Internet At Home by:Chris Holgate

Networking used to be just for businesses at the office

, but one of the biggest changes of the last few years is the increased necessity of a network at home.

Ten years ago it was common for houses to have machine connected directly to the internet via a dial-up modem, whereas nowdays it would be very rare to find a house that doesn't have an existing network. Applications range from wireless Internet on a laptop, file sharing between two machines, a hard drive set up to distribute media around the home, a wireless printer which all the family can access or a games console piggybacking the main Internet connection.

The conventional methods of deploying a network around your home are well known; you can either connect via a network cable or connect wirelessly over the airwaves and while usually suitable, both methods have potential disadvantages. A newtork is limited because the devices have to have a physical connection. A wireless network is also limited as not all houses are able to have a good wireless network; a particularly large house or one with particularly thick walls for example.

Few people are aware that you are actually able to hijack your homes existing electrical circuit to network your devices together. Although not the ideal solution for many, it does have some quite distinct advantages if you find that a conventional wired or wireless network lets you down. All you need is a minimum of 2 power line access points which are plugged into normal plug sockets. The technology works by modulating a carrier wave along the existing power cables in your home therefore your entire home wiring essentially becomes a network cable that can be tapped in to at will.

Because you are using the existing electric cabling in the house, AC networking makes the distance between two points irrelevant. Plug your broadband router in to an power line adaptor downstairs and your computer in to one upstairs and with the minimum of fuss you'll have a physical connection between the two.

You can restrict access to the network by implementing a number of security procedures similar to those present on a wireless network but owing to the fact your neighbours will be on a different wiring ring, these features are potentially redundant.

What makes the technology more useful is that you can combine elements of power line, wireless and conventional wired networking together in the one location by building on the strengths of all three technologies. You could for example have a wireless router plugged in to both your broadband connection and a power line adaptor with a second router plugged in to a power line adaptor upstairs; You could also have two wireless routers at each power line point which would mean that the chances of being without wireless signal around the home would be slim.

Alternatively, have the wireless router plugged in to both your broadband connection and a power line adaptor downstairs but upstairs plug a power line adaptor straight in to a conventional wired network switch in a kids game room upstairs. They could then connect a PlayStation 3, Xbox and PC directly in to this switch therefore benefiting from a physical connection straight in to the router downstairs without having to worry about issues such as wireless signal strength.

Most modern day power line adaptors support 200Mbps which compares favourably to a standard wired network which would run at 100Mbps and a standard 'g' rated wireless network running at 54Mbps. Prices start at around 60 for a pair of power line access points.

About the author

Chris Holgate is a director and copyrighter of the online Ink and Toner website Refresh Cartridges http://www.refreshcartridges.co.uk He writes a weekly article of all things tech related.

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