Linksys Powerline??

Plastic is on the counter,,, have Shirley get you a cold one..

I'm about to setup my 1st router in the house,, I have a Linksys BEFVP41 coming,, I know I don't
need the encryption,, I just fell into a good deal on eBay..

Before I run some wire,, I started looking at the Powerline gear,, a PLEBR10 bridge and a PLUSB10
adapter,, I see it's not lighting fast(14Mbps, promised), but I only need access for the kids and
their laptops when they are in town and the idea of allowing then to plug-in to 1/2 the outlets in
the house is appealing..

An additionally consideration is the house is new,, has lots of 110 jacks,, and the walls are
sheetrock over 1" ridged insulation & 1x2 furring over CBS, inside walls are stuffed with 6" glass
bats. In other words, I can only snake in new wire from the cellar with floor plugs. The wire is
very do-a-ble as our house in on 10ft stilts, but a quick tally for enough CAT 5 wire, wall outlets,
plugs, crimpers, etc, would suggest that a set of the Powerline gear might be more economical &
flexible... I did look at wireless,,, but I'm a little paranoid about "listener's"..

Anyone using these or someone else's gear via the house 110 wire system?
I would assume that the data is only routed through half the house grid?
Or does it use the neutral and cross over at the main box?
Are they reliable?
Any major cons, besides the slower speed..

Thanks
Jim
An Old Parrot Head,
In the Conch Republic,
Just South of Reality

PS: I know this group is "wireless" but after reading your post(s) the last couple weeks, It is
apparent to me that you guys are knowledgeable about all aspects of networking...

Jim
An Old Parrot Head,
In the Conch Republic,
Just South of Reality

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> PS: I know this group is "wireless" but after reading your post(s) the last couple weeks, It is
> apparent to me that you guys are knowledgeable about all aspects of networking...
>
> Jim
> An Old Parrot Head,
> In the Conch Republic,

The Conch Republic surrendered to the United States shortly after
declaring war and firing one shot off of sunset dock (or in the
immediate vicinity) with a small bore cannon. Foreign reconstruction aid
was requested and is still awaiting approval. Maybe you could get some
federal subsidy for a disadvantaged neighboring country?

> Just South of Reality

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Plastic is on the counter,,, have Shirley get you a cold one..
>
> I'm about to setup my 1st router in the house,, I have a Linksys BEFVP41 coming,, I know I don't
> need the encryption,, I just fell into a good deal on eBay..
>
> Before I run some wire,, I started looking at the Powerline gear,, a PLEBR10 bridge and a PLUSB10
> adapter,, I see it's not lighting fast(14Mbps, promised), but I only need access for the kids and
> their laptops when they are in town and the idea of allowing then to plug-in to 1/2 the outlets in
> the house is appealing..
>
> An additionally consideration is the house is new,, has lots of 110 jacks,, and the walls are
> sheetrock over 1" ridged insulation & 1x2 furring over CBS, inside walls are stuffed with 6" glass
> bats. In other words, I can only snake in new wire from the cellar with floor plugs. The wire is
> very do-a-ble as our house in on 10ft stilts, but a quick tally for enough CAT 5 wire, wall outlets,
> plugs, crimpers, etc, would suggest that a set of the Powerline gear might be more economical &
> flexible... I did look at wireless,,, but I'm a little paranoid about "listener's"..
>
> Anyone using these or someone else's gear via the house 110 wire system?
> I would assume that the data is only routed through half the house grid?
> Or does it use the neutral and cross over at the main box?
> Are they reliable?
> Any major cons, besides the slower speed..
>
> Thanks
> Jim
> An Old Parrot Head,
> In the Conch Republic,
> Just South of Reality

I was hoping that someone with more knowledge would answer by now. Since
that hasn't happened, I'll throw in my 2¢. I hear that the signal is on
the 115v wiring throughout the house and out onto the street and that
the the real "firewall" is the transformer out on the power pole. You
may have neighbors that can pick up on it and you may not, depending on
the where the transformer is.

This info is not to be relied upon since it concerns some of the first
"powerline" systems I read about. Maybe the newer ones are better. In
either case, I heard they worked well.

In article <2Izpc.18431$(E-Mail Removed)>,
(E-Mail Removed) says...
> Plastic is on the counter,,, have Shirley get you a cold one..
>
> I'm about to setup my 1st router in the house,, I have a Linksys BEFVP41 coming,, I know I don't
> need the encryption,, I just fell into a good deal on eBay..
>
> Before I run some wire,, I started looking at the Powerline gear,, a PLEBR10 bridge and a PLUSB10
> adapter,, I see it's not lighting fast(14Mbps, promised), but I only need access for the kids and
> their laptops when they are in town and the idea of allowing then to plug-in to 1/2 the outlets in
> the house is appealing..
>
> An additionally consideration is the house is new,, has lots of 110 jacks,, and the walls are
> sheetrock over 1" ridged insulation & 1x2 furring over CBS, inside walls are stuffed with 6" glass
> bats. In other words, I can only snake in new wire from the cellar with floor plugs. The wire is
> very do-a-ble as our house in on 10ft stilts, but a quick tally for enough CAT 5 wire, wall outlets,
> plugs, crimpers, etc, would suggest that a set of the Powerline gear might be more economical &
> flexible... I did look at wireless,,, but I'm a little paranoid about "listener's"..
>
> Anyone using these or someone else's gear via the house 110 wire system?
> I would assume that the data is only routed through half the house grid?
> Or does it use the neutral and cross over at the main box?
> Are they reliable?
> Any major cons, besides the slower speed..
>
> Thanks
> Jim
> An Old Parrot Head,
> In the Conch Republic,
> Just South of Reality
>
>
>
Powerline works fine as long as you are comfortable with its rated
speed. Most versions now offer simple encryption, won't keep the NSA
from reading your email, but should be good enough for most purposes.
RTFM and don't use power strips with surge protection between the outlet
and the Powerline connector. Should work pretty much throughout your
house, and just maybe next door (hence the inclusion of the encryption
option). Best results so far are with Netgear XE102, best deal seems to
be on Ebay at about $30-40.

As for those who think that GBs of data are needed to crack WEP, that
turns out not to be the case. Tools for quickly cracking WEP exist. It
will keep out the script kiddies, but anyone who takes the time to
research what's available will find what they are looking for. WPA, at
least for now, is better, assuming the vendor has implemented it
correctly.

---Matthew

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> In article <2Izpc.18431$(E-Mail Removed)>,
> (E-Mail Removed) says...
>> Plastic is on the counter,,, have Shirley get you a cold one..
>>
>> I'm about to setup my 1st router in the house,, I have a Linksys BEFVP41 coming,, I know I don't
>> need the encryption,, I just fell into a good deal on eBay..
<snip>
> Powerline works fine as long as you are comfortable with its rated
> speed. Most versions now offer simple encryption, won't keep the NSA
> from reading your email, but should be good enough for most purposes.
> RTFM and don't use power strips with surge protection between the outlet
> and the Powerline connector. Should work pretty much throughout your
> house, and just maybe next door (hence the inclusion of the encryption
> option). Best results so far are with Netgear XE102, best deal seems to
> be on Ebay at about $30-40.

It may run into serious problems in many houses, where various rooms
are on various 110V phases.

>
> As for those who think that GBs of data are needed to crack WEP, that
> turns out not to be the case. Tools for quickly cracking WEP exist. It
> will keep out the script kiddies, but anyone who takes the time to
> research what's available will find what they are looking for. WPA, at
> least for now, is better, assuming the vendor has implemented it
> correctly.

Can you give a pointer to any relevant papers or code on this "quickly"?

In article <OAaqc.4486$(E-Mail Removed)>,
(E-Mail Removed) says...
> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> >>
> > As for those who think that GBs of data are needed to crack WEP, that
> > turns out not to be the case. Tools for quickly cracking WEP exist. It
> > will keep out the script kiddies, but anyone who takes the time to
> > research what's available will find what they are looking for. WPA, at
> > least for now, is better, assuming the vendor has implemented it
> > correctly.
>
> Can you give a pointer to any relevant papers or code on this "quickly"?
>
The weakness is in the Key Scheduling Algorithm in WEP. The WEP keys
themselves are weak. This flaw causes allows they key to be "guessed"
based on statistical information derived from what are called
Interesting Packets. These packets have a problem with weak
Initialization Vectors. Some vendors have changed their firmware to
reduce the # of Interesting Packets. This means that tools like Wepcrack
and Airsnort are much less effective than they used to be. However,
there are tools / code out there that can inject Interesting Packets
into legitimate traffic thus cutting down the time required to derive
the WEP key. This technique will work whether or not the vendor has
fixed their WEP implementation.

The tools are WepWedgie http://sourceforge.net/projects/wepwedgie/ and
reinj.c from h1kari who wrote BSD Airtools (dont have the url handy).
They increase the number of interesting packets thus decreasing the
amount of time and number of packets required to derive the key.

---Matthew

On Mon, 17 May 2004 21:59:10 GMT, Ian Stirling
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in Message-Id:
<OAaqc.4486$(E-Mail Removed)>:

>It may run into serious problems in many houses, where various rooms
>are on various 110V phases.

I have successfully bridged phases for Powerline Carrier Current X-10
systems with a 0.01 mfd ceramic capacitor.


--

Irrational beliefs ultimately lead to irrational acts.
-- Larry Dighera, (E-Mail Removed)

On Thu, 27 May 2004 12:24:58 GMT, Larry Dighera wrote:

> On Mon, 17 May 2004 21:59:10 GMT, Ian Stirling
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in Message-Id:
> <OAaqc.4486$(E-Mail Removed)>:
>
>>It may run into serious problems in many houses, where various rooms
>>are on various 110V phases.
>
> I have successfully bridged phases for Powerline Carrier Current X-10
> systems with a 0.01 mfd ceramic capacitor.

Where'd you put it, in the breaker box? Yer makin me nervous.

--
Barry