Recent content by thoma

MoCA shares the physical medium using TDMA. Each MoCA device is assigned a timeslot in which it can talk, and all the other devices listen. There are no collisions, unlike Wi-Fi or classic Ethernet.

HomePlug runs over powerlines, which are a noisy and uncontrolled medium. The comparative charts tell us how well the HomePlug handles actual conditions in a particular house. MoCA runs over coaxial cables, which are a shielded medium with very little noise. The MoCA adapters should always...

Dave, your bandwidth needs are relatively high because you are streaming HD video. Wired Ethernet would give you a lot more headroom to work with. HomePlug is a nice option when it is inconvenient to run Ethernet wiring. Because of the bus topology, though, all HomePlug units will share the...

When your tech swapped out the four-way spitter for a three-way, and changed the connection from a 7 dB loss to a 3.5 dB loss, that only got you an extra 3.5 dB. You should've gone from 20 dB loss to 16.5 dB loss. Since you went from 20 dB to 3 dB, that means that there was some other problem...

There are products right now for running HomePlug over twisted pair, coax, or powerline. However, HomePlug hasn't yet succeeded in breaking out of its fortress market of powerlines. Why would G.hn be able to succeed where HomePlug has failed? They're starting out from even farther behind than...

Interestingly, Anandtech sent someone to CES 2014 and decided it was "the end of the road for G.hn," because they haven't been able to get any customers: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7704/powerline-networking-end-of-the-road-for-ghn One year later, Tim goes to CES 2015 and finds that G.hn has...

There is something appealing about a single standard that can run on all three mediums: coax, powerline, and phoneline. However, the merger of HomePNA with HomeGrid is basically a merger of two losers. They've lost to the competition on all three fronts: HomePNA lost to MoCA in coax...

This Newegg user review says that the ZyXEL and TP-Link utilities both work on the D-Link units: http://www.newegg.com/Product/SingleProductReview.aspx?ReviewID=4295340

UHF television tops out at channel 51 in the United States, which goes up to 698 MHz. Channels 52-83 have been reallocated for other purposes. MoCA can operate as low as 500 MHz, in order to offer the option of coexisting with satellite TV. However, the MoCA adapters that are designed to...

I feel that you are constraining your options too much. You're thinking that the Wi-Fi must be integrated with the HomePlug on a single unit. That really doesn't have to be the case. You could optimize the two variables separately. Buy the best HomePlug unit you can, even if it has no...

Is there any particular reason that you do not want to move your DSL modem to the first floor? Then you could go DSL-router-HomePlug on the first floor, and then HomePlug-desktop in the basement. Your desktop would then remain behind the router. If you can't do that, you could get a second...

Mark Hazen at Intellon estimates a 3:1 ratio between the raw PHY rate and the maximum practicable TCP transmission rate. 200 Mbps raw PHY 150 Mbps coded PHY 92 Mbps UDP 65 Mbps TCP 35 Mbps Windows file transfer Source...

GFCI receptacles are sometimes installed to feed all downstream outlets. If the GFCI is feeding the rest of the circuit, then a plug-in GFCI tester on a downstream receptacle will be able to trip the GFCI in the kitchen. That having been said, the problem really could be anywhere. As with...

How much money are you willing to spend? Devolo makes a HomePlug-over-phoneline device, the dLAN 500 AVpro UNI, which has gigabit ports. Thus, it is not gated by the Ethernet connection and will give you access to the full bandwidth that the phone line will support. The problem is that it...

Did you leave the existing phone lines in place? Are they in use? If the answers are "Yes" and "No", then you could repurpose your phone lines to carry the broadband inside your house. There are HomePlug adapters that will run over "dead" (de-energized) phone lines. Because there is no...