[TriLUG] OT: electricity and networks (a network question, really)

Jeremy Portzer jeremyp at pobox.com
Mon May 12 23:49:02 EDT 2003


On Mon, 2003-05-12 at 22:50, Greg Brown wrote:
> 
> Now, my question is how far does the ether signal travel over the power 
> cable?  If this type of thing works as claimed then the ether signal 
> must hit the main breaker panel in the house (it has to if it's going 
> from one circuit to another) and if it hits that panel does it 
> propagate out via the main power circuit to the house then possibly to 
> the neighbors houses?  I would imagine that the signal is fairly 
> limited in distance but if you've got a 200 amp circuit coming into the 
> house that copper has to be of fairly large gauge which would allow the 
> signal to travel farther (kind of like 10-base-5 vs 10-base-2 (or 
> 10-b-t for that matter)).  And if you can blast 14 meg over 15 amp 
> wires how far can you shoot a signal down a 200 amp wire?
> 

Even if this did work, it would never go further than the transformer
that your house's wires connect to.  In an older neighboorhood,
transformers are the largish gray cans that hang on the power poles;
follow the insulated black wires to see what other houses are connected
to the same transformer as you.  In a newer subdivision with buried
power lines, it's a little harder to figure out exactly who's connected
to the transformers (normally painted green), but it's usually only 3-4
houses.

The transformer's coils will easily block any of the high frequencies
used by these ethernet-over-powerline systems.  I'm also not sure what
the effects of the two different "legs" of your power are on this
system.  In general, if your ethernet-over-powerline thingie is plugged
into one leg, does it crossover to the other leg without a problem? 

--Jeremy

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