[mythtv-users] networking

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Mon Jan 15 18:57:26 UTC 2007


On Jan 15, 2007, at 10:34 AM, Todd Houle wrote:

> Hi Brian -
> I totally agree.  However, due to the construction of the house and
> location of the remote frontend, that is just not feasible.  I've
> pretty much decided to go with the Netgear XE103 which claims to run
> at 85MB.  Regardless of actual throughput, I'm hoping it'll be enough
> to run the remote frontend.  Since this is the wife's station, she's
> willing to spend a little money on it... :)   I'll report back on how
> it works after a bit.

I understand your problems, and the unit you mention may well be the  
best solution for you.

But I've read that the power-line stuff doesn't come near what the  
advertised specs are (neither does 802.11 stuff for that matter). I'd  
try and make sure you can return the gear if it doesn't live up to  
your needs. It might work fine until your neighbor decides to control  
his table lamp via X-10, or installs a "wireless" intercom, at which  
point there is not much you can do.

Some possibilities you may not have thought of:

Use existing telephone wiring. While this is not (usually) twisted  
pair (it's usually "quad" wire) most homes with only 1 line only use  
the red/green pair, leaving the yellow/black available. For short  
runs you can often get away with a lot.

Use existing coax TV or cable-TV wiring. If you could find some old  
10-base-2 gear you could make that work at 10-base-2 (10Mhz.) speeds.

It's not really as bleak as I'm making it out to be, it's just that  
most people don't understand the "FCC warning" included in all  
wireless or powerline devices. They don't read it and, if they do, do  
not comprehend what it really means :-)




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