Powerline networking

[boosteddsm92]

I've used these before and they work great on outlets fed from a single panel. Is there any reason why they wouldn't traverse panels ok? I want to plug one in somewhere in the house and the other in the garage (which has it's own panel that's fed from the house). Please don't tell me to just use wireless, I'd much rather use powerline if possible. Thanks for any/all input!

 

[Charles (in GA)]

I would think that so long as its plugged into the same side of the bus on each panel (making it directly connected) it would work fine.

Charles

 

[OccupantRJ]

If it works like the power line intercoms I once had, it may work as long as it's all on one connection of the power line transformer. Once the signal reaches a transformer, it may kill it. I had problems with my intercom when I had battery chargers plugged into the shop on the same circuit. Took me a while to figure out the cause.

 

[boosteddsm92]

I should have said I have a dedicated outlet under the panel in the garage on it's own breaker that I'd plug one of them into...

 

[ForceFed70]

If both outlets are on the same phase, I can't see why it wouldn't work.

 

[Bender78]

I currently have this set up in my garage and I'm not happy with it. It makes for a pretty slow connection. I'm planning to run a cable when I get some time.

 

[boosteddsm92]

Hmm, ok, maybe I will think about running a cable. I wanted to do it at the same time we were burying the power line but of course cat5 or 6 wouldn't have worked next to the power. Looking back I wish I laid some fiber down w/the power. Guess it's time to run a couple cat5's! Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

[eastbaysubaru]

As a former computer consultant who ran a ton of Cat5 as well as used the powerline adapters in certain situations, I would highly recommend running a Cat5/6 cable if that's an option, even if it's a difficult run. Powerline adapters should only be used if pulling a cable is an impossibility. They work, but they're certainly slower and more prone to failure/connectivity loss than a Cat5.

-Brian

 

[Provincial]

Hmm, ok, maybe I will think about running a cable. I wanted to do it at the same time we were burying the power line but of course cat5 or 6 wouldn't have worked next to the power. Looking back I wish I laid some fiber down w/the power. Guess it's time to run a couple cat5's! Thanks for the feedback guys.

Always run a at least one piece of conduit in the ditch while you have it open. Most communication wiring is OK when it is separated from the power lines by 24", and shielded wire can be much closer. The separaton can be horizontal or vertical, or even diagonal. If you bury the power deeper than the legal minium, there is room for the communication line above it.

The beauty of conduit is that if you use a large enough size you can pull an upgraded type of wire or optical later to keep you up to date. PVC conduit is pretty cheap - cheaper than PVC water line.

 

[ddawg16]

If you understood about how signals propagate down wire....you would understand why it's never going to work for anything high speed.

High speed signals do not travel well down a pair of wires that are parallel to each other. If you start measuring the impeadance (resistance) of wire, Romex or any variation there of is about as bad as you can get. Yes, it will work....but the distance is pretty short.

If you look at a CAT5 or CAT6 cable you will notice that the wires are twisted. This twisting is what reduces the impeadance....think of the left hand rule for AC....the twisting basically puts the wires at 90 deg to each other with eliminates the mutual inductance....

I better stop now before I get carried away.....

Run Cat 5 or Cat 6 cable or go wireless....

Side note...I never have been a fan of something that is plugged into a 120Vac source.....imagine the potential for damage if the isolation transformer shorts out....

 

[KenB]

I'm in the IT business and I agree that running a Cat 5 cable is best for maximum performance and security if you can do it. However, I should also say that I just installed a pair of these 500 mbps units between my house and garage, since running a cable just wasn't feasible.

I'm very pleased with the performance when accessing the internet from the garage.

Ken

 

[NitroPress]

Slow and (in my experience) prone to fairly frequent faults requiring reset on both ends. Not really a working solution as much as a temporary setup.

 

[ForceFed70]

If you understood about how signals propagate down wire....you would understand why it's never going to work for anything high speed.

High speed signals do not travel well down a pair of wires that are parallel to each other. If you start measuring the impeadance (resistance) of wire, Romex or any variation there of is about as bad as you can get. Yes, it will work....but the distance is pretty short.

If you look at a CAT5 or CAT6 cable you will notice that the wires are twisted. This twisting is what reduces the impeadance....think of the left hand rule for AC....the twisting basically puts the wires at 90 deg to each other with eliminates the mutual inductance....

Are you sure you really know what you are talking about here? If you truely understood high speed signals you'd understand why impedance is important and what effect twisting the conductors actually has.

The twists are there solely for noise cancelling and protection against electormagnetic interferance. Impedance is a consideration when designing the equipment but has nothing to do with twisted vs untwisted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twisted_pair

While I do agree that a CAT5/6 solution is the best option. It's not practicle for a lot of people and I do think that powerline networking is just as good if not better than wireless.

 

[Gary S]

I've been messing with computers just about forever. I got my hands on my first one back in 1969. Wired networking is very easy to do, and it is pretty much 100% reliable once you put the wiring in place.
I bought my current house 8 years ago. It had no computer wiring in place, so I spent part of a day wiring up every room I thought I might ever want to have wired. I even ran an underground Cat 5 to my detatched garage. Now, everything works.
I agree with the others here. Take the time to do it right, and you have to do it only once. Wired ethernet still works better than any substitute.