In the IT industry we can often discount certain technologies off-hand simply because they don’t fit into our paradigm. I did this for a little while with PowerLine networking but have been trying to dabble with products as they’ve been released over the past few years. While I think PowerLine is cool technology, it’s got some caveats. Therefore, here’s my own list of tips and tricks for utilizing PowerLine in a manner that doesn’t suck:
- You probably want to think it through before you do this. PowerLine isn’t going to work for everyone.
- There are two types of technology that don’t work together: High Definition Power Line Communication, aka HD-PLC (Panasonic) vs. HomePlug (D-Link, NetGear, etc).
- If you have a UPS then you will need an adapter per UPS.
- Things that draw a lot of current might just cause your speeds in different parts of the house to run poorly (eg – run my Microwave and my packet loss numbers go through the roof).
- 802.11n and plain-jane Ethernet will likely give you much greater quality of life when you don’t have to spend all that time troubleshooting issues.
- The quality of the network speeds is dependent on the quality of electrical wiring (much like the quality of wireless speeds depends on the signal you have back to your WAP). Crappy high voltage wiring leads to lots of dropped packets and latency issues.
- NetGear makes a very popular device, but if you’re on a Mac you’ll more than likely need a PC to perform the actual configuration. If you are using a Mac and want a truly Mac solution, check out the MacWireless products.
- PowerLine is rated at 200 Megabits but I’ve never seen a speed test clock over 85. Sometimes it just drops off entirely which can really mess with the stability of a Mac OS X Server.
- In my experience you can only use a maximum of 16 devices with most products. Some may allow more, but this has been fairly consistent thus far.
- PowerLine is rated at a whopping 980 feet, making it a far cheaper alternative to fiber if you have a run that doesn’t exceed that but does exceed Ethernet and don’t need more than the 200Mbps rating (assuming you ran a dedicated cable I’m sure you’d get the full pipe).
Some of these tips might make it seem like I’m kinda’ down on PowerLine networking. Well, the power at my house kinda’ sucks (I have a lot of UPSs around) and the power in most older houses kinda’ sucks (you too should have a heavy allotment of UPSs if you’re in the same boat). I’m actually really impressed with PowerLine networking and think it has a time and a place. Provided you use it strategically and are well educated about it then I think it can get the job done for a number of home uses. Beyond that it’s not likely to scale with needs and therefore would be used sparingly, if at all.
