# Network using domesic house wiring



## paulcahill (May 8, 2009)

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share my experience with the Homeplug style of network using your homes electrical circuits with a device at either end.

I recently went down this route using BEWAN Systems E200STRIP and E200MAXX. The strip is actually a 'UFO' shaped device with 6 power outlets and 3 ethernet ports which also acts as surge protection too, it plugs into a po=wer outlet near your TiVo (or any other ethernet device youneed to connect, the Maxx is a single pass through device that plugs into a power outlet near your modem/router and the house wiring becomes one big ethernet link.

I have recently ordered two Apple Airport Express devices which I am going to try and use to connect my TiVo wirelessly and will report back on the success or otherwise of a wireless connection.

Hope this helps those searching for an alternative to hard wired ethernet connections for those with Cachecards in their TiVo.

Regards, Paul Cahill


----------



## paulcahill (May 8, 2009)

Sorry, forgot to say that there are cheaper alternatives to the 'Homeplug' style devices, a quick search on the internet should bring up a good selection.

Regards, Paul Cahill


----------



## speedyrite (May 18, 2002)

I've got a bunch of Devolo dLAN 200 AVdesk units scattered around the house. Very reliable!


----------



## AENG (Dec 20, 2000)

Before deciding to use any of these, admittedly convenient and cheap, devices that depend on mains wiring to distribute high speed data, members should perhaps be aware of some potential drawbacks.

Unlike Ethernet cable, domestic house wiring, being unscreened and inherently unbalanced (e.g. to switch drops) is highly likely to act as an effective antenna for the RF energy generated, with the capability of radiating it for some hundreds of metres from the source. This may have the unfortunate consequence of preventing neighbours' legitimate use of some radios and (if they are savvy enough) trigger a complaint and subsequent Ofcom investigation. There have been about 100 cases reported so far. Ofcom can require that use of the equipment is discontinued. So it might be wise to ensure that the seller will accept its return if it has to be withdrawn from service.

The fact that much of this PLT (Power Line Transmission) apparatus is "CE" marked is the subject of lively debate among EMC professionals as practical tests have demonstrated that some of it fails to meet existing EMC regulations by a very wide margin (up to 30dB). Discussions about it are also ongoing in the relevant regulating bodies in the EU.


----------



## Ian_m (Jan 9, 2001)

I recently decorated the whole of downstairs and took the opportunity to remove all skirting board which makes painting wall easier and painting skirting boards even easier.

In the gap between plasterboard and floor managed to squeeze 16mm trunking (and even a section of 25mm) containing Gb Ethernet, surround sound speaker cabling, quad sat signals, various aerial feeds etc.

So whole of downstairs is Gb wired, even an outlet in the kitchen for when  I buy my streaming MP3 player (ie Squeezebox). Turned off all the wireless bits of my collection of WRT54Gs running DD-WRT as they are now all wired.

All dead easy. Paint skirting in garage and attach back to wall with no nails (or the considerably cheaper Stick Like Sh*t, yes this does exist).


----------



## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

I'm told that they don't work across 3 phase wiring which isn't a problem for many but effectively rules them out for me.
I'm also installing cat6e as part of my refurb so not a heartbreaker for me.
I'll be keeping wireless for the laptops and iPhone.


----------



## Ian_m (Jan 9, 2001)

AMc said:


> I'm told that they don't work across 3 phase wiring which isn't a problem for many but effectively rules them out for me.


Also don't work sometimes across different ring mains in normal domestic house. My mate tried various ethernet "homeplug" devices and could get absolutely no communication between his home office extention and rest of house, which is what he wanted. This was probably because the house extention was wired on its own consumer unit. Power communication was fine throughout the house but not to/from extension, what the ADSL came in and servers were located.

He ended up wiring in Cat5 with a combination of skirting board removal and careful attachement to ceiling coving to get networking into and around the house.


----------



## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

I read a review of 'Home Plug' devices some time ago which stated that the Solwise devices were the best performers for both good and bad circuits. Some of the other makes were quite poor at handling lines with significant interference. Low-voltage power supplies, such as Xbox 360's, etc were considered to contribute to poor quality, but I am happily running with these. Oddly, my best performance is between two separate ring-mains, while my worst is on the same ring. Also, the poor-quality circuit can suffer from WiFi-type effects, such as the occasional loss of real-time streaming when I move around a room.

Overall, I find them quite successful, but I would suggest using the fastest possible (i.e. 200Mbps), because of the very large overheads of the error-correction protocols. I am using them to stream independent recordings to two separate VMC extenders at SD quality, and could probably handle at least one of those as HD, and possibly two.

They are significantly better than the Wi-Fi that they replaced, especially in the room that suffers most from 'wireless' interference.

Amazon also sell the Solwise devices.


----------



## kitschcamp (May 18, 2001)

AMc said:


> I'm told that they don't work across 3 phase wiring which isn't a problem for many but effectively rules them out for me.


Yeah, have the same problem here. Unfortunately, I didn't work that out till after I'd bought the devices. Here in Sweden three phase is standard in houses...


----------



## Milhouse (Sep 15, 2001)

It sounds like the E200MAXX is a Solwise 200AV-Piggy and the E200STRIP is a Solwise Piggy6.

I stream HD 1080p video from a ReadyNAS NV to a PS3 over a pair of 200AV-Piggies without any problems whatsoever. 11g WiFi is now reserved for occasional web surfing from a Nokia tablet - I was lucky if I could stream decent bitrate SD over an 11g WiFi connection.

Depending on your household mains cabling these Homeplug devices won't work for everyone but when they do they trounce WiFi...


----------



## SNJpage1 (May 25, 2006)

The other way to run cable is if you have wall to wall carpet. The tack strip is usually about 1/2 inch out from the wall. The padding stops at the tack strip. This leaves a small gap between the tack strip and the baseboard. Before retiring from the phone company we would use a blunt stick or the flat side of a screw driver to push the telephone wire into that space.


----------

