RIP Wireless. Long live HomePlug!
Wireless networking is cool. When it works. But in both of the environments where I had it deployed, it was plagued by intermittent drop-outs. In an industrial setting, whenever the company in the adjacent unit switched on a particular machine, <<paf>> goes the network. At home… who knows? Everything works fine most of the time, and then just isn’t there for a while. The neighbour’s microwave?
I tried all the usual tricks, switching channels, different antenna, other locations and orientations, even new hardware from alternate manufacturers. I now have FOUR wireless-capable router or switch devices, two of which are still connected to the network although thier wireless functions are switched off. And a small collection of wireless cards and USB dongles. Maybe I’ll use one of them on the robotics project at some point.
The company problem was solved simply by running cables and wiring everything up. Job done.
But we live in a rented house, and cable routing was a problem. There was no clear route for some of the nodes without drilling holes in walls, floors and ceilings, which property owners tend to frown upon. Enter HomePlug. I picked up a triple-pack of these at a budget price to play with. I’m impressed! A little fiddly to configure (if you want to secure them, which is recommended), but then fit and forget. A week or so later I was idly browsing around Maplin (as you do), and found a Netgear box in the bargain bin. Twenty quid later I’d added a HomePlug 4-port switch to my network. This one is plugged into the wall behind the TV, so that I can hook up the net-savvy FreeView box and the Lounge PC (when I’ve got one, at the moment it has been pressed into service elsewhere) at the same time. If we invest in a gaming console (and I’m quite impressed with the Wii), it’ll need network connectivity too, so we’re all set for that with space left over for one more.
Perfomance? I’d opted for the 85mbps kit. There are faster and slower options available. The slower one wasn’t significantly cheaper, but the faster “AV-ready” kit was horribly expensive. One of the nodes (strangely enough, the one furthest away from the router-connected node) manages a measured 83mbps. Wow. The others float at around 40-50. This may sound meagre, but it’s WAY better than the max 20-25 than I used to get out of “54mbps” wireless.
I have to be fair and point out that I’ve seen wireless working flawlessly, and also come across environments where HomePlug just doesn’t work nicely. Although in the latter case, a converted vicarage (goodness knows how old the wiring is), neither wireless or HomePlug worked properly.
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