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Posted to sci.electronics.repair
Don Bowey
 
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Default Netgear "house wiring" Ethernet network

On 2/1/06 8:22 AM, in article ,
"Dan" wrote:

I need to connect my wife's mac laptop to our cable Internet. I have a
pc at the modem. Maybe I'm a bit paranoid, but a wireless router
concerns me, even with encryption.


I agree, you are paranoid. I have two PCs (both wireless) and two Macs (1
wireless and 1 Ethernet) served by a wireless router with 64 bit encryption,
and don't have any problems, nor do I expect any. I'm using an Airport
Extreme, which makes it simple for all to share a USB printer located near
the base station. Wireless would permit your wife to be just about
anywhere in your house or outside with the laptop, without dragging a cable.

Don

So I'm looking at these, a Netgear
product (belkin, others also make them) that basically turns your house
wiring into an Ethernet LAN:
http://www.netgear.com/products/details/XE102.php A set of 2 (what I'd
need for a connection to my wife's laptop in her office) is about 100
bucks, adding a router takes the total to ~$150. Once set, the
"transmitter" is plugged in to a wall outlet at the router, then the
"receiver" can by plugged into any house electrical outlet & you have an
Ethernet jack (though presumably the outlets must be on eht same side of
the 120 line?) I do have a concern though regarding whether or not our
signal might be propagated over the local power grid to other homes in
the area. Also, the device operates at 4 to 20 mhz. I'm guessing at
these frequencies, house wiring is not a very effective radiator, but is
it possible the signals may be broadcast under the right conditions?

TIA

Dan