Networking - the third way
Can you
name three types of networking technology
for making available - anywhere in your home - an internet connection
and PC-based
digital media?
Having listed wireless and wired Ethernet, you
might come up short
even if you're a networking veteran. But there is a third way and, as
our review shows, it could be a far better option for many
people,
irrespective
of what operating system they're using.
In the ideal digital home, there would be an Ethernet networking port
close
to every mains-power socket - the better to have fast internet
connectivity in every room and enjoy streaming digital video, music and
stills on
TV or through an AV system while on the settee or in
bed or in the kitchen. Trouble is, few of
us
live in such a home and even newly-built houses aren't necessarily
wired for networking.
So, if we want around-the-home networking and digital media (or even
networking between PCs in a couple
of rooms), we typically do one of two
things.
We might go to the bother of drilling holes through
walls and ceilings and running a mess of Cat-5 cabling all over the
place - and mess is the operative word. Or we might think
that's just too much hassle (or too costly if it's to be
carried out by pros) and decide to put up with the vagaries of
radio-frequency wireless networking. Perhaps more accurately,
we'd decide on buying WiFi gear and only then realise the trouble we'd
let ourselves in for!
WiFi can be a swine to set up and won't necessarily work
around large homes, especially those with thick brick
walls. And, all too often, home WiFi networks are
not set up securely. It's not uncommon to be so
relieved to have finally got WiFi working that we give up on the
security aspects that probably caused us to have so many problems in
the first place.
But it may come as big a surprise to learn that there is a
viable alternative to wired and wireless home networking - and one that
avoids
the problems that each entails.
Better still, it's available to buy
today and can turn any house into something approaching an ideal
digital home by having a network connection available
in
every mains socket, not simply alongside it.
What we're talking about is hardware that uses existing mains wiring to
carry the network traffic - and requiring an adaptor
for each
PC
or device that is to be networked directly through the mains.T
here are a number of mains-borne networking standards - some
compatible with one another and some not. Typically, products
conforming to the
HomePlug
family of standards are reckoned to be compatible with one another
whereas, it seems, all other standards are incompatible.
For our first look at mains-borne networking, we've turned to HomePlug
and specifically to devolo's MicroLink dLAN Highspeed Starter Kit, with
a claimed nominal speed of 85Mbps. We plan to carry out further reviews
of other HomePlug kit from Solwise, LEA and devolo and also to
check out an incompatible but faster (200Mbps) rival system from
Corinex called
AV200.
Confusingly, the HomePlug Alliance is set to launch its own 200Mbps
system and, muddying the water still further, this is called
HomePlug AV.
Clearly, there's a lot of reviewing still to do but after going
hands-on with the devolo kit, we're convinced that HomePlug does offer
significant advantages over Ethernet and WiFi - not least of which is
its astonishing ease of use compared with WiFi.
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