I have a feeling this has been discussed before but I wasn't paying attention as I didn't have an application for this technology. Now I have and could do with a quick heads-up: what to look for in ethernet-over- mains (aka powerline) adapters, makes & models to go for and to avoid, ditto suppliers ...
(Application is a point-to-point link to get t'internets into a caravan parked in the driveway with a mains hookup, which I sometimes use as a home office away from the idiot box in the living room.)
and they work great. Getting HD TV to the media player, and sprog's internet is as fast as anything. Just make sure you plug them straight into the wall.
I've got a mixture of Netgear XE104 and Netgear XET1001 units, which I used for communications between a network camera in a barn, and a PC in a house next to the barn, a crows-flight distance of about 40 metres. The raw-crawl path that the cables take could be much longer.
This arrangement worked perfectly for several years, then over the course of a couple of months became unreliable, then stopped working completely. The units will no longer sync with each other barn-to-house, although pairs of them stilll work fine within the barn or within the house. I've tried new units, but they won't work barn-to-house either. I've checked the condition of the mains cabling along the route, and haven't found any obvious deterioration.
For what it's worth, these Netgear units seem to be well made and easy to use, but run rather warm, consuming about 3 watts continuously, which might be a consideration in these times of high electricity bills.
Generally, it seems to me that ethernet-over-mains is great when it works, but perhaps is vulnerable to outside interference of some kind.
I use a Netricity powerline +WiFi router from Maplin over a 2m extension lead, through the house wiring (different circuit breakers) and a 20m extension to the garden shed no problems. Setting up the ISP internet protocols was a pain and needs a bit of Googling for help due to a very skimpy instruction manual. It probably wipes out radio reception for miles around.
I wasn't able to fully validate it - so perhaps take with a small pinch of salt - but when I was getting my new RCD based cu installed we found that they produced a small amount of current leakage that reduced the headspace for nuisance trips. As you may have guessed, I'm no sparkie, but say I had a 30mA RCD with a single adaptor plugged in the tester showed that the RCD tripped 15mA early. We didn't fully check it and it was a cheapo adaptor so YMMV.
I have a couple of Solwise connectors but have gone back to wireless since I need it for other purposes and it is more effective across my house.
Ethernet over mains does not do well at getting through RCDs. Because we have a split load CU I had one connector on the power ring downstairs and one on the lighting circuit upstairs so they were both on the same side of the CU.
Do not use on an extension lead that the PC uses. Plug direct into a wall socket as far from the PC as possible. ISTR the more we turned on around the house the slower and less reliable the connection.
If wireless cannot find its way into the caravan I would be inclined to try and find a way to run a cable.
2 doors away there is a G8 who does quite a bit of experimental design. Hopefully it didn't interfere with his efforts. I didn't dare ask.
Some very well indeed, they are all anyone within a mile or so will be able to hear on their HF set. B-(
AFAICT from a google the basics is OFDM with a carrier spacing of
24.41kHz. So they are broadband (correct useage of the word)
formatting link
4.3Mhz to 20.9Mhz as the band of frequencies in use.
formatting link
2MHz to 30MHz and 24kHz but WTH pretty much all of the HF frequency band. Standards compliant devices are supposed to not use the carriers that land within the amateur radio bands but I bet there is still considerable hash generated by them which raises the noise floor. And what about trying to use the HF bands outside the amateur allocations?
As the OP is running mains to his caravan why can't he also run a bit of ethernet, be cheaper, faster, more reliable and won't generate masses of HF interference.
PLT adapters use a band of frequencies from HF to VHF. These frequencies are used by many other services.
So the PLT will emit radio waves, despite them supposedly being contained in the mains wiring, and conversely they receive radio waves and in doing so the transmitted radio energy from them can and does cause interference to other radio receivers, and conversely other radio transmitters cause interference to the PLT!..
Not that different to 2.4 Ghz licence exempt operation, where a given number of channels are allocated and when channel usage is low this can and does work reasonably well but when channel usage is high it has problems!.
If you want to download Netstumbler to your laptop and go for a short drive and see what the usage of these devices is like!..
Course the final sentence is the best one Run a bit of CAT 5:)..
Here despite being commercially involved in RF I've wired the place with a 24 port patch panel and switch and OK .. that was a bit of effort but it a very good investment the whole works fine 'n dandy.
Yes there is a wi-fi point and that does work quite well but where we're based there is a surprising amount of 2.4 Ghz about. Netstumbler reports each house has a device and some even have Two !...
Heres some interesting reading by BBC research outlining the problem and if anyone knows a thing or two about wireless they have been in it quite some time;!...
It shows why they interfere with domestic radio and why they sometimes don't work as well as they might..
Mains comes from garage not house and getting cat 5 from house would be a bit messy/tricky as it would have to cross walkways. PLT, if it works and is cheap enough, would be easier.
Can you not get ethernet into the garage and then run the CAT5 the same route as the mains, maybe even taped to it. One assumes that the mains doesn't have the same crossing walkways problem.
Even crossing walkways might not be a serious problem bury a bit of ordinary conduit at the appropiate places, bury a length of flexable the entire route(*), fly from the house to the 'van.
I think that "if" is quite large. There are enough comments out in the 'net that indicate that itreally doesn't like extension cables and/or passing through RCDs etc. At least with CAT5 it will work and the cable is cheap.
(*) Thread the CAT5 through before you bury it as getting it through when there are any bends, even very gentle ones due to not laying it dead straight, will be hard if not impossible.
Its quite common for IT related kit (i.e. stuff with small switching PSUs on the front end with noise gate filters on the mains input side) to leak a little to earth. However all the homeplug devices I have seen have been class II devices with no earth connection. Hence it would be unlikely they would directly contribute to earth leakage. (they will add extra noise into the supply - which might influence a RCD that is already sensitised).
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.