Devolo

[Eberhard Roloff]

Billie Erin Walsh wrote:
> Eberhard Roloff wrote:
>> Neil Winchurst wrote:
>>   
>>> I have my desktop computer upstairs. My wife uses her laptop downstairs
>>> via my wireless router (DSL G604T). She often complains about losing the
>>> signal or it all being very slow.
>>>
>>> I have seen a little about devolo and I wondered if anyone on the list
>>> has it in use. It looks as if it could be useful. One possible problem,
>>> our downstairs power plugs and the upstairs ones are on separate
>>> circuits. At least, they have separate switches on the mains box. Would
>>> that cause any difficulty?
>>>
>>> TIA
>>>
>>> Neil
>>>
>>>     
>> Yes, I use them all the time, mostly for customers that want to stop 
>> wireless, either for performance or for radiation reasons. At the same 
>> time they do not want to invest into Ethernet cabling.
>>
>> Works wonderfully. Separate Switches on the mains box are, normally not 
>> a problem.
>> Generally the mains box over here most often is what the devolos need to 
>> have in common.
>>
>> Should they not be able to make the contact (I had this only once within 
>> a large school building installation with about 70 devolos), you can 
>> always have "phase-couplers" installed. With those, the devolos can 
>> connect to each other, although they reside somewhere on 3 different 
>> phases. Over here in Germany this clearly is a job for a qualified 
>> electrician, although it is not very difficult to do.
>>
>> Nowadays I would solely install the 200Mbit devices. They perform 
>> roughly like fast-Ethernet, when only two devolos are in use. Remember, 
>> dLan, just as wireless, is a shared network where the available 
>> bandwidth is evenly shared between all the connecting clients.
>>
>> Have some fun with your network. IMHO it cannot be much easier.
>>
>> Eberhard
>>
>>
>>   
> 
> OH YES, by all means get one [ laughing maniacally ]. Why not just 
> string network cable all over town and hook it to your router. And you 
> think Windows standard security is a joke. All it takes is for one geeky 
> hacker type to figure out that these things are in use and it opens up a 
> whole new world of possibilities.
> 
> Think about it this way. With this device all the wiring in your house 
> on that side of the electrical supply is now carrying your network 
> information. Number one, that wiring is now an antenna broadcasting that 
> signal. Number two, everyone in town that is on that leg is also now 
> connected to your system. Number three, all the wiring in town is now an 
> antenna that picks up all sorts of radio signals that feed back into 
> your system. Park a ham radio operator, or any radio broadcast type that 
> uses relatively high power transmissions regularly, down the street and 
> you will have all sorts of fun. Imagine what I could do to your system 
> with a thousand watt signal from a few feet away. Might as well hook 
> your system directly to my transmitter.
> 
> OH YES, _PLEASE run right out and buy one TODAY. Make your neighborhood 
> hacker happy.
> 
I do not know where you get your knowledge from. Mine is from REALLY 
using these devices and doing my homework. ;-)

On the one hand, the
  electrictiy meter is the natural limit of your network. So when all of 
your town can connect to your network, then you are the one that is 
paying for all of the towns electricity bills. ;-)) Just let me know 
which town you are living in, I would love to move.

Secondly it is dead easy (with the emphasis on dead and easy) to encrypt 
those networks in a way that you can even not interconnect two or more 
different networks on the same electricity meter. Devolo offers 
applications for the device management and encryption that work on 
Windows and, you will not believe it, on Linux. I just used my old 
jaunty thinkpad to install a connection from a basement homeoffice to a 
basement DSL router, anything nicely framed with thick walls, made of 
ferroconcrete. Drilling walls and installing ethernet cabling was way to 
expensive, wireless was a real joke (at least I tried) and devolo worked 
within 10 minutes.

So instead of spreading FUD, you better read it up or try it out for 
yourself.

Again there is nothing like a network cable, indeed! It is very cheap, 
very fast and very secure. Just when ethernet cabling is no option and 
wireless is lousy, then these devices do a great job. In most cases, 
they are simply WAY better than wireless.

Unfortunately they are not cheap. So they are only worthwhile when 
otherwise you will have to pay for the cabling work.

Kind regards
Eberhard