Not the Internet-via-powerline scheme again. That one always seems to pop up every now and again. It seems like more of a pipe-dream than a viable product.

It really does work, the problem is upgrading every pwoer grid. Not only will that takes years but will also require the power co to upgrade there systems as well, and unless they get a huge kickback that won't happen anytime soon.
 
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It really does work, the problem is upgrading every pwoer grid. Not only will that takes years but will also require the power co to upgrade there systems as well, and unless they get a huge kickback that won't happen anytime soon.
 
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From what I have heard in the past, it works by inducing a magnetic field in the coating of the wires, not anything in the wires themselve. And it is possible to achieve those speeds on a straight piece of wire, but as soon as the powerline approaches a transformer station, (and they all must at one point), the magnetic field gets disrupted by the interference. Last I heard they had no idea how to overcome this setback, as this idea has been around for a few years now.
 
Just giving my $.02 worth, take it for what it is worth.
 
BlaZeR2

What your probably thinking about is "the skin effect". When high frequency signals move through a conductor, the electrons tend to gather around the surface. This is how antenna cables are often actually just copper pipe (no not waveguides, thats slightly different, but also just as interesting. Waveguides use standing waves, in which by, choosing the correct sizes you can short out the two conductors with a piece of wire 1/4lamda. Cool eh? if you do it all all along the wire, you get a box!). However from memory, the power thing uses highly complex stuff, and ultra high freq stuff, and apparently can recover signals that have been through a substation pretty well. Or else it can bypass it.
 
Did you know you can measure current with a fibre optic cable?
 
Did I forget to say that, the most likely use for this technology, will be the ability of the utility providers to cut-off anyones power from a central control centre. It's as simple as that.
 
[This message has been edited by euankirkhope (edited 25 July 2000).]

Don't mean irradiate from every line EMF interferences... so anyone can see the tv-cable so bad......

2.5gb/second. Whats the point for nearly anyone in having that much bandwith? How fast is the fastest single hard drive these days? Youd need a massive raid which consisted of a few hundred hdd's that are scsi and such to even handle anything close to it. Guess it would be useful for.... a backbone, but thats not exactly your average user.

One of the reasons this was canned in the UK was that it turned all of the street lights into large antennas which then broadcast the data signlas out into the airwaves.
 
It caused interference with the emergency services, and so the idea was dropped. However, you have to look at the security problems also associated with a power line based network.
 
Everyone in your area that gets power from the same sub-station is basically on the same network as you. This means you are going to need additional firewall protection on your PC's in order to keep them safe from your neighbours.

How would this be any different from a cable modem network. I am only speaking about the need for additional security or firewall protection. With a cable modem, everybody on your node is basically on the same network as you. If data is broadcasted, everybody gets it, it is up to the PC to differentiate what data it needs and what data it ignores....this same theory is behind the Palm Wireless network in large cities...correct?
 
If I am wrong, or way off base, please, someone, correct me. This is just what I thought....
 
BlaZeR2