Ethernet over power line compatibility?

Aaron_VanAlstine

Aaron_VanAlstine

Has anyone had success using FreeBSD and Ethernet over power line? If so, what hardware are you using? I've heard that some of the kits are Windows-only. I'm not sure what it would be OS-specific but that is what I have heard. I'm planning on setting up a FreeBSD box and don't like the idea of running more Cat 5e through the walls and attic.
 
Those kits are completely OS independent. For all intents and purposes you get a 'regular' RJ-45 Ethernet connection on either side. It doesn't work too good though. I thought it would be a good solution for me to get a wired connection upstairs but my wiring is so bad I had zero signal. It worked fine using it from one end of an extension cord to another but using the wires in my house never gave me good results.
 
@SirDice,

That is what I thought, they should be OS independent. The reviews are all over the map: some people seem to have excellent speed while others see sluggish connections. I think some of it might have to do with the building's wiring, too. Not necessarily the age but the quality and RF noise environment. Anyway, they are so cheap (I've seen them for less than $US35) that I'll probably buy one.
 
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I had broadband over power line for a while a couple of years ago (I'm on fiber now), and at my work (a rural Internet provider) we've tested kits from various vendors and I don't seem to recall any of them being Windows only. The only Windows only device I could think of (which may not even exist) would be some kind of USB Ethernet adapter to power-line device (skipping the RJ45 interface). The ones we tested were just "dumb" media converters.

Anyways back to EoPL(?)... Most of them won't work with mid to high end surge suppressors/UPS due to them blocking/reducing the signal (which they see as line noise). They can't be reliably used on circuits shared with noisy appliances (washer, microwave, etc). If you have any of the old knob/tube wiring in the house, even if it's not on the same circuit (but shares a common neutral/ground in the breaker box), don't even bother. Note that I'm not an electrician, these are just our findings with the devices that we tested.

That being said, if you have somewhat newer (and fairly electronically quiet) circuits, and you plug them directly into a wall socket (skip the power strip) they seem to work pretty good as an alternative to cable runs and wireless. Also, don't expect full Ethernet speeds, think along the lines of a good DSL link. The best one of our guys could get at his house (with 13 year old wiring) was around 60 Mbit/s, even though the device claimed 200 Mbit/s.

Personally, I'd pick up a name brand kit and try it out. If it doesn't work, return it and get the cable fish out.
 
Why not wireless? It gets a lot more use than power line Ethernet and is likely far more debugged.
 
Cost, mainly. Plus I don't want to daisy-chain wireless routers. It's an older motherboard and I want to get a cable to it as cheaply as possible without tearing up drywall or purchasing another router.
 
Powerline kits only work on the same circuit. I did need to reset some Netgear kit using the OS X/Windows utility. These were used and the hardware reset switch didn't work for me for some reason. After the reset I was able to use them with any operating system.
 
Different phase lines are a problem, you will not get a connection over these. FWIW, I used power line connection from my study to the router in the living room of my flat, but since my study became a kid's bedroom, I have had no more use for this since ;)

I got about 100 MB/sec from it, peak was 300, but since the switch and most of the rest of the cabling/hardware was 100 anyway, I could only use this speed for an end-to-end connection. Until you need to use the vendor tools, you can use them on any OS. Delock ships tools for Linux also, but I did not get them to work on 9.x, maybe it can be done but since I did not need them I did stop at the first road bump.
 
Aaron_VanAlstine said:
Cost, mainly. Plus I don't want to daisy-chain wireless routers. It's an older motherboard and I want to get a cable to it as cheaply as possible without tearing up drywall or purchasing another router.
Click to expand...
I don't think the cost of routers is that high. A brand new run-of-the-mill wireless router is 20 bucks (I just checked several places to confirm), so despite EoPL being quite cheap, it's not a huge money saver. On the "older mother board" end you can use a wireless USB dongle which is around 15 bucks. Also, I've picked up used WRT54Gs for 10 bucks and put Tomato on them. Something like that would work for either end.
 
OJ said:
Aaron_VanAlstine said:
Cost, mainly. Plus I don't want to daisy-chain wireless routers. It's an older motherboard and I want to get a cable to it as cheaply as possible without tearing up drywall or purchasing another router.
Click to expand...
I don't think the cost of routers is that high. A brand new run-of-the-mill wireless router is 20 bucks (I just checked several places to confirm), so despite EoPL being quite cheap, it's not a huge money saver. On the "older mother board" end you can use a wireless USB dongle which is around 15 bucks. Also, I've picked up used WRT54Gs for 10 bucks and put Tomato on them. Something like that would work for either end.
Click to expand...

No kidding, I hadn't realized that routers had become so inexpensive. I see some on eBay for ~$10US. Do you know a supported USB WiFi dongle?
 
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