Powerline networking: expert guide

Powerline networking

Setting up a wireless network at home can be complicated and prone to interference. What many people don’t realise is that the framework you need to set up a home network is already built into your walls.
Networking in the home is, thanks to the upsurge in demand for digital media, gradually infiltrating the living room. However, the need to run unsightly network cables around the house is a major stumbling block. Wireless is one alternative, but is by no means perfect. Luckily, it’s now possible to run your network around your house using existing, hidden, cabling – your electricity circuit. Not only is powerline networking very convenient, but it is also very easy to install. Powerline networking used to be slow, not much faster than early Wi-Fi standards, but the latest devices can run at a genuine 100Mbps and are capable of carrying high definition video and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) network traffic.

What do I need to set up a powerline network?

Powerline networking doesn’t actually require much hardware, though it helps if you already have a wired network up and running. This doesn’t need to be too complicated – a PC linked to an ADSL router is the perfect starting point. You’ll need a spare network port in the rear of your router (if you haven’t, you can daisy-chain a cheap hub to the router to provide additional free ports). You’ll also need a spare mains outlet socket in the room where the router is and also any other room you wish to have networked devices in. Remember, powerline adapters ‘steal’ a power socket for their exclusive use.

How does it work?

Powerline networking makes use of cabling that is already present in every house – the mains electrical circuit. Electrical power is supplied and distributed around your house at 50Hz. However, it’s possible to superimpose higher frequencies that can carry data, similar to the way that our humble phone wiring can be made to carry broadband ADSL signals. Powerline technology takes advantage of this unused bandwidth of the electrical wiring in the home to create a network.
The powerline device plugs into the power socket and draws electricity for the device. At the same time, it sends data signals down the power circuit. A second powerline device can then be plugged into any other socket on the same electrical circuit to receive the signal.
Setting it up is really simple: you just plug the powerline adapter in to a power socket and connect the adaptor to your router or modem with a network cable. You repeat this in the other room, where the other network outlet is to go, this time connecting that powerline adapter to the PC’s network port. Status lights on each adapter confirm that you have an active network connection and that all is working well. And that’s about it.

What can I use it for?

Powerline networks can link any network device to any other via your power circuits, be they other PCs, Xboxes or routers – if they have a network port, they can be connected. You might think that Wi-Fi is easier to use than powerline, but it can be a bit unpredictable, especially in solidly-built houses, which can play havoc with wireless reception. Wi-Fi is also, at present, unsuited to the bandwidth demands of high-definition video. Powerline doesn’t suffer from fluctuating bandwidth issues and the latest adapters, built around the new HomePlug AV standard, are more than capable of sending high definition content around the house.
A good example of how you’d use powerline networking would be the new Netgear EVA700 Digital Entertainer, an all-purpose media streaming appliance that also happens to support HDTV. Sure, it comes with built-in 54G Wi-Fi, but if you want to stream high definition around the house you’d be better off connecting to it using high-speed powerline kit, such as the Devolo dLAN 200 AV or the Netgear HDXB101.
Another advantage of powerline networking is that you can happily mix and match Mac, Windows and Linux PCs on the same network.