Broadband Through Power Outlet Device

We live in a three story flat and the wireless signal is not the best (due mostly to interference on many channels, I think). Has anyone tried these small power adapter boxes that plug into the power outlet and an ethernet cable (connected to one of the router ports). Supposedly you can then plug another one of the adapter boxes in another room and connect to your router through the flat's power lines. Does anyone use this? Was it hard to set up? The box claims it is capable of 85MB/sec data rates (faster than the DSL is providing so won't govern the interent signal coming from PCCW/netvigator). Is this true?

I disagree with the above quote. Wireless is not secure unless you use encryption, however, setting up an internet connection from your broadband modem thru the use of the power adaptors is entirely safe. There is no way to hack into the mains system, as you control that through your switch board, which is individual for each apartment.


Wireless connections can be hacked much easier, even with encryption on.


Cheers,


Ward

Thanks for all the input. Rather than go with the range expander or some other repeater-type set up, I just decided to install larger 7dbi antennas on my linksys wireless router. I also installed a third party firmware called DD-WRT which allows me to increase the transmission power (which at least helps data flow in one direction). So far so good. I am getting almost a full signal at 54Mbps speed from one floor away now. Thanks again.

Go to http://www.dd-wrt.com/


There are many variations of this software out there. The Linksys WRT54G wireless AP and router are the most widely used WLAN devices out there and thus there is a whole community dedicated to trying to make the product better.


A description of DD-WRT from their website is below. Note that one of the features allows "Transmit Power Adjustment" (0-251mW, default is 28mW, 100mW is safe).



"DD-WRT is third party firmware for the Linksys WRT54G/GS/GL (http://www.linksys.com/) and various other 802.11g wireless routers based on a similar Broadcom reference design. See Supported Devices (http://wrt-wiki.bsr-clan.de/index.php?title=Installation#Supported_Devices). These routers run Linux from the factory, and as such, their source is released under the terms of the GPL.



The firmware is maintained by BrainSlayer (mailto:brainslayer@braincontrol.org) and is hosted at dd-wrt.com (http://www.dd-wrt.com/). The first versions of DD-WRT were based on the Alchemy Firmware from Sveasoft Inc (http://www.sveasoft.com/), which is in turn based on the original GPL'd Linksys firmware and a number of other open source projects. DD-WRT exists as a direct result of Sveasoft's demand for $20 in order to be able to download their firmware.


At present DD-WRT is available for free although a different business model is being drafted (http://forum.bsr-clan.de/ftopic4612.html) by BrainSlayer in order to pay his salary, as this is his full time job.


The new version of DD-WRT (v23) is a completely new project. DD-WRT offers many advanced features not found in the OEM firmwares of these devices, or even the firmware available for purchase from Sveasoft. It is also free of the product activation or tracking found in the Sveasoft firmware.


Note: Beta firmware, by its very nature, will contain bugs. It is not recommended to install beta firmware on large networks that are used for businesses, etc. However, there is now a bugtracker in place for DD-WRT firmware located here: DD-WRT Bugtracker (http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/bugtracker/) (free signup required).


Among other features not found in the original Linksys firmware, DD-WRT adds the Kai Daemon for the Kai Console Gaming network (http://www.teamxlink.co.uk/), WDS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Distribution_System) wireless bridging/repeating protocol, Radius Authentication (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RADIUS) for more secure wireless communication, advanced Quality of Service controls for bandwidth allocation, and software support for the SD-Card hardware modification.



[edit]Feature List

13 languages

802.1x (EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) encapsulation over LANs)

Access Restrictions

Adhoc Mode

Afterburner

Client Isolation Mode

Client Mode (supports multiple connected clients)

Client Mode WPA

DHCP Forwarder (udhcp (http://udhcp.busybox.net/))

DHCP Server (udhcp (http://udhcp.busybox.net/) or Dnsmasq (http://thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/doc.html))

DNS forwarder (Dnsmasq (http://thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/doc.html))

DMZ

Dynamic DNS (DynDNS (http://www.DynDNS.org/), TZO (http://www.TZO.com/), ZoneEdit (http://www.ZoneEdit.com/))

Hotspot Portal (Sputnik Agent (http://www.sputnik.com) ,Chillispot (http://www.chillispot.org/))

IPv6 Support

JFFS2 (http://sourceware.org/jffs2/)

MMC/SD Card Support (hardware modification required)

NTP client in a client-server basis

Ntop Remote Statistic

OpenVPN Client & Server (only in -vpn build of the firmware)

Port Triggering

Port Forwarding (max. 30 entries)

PPTP VPN Server & Client

QoS Bandwidth Management (Optimize for Gaming and Services / Netmask / MAC / Ethernet Port Priority)

QoS L7 Packet Classifier l7-filter (http://l7-filter.sourceforge.net/))

RFlow/MACupd

Routing: Static entries and Gateway, BGP, OSPF & RIP2 via (BIRD (http://bird.network.cz/))

Samba FS Automount

Syslog to remote server

Rx/Tx Antenna (Select or Auto)

Show Status of Wireless Clients and WDS with System Uptime/Processor Utilization

Site Survey

SNMP

SSH server & client (dropbear (http://matt.ucc.asn.au/dropbear/dropbear.html))

Startup, Firewall, and Shutdown scripts (startup script (http://wrt-wiki.bsr-clan.de/index.php?title=Startup_Scripts))

Static DHCP Assignment

Style (Changeable GUI; v.23)

Supports New Devices (WRT54G V3, V3.1, V4, V5 and WRT54GS V2.1, V3, V4)

Telnet server & client

Transmit Power Adjustment (0-251mW, default is 28mW, 100mW is safe)

UPnP

VLAN

Wake On Lan client (WOL (http://ahh.sourceforge.net/wol/))

WDS Connection Watchdog

WDS Repeater Mode

Wireless MAC Addresses Cloning

Wireless MAC filter

WMM (Wi-Fi MultiMedia QoS)

WPA over WDS

WPA/TKIP with AES

WPA2

Xbox Kaid (Kai Engine (http://www.teamxlink.co.uk/))

[edit]v23 File Versions

Just enable security on the wireless, it's probably because someone else is using it for surfing as well :-)


I do the same if somebody didn't enable security, then of course I'll use free internet and let all blame fall on that person if I surf something illegal :-)