Homeplugs

Guest2 · 18 Nov 2009 at 10:40

How do they work? Yes i tried google and wiki and it delivered the usual technical stuff thats hard to understand or places selling homeplugs/adverts

Am i right in thinking they are sockets that you plug one into near your pc then a short ethernet wire to your network card and the other one into the mains near your router with another short ethernet cable. Then the signal is sent through the mains?

Do you need a specific router or could they be used with standard Sky/other company routers? No point in buying a new router if Sky has all the settings on their routers

Are they faster than running an ethernet cable from pc to router?

At around £70 for two plugs they seem stupidly expensive (plus the cost of a possible new router)

Id rather drill the walls/floor and install wires like a business building! Which begs the question...

Why dont businesses use homeplugs, say 1 plug per 4 computers? Instead of using many routers

PiKe · 18 Nov 2009 at 10:43

They are just convenient if you don't want to drill your walls or can't for whatever reason.

Newfie · 18 Nov 2009 at 11:14

Yes they do work. You need a LAN cable from your modem/router to one plug nearby, then a separate LAN cable from a plug to your onboard ethernet connection.
I use one (pair) to keep my bluray player connected to the internet, but when I have used it with one of the PCs the internet connection is slow

PiKe · 18 Nov 2009 at 11:15

Newfie said:
Yes they do work. You need a LAN cable from your modem/router to one plug nearby, then a separate LAN cable from a plug to your onboard ethernet connection.
I use one (pair) to keep my bluray player connected to the internet, but when I have used it with one of the PCs the internet connection is slow

It should at the very least be on par with 802.11b

Admiral Huddy · 18 Nov 2009 at 11:24

Guest2 said:
At around £70 for two plugs they seem stupidly expensive (plus the cost of a possible new router)

Id rather drill the walls/floor and install wires like a business building! Which begs the question...

Why dont businesses use homeplugs, say 1 plug per 4 computers? Instead of using many routers

You don't need a new router or anything special. They are great because you can use them anywhere. For example, I have full speed internet access to my workshop from house plus i can access to my machine as it's on the same network. No wiring or special drivers.. Just plug and go.

There is a down side though which partly answers your question. Why don't businesses use them. Security. The lines aren't necessarily bound to the home so theoretically, people next door could access your network. So some encryption is needed.

The other thing is that signal packets can be degraded though noise..like when the microwave is going or something.. Most won't work on a multi plug extensions.

paradigm · 18 Nov 2009 at 11:30

Guest2 said:
Why dont businesses use homeplugs, say 1 plug per 4 computers? Instead of using many routers

I really don't know how to answer this without sounding condescending, but...

The reason that businesses don't use "homeplugs" is because they are crap. You spend a fortune on running decent quality cabling, shielded where needs require, just to avoid packet loss, maintain full-duplex, full speed connections. You will NEVER achieve this running down the mains. You also have to take into account network segregation either by vlanning, subnetting, multicasting, etc etc etc, all of which require a decent level of kit, be they multiple routers or layer3 switch fabric.

Homeplugs are a solution to a problem that shouldn't exist.

PiKe · 18 Nov 2009 at 11:45

paradigm said:
Homeplugs are a solution to a problem that shouldn't exist.

You're not going to get Joe Bloggs digging up his garden to lay Cat5 so he can get internet in his shed though.

gord · 18 Nov 2009 at 12:02

paradigm said:
Homeplugs are a solution to a problem that shouldn't exist.

Not really. Running cables around your rented accommodation, or drilling holes in the walls is often not an option. They were great when I was at uni and wanted a stable connection to our router rather than the dodgy wireless signal.

I don't really see why that problem shouldnt exist..

Guest2 · 18 Nov 2009 at 12:10

The thing is my wireless is very stable. The only thing that doesnt work properly are games. Wire wireless i ping google.co.uk averaging something like 50 and with a wired connected around 30 or a bit less.

How could someone next door get access to your connection if using a homeplug? Simply by buying a homeplug and connecting it to their computer? I didnt know houses shared the same electric circuits through mains

paradigm · 18 Nov 2009 at 12:11

PiKe said:
You're not going to get Joe Bloggs digging up his garden to lay Cat5 so he can get internet in his shed though.

Why? If he is laying mains to it, why not lay Cat5e at the same time?

gord said:
I don't really see why that problem shouldnt exist..

Because all (new) buildings should be wired during build IMO. I'm not saying that the problem doesn't exist, only that it shouldn't.

PiKe · 18 Nov 2009 at 12:12

Guest2 said:
The thing is my wireless is very stable. The only thing that doesnt work properly are games. Wire wireless i ping google.co.uk averaging something like 50 and with a wired connected around 30 or a bit less.

How could someone next door get access to your connection if using a homeplug? Simply by buying a homeplug and connecting it to their computer? I didnt know houses shared the same electric circuits through mains

The electricity meter if meant to prevent leakage but encryption (in the same way as it does with wireless) prevents just anyone connecting to it.

Also your wireless is pretty rubbish if it's adding 20ms to your pings, should be 2 or 3ms at most, what wireless card do you have?

Guest2 · 18 Nov 2009 at 14:03

paradigm - you answered you own question, at time of building the shed, mains was probably wired to it. If someone wants the net they dont really want to go wiring it up again

Pike - I have a wireless USB dongle thing. Netgear WG111

PiKe · 18 Nov 2009 at 14:14

Guest2 said:
paradigm - you answered you own question, at time of building the shed, mains was probably wired to it. If someone wants the net they dont really want to go wiring it up again

Pike - I have a wireless USB dongle thing. Netgear WG111

No wonder it's bad then, get a PCI based wireless card.

Guest2 · 18 Nov 2009 at 14:19

PiKe said:
No wonder it's bad then, get a PCI based wireless card.

My housemate has one, edimax or something and it drops the connection all the time. The aerial on the back is huge too

I have no problems with connection dropping or downloading problems. I can leave it chugging away at rapidshare downloads all day at 1.8mbps with issues. Just the ping is worse than wired.

PiKe · 18 Nov 2009 at 14:26

Guest2 said:
My housemate has one, edimax or something and it drops the connection all the time. The aerial on the back is huge too

I have no problems with connection dropping or downloading problems. I can leave it chugging away at rapidshare downloads all day at 1.8mbps with issues. Just the ping is worse than wired.

Edimax is a complete unknown make that's probably why.

Either get a decent, known brand PCI card, or don't, it's up to you.

Admiral Huddy · 18 Nov 2009 at 14:29

I've never had any problems with homeplugs (apart from one which I dropped). For a simple home network they are fine but anything else then phsyical cabling is more reliable and robust.

Guest2 · 18 Nov 2009 at 14:30

PiKe said:
Edimax is a complete unknown make that's probably why.

Either get a decent, known brand PCI card, or don't, it's up to you.

I thought it was too, but a couple of minutes ago looked 2 threads down from this one and saw...

'Edimax rangfe extender & Virgin broadband '

Daegan · 18 Nov 2009 at 14:42

PiKe said:
Edimax is a complete unknown make that's probably why.

Either get a decent, known brand PCI card, or don't, it's up to you.

Netgear, Linksys, D-Link, Belkin, all have their issues, mostly around crap software and driver support. Not sure there's such a thing as a decent, well known consumer brand.

Guest2 · 18 Nov 2009 at 14:46

Daegan said:
Netgear, Linksys, D-Link, Belkin, all have their issues, mostly around crap software and driver support. Not sure there's such a thing as a decent, well known consumer brand.

Netgear has always been pretty solid for me. Though i have only ever used windows XP (and pre xp)

paradigm · 18 Nov 2009 at 14:49

Daegan said:
Netgear, Linksys, D-Link, Belkin, all have their issues, mostly around crap software and driver support. Not sure there's such a thing as a decent, well known consumer brand.

Spot on. Hence why all my core networking equipment is Cisco (not Linksys branded either), and all my network adapters are Intel PRO/1000 workstation or server cards.