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Guys,

A work colleague has asked me for some advice about setting up his home networking, and in an effort to sound like I know what I'm talking about, I thought I'd run past this forum

Basically, he currently has one PC that connects to the Internet through an ADSL modem. He is having part of his house re-wired and asked me whether it would be worth running wires so that his PC could network with 2 laptops he's planning to get for his kids. My advice to him at this point is that running Ethernet wires round his house to connect three computers was probably a bit overboard.

Now this is the point where I suppose I should be advising him to set up a wireless network, however, I am not a big fan of wireless as it is (for me) an inherent security risk (although I have set it up at home). I advised him to go away and look at homeplugs because from what I have been reading, the technology has come a long way in the last couple of years - in fact, we do use them at work and I have been impressed with them.

OK, my question is (finally) if he goes with the homeplugs option should he be looking to get a switch or a router?

My plan to him was to keep the PC where it is, plug the ADSL modem into a switch as well as one of the homeplugs and then have two other homeplugs that allow the laptops some freedom of movement within the house.

Any thoughts, tips, criticisms or advice greatly welcomed

 

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The only thing that I know about the homeplugs is that they operate on Ring Mains.

What this means is that if you have an upstairs and a downstairs in your house and they operate on seperate Ring Mains you can't use the homeplugs. You could use it down stairs, but not up.

Fortunately for me my house has a single Ring for the sockets for both up and down stairs, but then I use wireless and not the home plugs anyway!

 

I have heard loads of different opinions on home plugs could someone tell what the real world speed of the latest one is.

I personally would use wired ethernet as it is faster and more secure than wireless (even though i also have wireless in our house, but we constantly have drops in signal)

but that is just my preference.

 

i'd wire in the pc and connect the laptops with wireless so they can roam about. just replace the modem with a good wireless router and secure the wireless and the jobs a good'n

grim

 

If he is thinking of hardwiring the house then he should. It may actually add value to his property. For using laptops though, Id go with wireless: The security issues are minimal if you do your homework. Never used those plug thingys, and don't think I ever would. I don't know why, but they don't "feel" right to me!!

 

You say he is having part of his house rewired and is thinking about running Ethernet cable. That suggests that he's having part of his electrical wiring redone. If he's doing that anyway, he might as well run Ethernet cable at the same time. I agree that it would be a selling point at whatever point he sells the place, it is more secure than wireless, and I would guess has advantages over home plugs (though I'm not at all familiar with that technology).

Just have him get a small switch, plug the ADSL device into the switch and then plug the patch cables into the switch. Instant home network.

 

If there is rewiring being done then *definitely* add in some Ethernet cables - you won't regret it.

I would avoid WiFi - the band is getting crowded and there are security problems.

Homeplug is brilliant - but I'd only use it where I couldn't cable. There are no problems that I've found with different ring-mains - the main caveat is that if there is a meter or other device in the way it won't go through that. Nor will it jump phases if you are in a commercial property with 3-phase.

I get about 55Mbps between two Homeplug units when using the V1.0 version units with 'turbo mode'. In a hotel, with a longer run of cables between the units, this dropped to 40Mbps.

Harry.

 

Thanks guys.

A little more info because I probably didn't explain myself too well. He's not having the whole of his house re-wired, just an extension that he is having built on to his study. However, the point about having his house wired for Ethernet is well taken and I will pass it on.

Back to my original question (and you might know the answer to this Harry seeing as your the only other member to seemingly have experience in these things): -

Is this a viable solution?

 

Depends on the "ADSL modem". If this is all it is it will be a USB type device (usualy in the UK) so you can't use it like this. You need an ADSL router/modem.

If it is an ADSL router/modem then many of these already have a switch incorporated, so just plug one port into a Homeplug. If it is one of the 'cheaper' units with only one Ethernet port then buy a switch - they aren't expensive - and connect the switch to the router/modem, and another cable from the switch to a Homeplug.

A pair of Homeplugs can, in effect, be treated as a piece of Ethernet cable.

Harry.