http://www.strangeparty.com/2009/09/30/powerline-networking/ A blog about life, linux and photography Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:36:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.strangeparty.com/2009/09/30/powerline-networking/comment-page-1/#comment-9390 Richard Appleby Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:28:59 +0000 http://www.strangeparty.com/?p=568#comment-9390 I have some very early (2mbps) powerline kit, and I agree that it does work very well, up to a point. However, as soon as you start networking across mains circuits, going back through the consumer unit, the performance drops badly. It's all to do with reflections from the connections in the mains wiring, and sadly the majority of mains wiring has a lot of connections - usually every plug and switch, as well as all the connection boxes that you can't see hidden away in the voids. Also, the signals are not supposed to be able to traverse your meter, so your encryption is (in theory!) only needed if someone can tap into "your" side of your electricity meter. Of course, since its there, and trivial to set up, you may as well use it :) I have some very early (2mbps) powerline kit, and I agree that it does work very well, up to a point. However, as soon as you start networking across mains circuits, going back through the consumer unit, the performance drops badly. It’s all to do with reflections from the connections in the mains wiring, and sadly the majority of mains wiring has a lot of connections – usually every plug and switch, as well as all the connection boxes that you can’t see hidden away in the voids.
Also, the signals are not supposed to be able to traverse your meter, so your encryption is (in theory!) only needed if someone can tap into “your” side of your electricity meter. Of course, since its there, and trivial to set up, you may as well use it

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