For those who have doubted my ability to set up a home phoneline network and have doubted the technology itself I'd like to take this time to say:
IN YOUR FACE!
I have three computers (soon to be four via a network bridge) sharing the DSL connection in our house over the phonelines. The connection is only 10Mbps, but it is well worth the sacrifice in speed to avoid running cables all over my parent's house while I'm only going to be here this summer.
I found that HPNA is completely easy to set up on the software side of things. Simply by installing the cards on my computers (all running XP Pro) the networking was up and running.
The only problems encountered were related to connection loss. I found that using the shortest amount of phone cord possible for connecting the boxes is good rule to follow. HPNA, or Home Phonline Networking Association NICs can only send their signal down 1000 feet of home phoneline. This required me to actually run a phonecord in order to bypass some of the extra wire we have in our walls. This was what I wanted to avoid, but it still saved me money as 100 feet of phone cord retails for $10.00 here, whereas network cabling would costs more, especially with ends, and it's not as easy to run through windows (on my house, not in my computer).
All in all, it only took a few hours of fiddling, which would be reduced if this was applied to a smaller house with a more common telephone system. I recommend it to any residential user. It should be plug and play in most situations. For those without XP, the netgear cards I bough come with sharing software for 95, 98, and NT 4. 2000 support is on the netgear website and XP drivers were shipped with XP. If you have questions on this feel free to ask.
:cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:
IN YOUR FACE!
I have three computers (soon to be four via a network bridge) sharing the DSL connection in our house over the phonelines. The connection is only 10Mbps, but it is well worth the sacrifice in speed to avoid running cables all over my parent's house while I'm only going to be here this summer.
I found that HPNA is completely easy to set up on the software side of things. Simply by installing the cards on my computers (all running XP Pro) the networking was up and running.
The only problems encountered were related to connection loss. I found that using the shortest amount of phone cord possible for connecting the boxes is good rule to follow. HPNA, or Home Phonline Networking Association NICs can only send their signal down 1000 feet of home phoneline. This required me to actually run a phonecord in order to bypass some of the extra wire we have in our walls. This was what I wanted to avoid, but it still saved me money as 100 feet of phone cord retails for $10.00 here, whereas network cabling would costs more, especially with ends, and it's not as easy to run through windows (on my house, not in my computer).
All in all, it only took a few hours of fiddling, which would be reduced if this was applied to a smaller house with a more common telephone system. I recommend it to any residential user. It should be plug and play in most situations. For those without XP, the netgear cards I bough come with sharing software for 95, 98, and NT 4. 2000 support is on the netgear website and XP drivers were shipped with XP. If you have questions on this feel free to ask.
:cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:
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