Ultimate solution for MVP connectivity?

[dazzyb2k3]

I've been hankering after an MVP for the bedroom for a while but due the wife's phobia of wires and absolute refusal to have Cat 5 trailing round the house (thought it would be rather cool myself ) I was forced to look for another solution.

I know people are using the MVP via wifi but there are still various issues and we are a little away from being able to do this both easily and reliably although i'm sure this will become more realistic once MIMO and other faster technology starts to take hold.

I've had my eye on the following system for a few months and while initially they didn't have the speed (only 11Mbps tops) It seems they have now released a high speed variant (up to 85Mbps). It's not the chepest solution but could this be the holy grail for MVP users???

http://www.devolo.com/co_EN/produkte/dlan/index.html

I would love to hear if anyone has first hand experience of these products as am seriously thinking about giving it a try.

[grazbo]

I have been using the following products:

http://www.solwise.co.uk/net-powerline-pl-85pe.htm

They basically work for me. No problems so far..... but a little pricey.

Grazbo

[dazzyb2k3]

Thanks for the link Grazbo. Looks like the same kind of thing but slightly cheaper....very tempting

[wtg]

Dazzyb2k3,

This may not apply if your house is too old and may not even apply outside the US, but you may have another option. Many newer US homes have cat5e for their phone lines (I don't know anything about homes outside the US though). Not only does it allow for up to 4 phone lines in the house, it also makes for a phone line that's less suspectable to electrical noise or radio interference because of the twisted pairs. My builder wired my house this way. Since a 10/100Mbit network connection only needs 4 wires, it's possible to use one cat5e line for a network connection and 2 phone lines. You just split the line at the jack, having 4 lines go to a network jack, and 2 or 4 to a phone jack.

If your house is wired with cat5e your options will vary depending just how it was done. My builder ran a separate line from every room to the phone box, meaning I could put a switch at one point and get a network connection to every room. Some builders will thread a single line through the whole house (in which case you only get one network drop), or they do something in between, several lines but some servicing more than one room.

If you're lucky like I was you might be able to use a wired network without running any new cable. I just had to replace my phone jacks with phone/network combos and then put in a slightly more complex phone/network box at the junction, split my lines and then connect a network switch.

Good luck,
Tim

P.S. Theoretically you can have problems with a phone line sharing a network wire, because the phone line rings with much higher voltage than a network line usually sees (potentially 70 volts in the US). The wiring doesn't have a problem with it, but the high voltage can make for a larger magnetic field than a network line is used to, and during the ring could interrupt network communication. In practice I've never had a problem with it though. Either phone lines don't light up with that kind of voltage anymore since they don't really have to trigger large mechnical bell ringers any longer, or the twisted pairs are still tight enough to minimize the magnetic field.

[dazzyb2k3]

This is a very interesting idea although i'm pretty sure it's not the case in the UK (maybe someone could clarify this). Having said that i'm pretty sure we have more than 4 wires so it may be possible to come up with a solution in this direction. However, my house is over 100 years old so it's probably all linked by tin cans and string lol

I'm going to do a bit more research on this, thanks for the idea wtg

[ArfurAnt]

My wife has a wire phobia too and I experimented with wireless connectivity but decided that wires was the way to go. I have managed to hide them almost completely by installing an 8 way switch in the loft and dropping network cables down the cavity walls so they come out behind the upstairs TV's or down the outside of the house behind the drainpipes and then through the walls to the downstairs TV's and my main router in the study which connects to my GBPVR server. The total cost to wire up four MVP's, a NetGem Freeview box and a PS2 was about £50 and I have a couple of spare ports for a PS3, XBOX360 or another couple of MVP's.

[haripj]

Does powerline ethernet have any interaction with X-10 devices - since all these signals run over the same lines? Any experience with this situation?

[wtg]

This is a very interesting idea although i'm pretty sure it's not the case in the UK (maybe someone could clarify this). Having said that i'm pretty sure we have more than 4 wires so it may be possible to come up with a solution in this direction. However, my house is over 100 years old so it's probably all linked by tin cans and string lol

If it's not twisted pair wiring don't waste your time with trying to wire a network with it. It'll be way too susceptable to line noise and other interference. If the wiring wasn't done in the last 5-10 years, I'd say your chances are next to nil. Personally I'd try the powerline networking then.

[dazzyb2k3]

I've checked it out and it's definately not twised pair (suspected as much). Running the wires down the cavity would have been a good solution but the house is single skinned so there's no chance. I've heard other good reports about powerline so I think that might be the solution - if a little expensive.

Thanks for the ideas everyone - it's great to know how other people get round these problems. I'll let you know the outcome