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back to article Wi-Fi strikes alliance with mains networking tech

The Wi-Fi Alliance has inked an agreement with the HomePlug Powerline Alliance to create interoperable kit, capable of annoying radio hams as never before. Power line telecommunications (PLT) kit sends networking signals around the home over mains wiring, and often competes with Wi-Fi, which uses radio to achieve the same …

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  1. Wize

    Its all in the testing...

    These devices get away with pumping out so much RF because they are tested on their own, not with some crusty old house wiring attached acting like a massive antenna.

    As soon as a plane carrying a high up MP gets delayed by these devices, they will get banned before you can blink.

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  2. David Griffin
    Thumb Up

    HomePlug rocks - but something is missing

    I have used it now for a while. No way will wireless go through my old stone house.

    But what I REALLY need and noone seems to offer is a way to do a similar thing with old fashioned telephone wires.

    In fact my ideal is a HomePlug node that has a phone and ethernet socket on it. That way I can set up a few DECT base stations around the house and get phone coverage everywhere in my house without drilling holes.

    Surely this is technically possible ?

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    1. Ian Chard
      Reply Icon

      If you have a billion years to configure it

      then you could use Asterisk and do VoIP.

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Homeplug phone extensions

      You can already get phone-over-mains adapters. I used to have one for the modem back in the dark ages. Would be nice to have them all in the one bit of kit though.

      Bugger the planes.

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    3. JaitcH
      Reply Icon
      Happy

      Why not use Telco wiring for a LAN?

      Telco wiring is usually good enough for 100Mhz signalling. There are thousands of LAN's in North America using abandoned 25-pair cabling for carrying the Ethernet signals around.

      You will need 4 conductors. These links may help: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registered_jack >, < http://www.nadtec.to/doc/wiring/telephone_and_lan_wiring.htm >.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Emergency Comms

    Haha, let's all have a laugh at the radio hams. When the twin towers came down on 9/11, most of NY's communications were knocked out and it was radio hams who put kit into their trucks, drove downtown and set up emergency comms. When the tsunami hit the Indian Ocean, the only communications out of the Andaman and Nicobar islands were provided by radio hams.

    Every day, the technical training and background of radio hams contributes to this country's expertise is electronics and communications.

    If PLT pollution is allowed to take over the radio spectrum then you won't have any more radio hams. When a big disaster strikes, the first things to stop working will be your precious cellphones and the Internet. With no radio hams left, we won't be there to set up emergency communications links and use our equipment to pass life-saving messages.

    Let's not bother maintaining the radio spectrum, a natural resource, let's pollute it with PLT signal more than a thousand times above the legal limit, all so we can avoid putting a bit of CAT5 around the house or installing WiFi! Disgusting and short-sighted.

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Well as it happens....

    ....I've had a beard for almost as long now as I've had an amateur radio licence. Beards are good y'know!

    As for PLT, well if the PLT designers are determined to pollute the RF spectrum more and more then I suppose I'll have to wait for a while until the regulators realise that, in fact, allowing people to field equipment that fails international standards by 30dB or more in typical usage and interferes with more and more systems means that they will have to ban the damn things from sale.

    In the meantime, if I find any unsuspecting PLT transceivers lying about, then my and my lump hammer are going to have a field day.

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