to post this wirelessly from my ipaq whilst sitting on the sofa as mrs nick watches olymopic figure skating.

connclusion - recommended. next task is connecting to xbox live

Does it interfere with mobiles or wireless...? How much did it cost...?