[Sussex] Devolo MicroLink dLAN - Wireless alternative

[Jon Fautley]

Steve Dobson wrote:
> 
> I've heard of these, and not that they are about £55 each - which is
> more expensive than wireless these days.

Indeed, they're pretty expensive...

> I assume that they work like the old mains baby monitors by "injecting"
> the network signal into the main power wave (Colin can describe this in
> more electrical detail I'm sure).  If so I would expect that they 
> suffer the same problem, the signal can carry for some distance - like
> into the house next door - I doubt there is any encryption going on so
> a bit of a security hole.

They include 'DESpro' encryption apparantly (which I think is basically
DES with a slightly longer keylength - not that hard to crack). They do
work the same as the baby monitors, and X10. The problem is that if you
have a 'noisy' power supply around the house, they have a tendancy to
not work, or work sporadically.

Anything that gives off nasty amounts of RF can cause problems for these
devices - i.e. washing machines, tumble dryers, fridges, freezers,
hoovers, TV's, Radio's (although less so than TV's) etc etc

Also, ISTR that you can only realistically get 10Mbit out of them (which
may sound a lot, but that's in ideal conditions).

Unless you have a really good reason not to get wireless, I'd personally
go with that - or run a cable.

> The solution is to fit a mains filter where the elecy comes into your
> house - I think they are expensive.

One of these is what you're talking about, I belive:
http://www.laser.com/?page=shop/flypage&product_id=113&category_id=d189e594162cb609b6593eb0d10ab892&

I think this should isolate all mains-bourne carriers, but it may only
do X10. This device also claims to knock out nasty RF stuff too, which
is nice.

The problem is that you'd have to get it professionally installed. I'm
sure there's legal requirements surrounding electrical work on your own
property, but as Frances mentioned she is a tenant, you'd almost
certainly need a professional electrician to install it.

Oh, and pulling the master fuse tends to annoy the leccy company too ;)

Jon
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