Powerline networking

[mirod]

Jonathan Peterson wrote:
> I confess that I sort of forgot about the whole 'network over power 
> cables' thing until I needed network access in series of buildings with 
> metre thick granite walls. And concrete ceilings.
> 
> Does anyone know if powerline adaptors (things that turn your socket ring 
> into something like a LAN) "just work" or require multiple faffing 
> sessions? The actual requirement is to network the various converted 
> outbuildings of an old farm. My guess is that these things turn the copper 
> cables into a kind of giant unswitched 10-base-2 type network. My hunch is 
> that the network is shared across every building on the same loop from the 
> nearest transformer - I don't see how the signal would get through a 
> transformer, and I don't see why anything else would stop it. This is 
> fine, as the devices appear to have some kind of security layer that 
> prevents neighbours reading your network traffic.
> 
> Has anyone used this stuff? 

I use it to get to the basement, where the wifi doesn't reach. It just works.

You just have to make sure that you plug the adaptor straight into the socket, 
or in a plain extension cord. I found that any kind of power surge protection 
will break the transmission.

The model I have seems to allow some kind of password protection for your 
network, as well as defining several networks, but I haven't tried it (the 
software is Windows-only). I used it as a plain ethernet wire.

-- 
mirod