Upgrading and Repairing PCs

Other Home Networking Solutions

If you are working at home or in a small office, you have an alternative to hole-drilling; pulling specialized network cabling; and learning how to configure TCP/IP, IPX, or NetBEUI protocols.

So-called "home" networking is designed to minimize the complexities of cabling and protocol configuration by providing users with a sort of instant network that requires no additional wiring and configures with little technical understanding.

HomePNA

Other than using Ethernet, the most popular form of home networking involves adapting existing telephone wiring to networking by running network signals at frequencies above those used by the telephone system. Other, less popular forms of home networking piggyback on household or office electrical wiring or are wireless, taking advantage of previously unused parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Because it is the most developed and most broadly supported type of home networking, this discussion focuses on the HomePNA standards the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (http://www.homepna.org) has created. This alliance has most of the major computer hardware and telecommunications vendors among its founding and active membership.

A companion Web site focusing on products that use HomePNA standards is http://www.homepna.com.

The Home Phoneline Networking Alliance has developed two versions of its HomePNA standard. Both versions are designed to work over existing telephone lines, but they have big differences in speed and hardware usage.

HomePNA 1.0

The original HomePNA standard, introduced in 1998, was designed to make home networking as much of a no-brainer as possible. HomePNA 1.0 has a speed of just 1Mbps, which is just 1/10 the speed of 10BASE-T or other forms of standard Ethernet. HomePNA 1.0 was designed for ease of use—rather than performance—and utilized parallel ports, USB ports, and PCI cards for use with desktop computers, and PC Card (PCMCIA) devices for use with notebook computers. HomePNA 1.0 is now obsolete, having been replaced by HomePNA 2.0; HomePNA 1.0 products can be used on the same network as HomePNA 2.0 products.

HomePNA 2.0

HomePNA 2.0–compatible products began to appear in late 1999. HomePNA 2.0 runs up to 10Mbps, making it comparable to standard Ethernet speeds, and is implemented through 32-bit PCI network cards for desktop computers and PC Card devices for use with notebook computers (see Figure 20.30). The newest HomePNA 2.0–compatible devices include broadband modems, Internet appliances, and broadband gateways. Some home-office computers include HomePNA 2.0 interface cards.

HomePNA 2.0–compatible products are fast enough to make Internet connection sharing a workable reality and are backward-compatible with HomePNA 1.0 products.

After HomePNA network adapters are installed, they use the same network protocols as do other adapters. A default installation might install only the nonrouteable NetBEUI protocol, but if you use your HomePNA network to share an Internet connection (see Figure 20.31 in the following section), you will also need to install the TCP/IP protocol on each computer if it is not already installed. See the documentation for your HomePNA router for details on installation and client configuration.

HomePNA Topology

HomePNA uses a simplified form of the bus topology described earlier in this chapter. The telephone wiring is the backbone of a HomePNA network, and each HomePNA network adapter has two connectors: one that connects to the telephone wiring in the wall and another that enables you to plug a telephone into the adapter and use the phone at the same time as the network is active. This passthrough feature is similar to that found on most telephone modems. Figure 20.31 illustrates a typical HomePNA network being used to share a broadband Internet connection.

Powerline Networking

Home networking via power lines has been under development for several years, but electrical interference, inconsistent voltage, and security issues made the creation of a workable standard difficult until mid-2001. In June 2001, the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, a multivendor industry trade group, introduced its HomePlug 1.0 specification for 14Mbps home networking using power lines. The HomePlug Powerline Alliance conducted field tests in about 500 households early in 2001 to develop the HomePlug 1.0 specification.

HomePlug 1.0 is based on the PowerPacket technology developed by Intellon. PowerPacket uses a signaling method called orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), which combines multiple signals at different frequencies to form a single signal for transmission. Because OFDM uses multiple frequencies, it can adjust to the constantly changing characteristics of AC power. To provide security, PowerPacket also supports 56-bit DES encryption and an individual key for each home network. By using PowerPacket technology, HomePlug 1.0 is designed to solve the power quality and security issues of concern to a home or small-office network user. Although HomePlug 1.0 is rated at 14Mbps, typical real-world performance is usually around 4Mbps for LAN applications and around 2Mbps when connected to a broadband Internet device such as a cable modem.

HomePlug 1.0 products include USB and Ethernet adapters, bridges, and routers, enabling most recent PCs with USB or Ethernet ports to use powerline networking for LAN and Internet sharing. Linksys was the first to introduce HomePlug 1.0 products in late 2001; other leading vendors producing HomePlug hardware include Phonex, NetGear, and Asoka. HomePlug 1.0–certified products bear the HomePlug certification label seen in Figure 20.32.

An improved HomePlug AV specification with support for faster speeds (up to 100Mbps), multimedia hardware, and guaranteed bandwidth for multimedia applications was announced in the fall of 2002; the final HomePlug AV specification and first products are expected in 2004.

Note The rival powerline network adapter technology known as the Consumer Electronics Association R7.3 specification has been discontinued. Based on Inari's Passport parallel-port network adapter technology, very few products were ever produced for this technology, which is not compatible with HomePlug. Inari is now owned by Thompson Multimedia.

Home Networking Compared to Ethernet UTP Solutions

The pricing of home networks is comparable to Ethernet UTP solutions, but which one is best for you? Use Table 20.13 to determine which way to go in networking your small office or home office. Networks are listed in order of speed, from slowest to fastest.

Table 20.13. Comparing Wired and Wireless Home Networking Adapters to Ethernet UTP Networking—Adapters

Network Type	Media	Speed
10BASE-T	UTP	10Mbps
HomePNA 2.0	Phone	10Mbps
802.11b	Wireless	11Mbps
HomePlug 1.0	Power	14Mbps
802.11a	Wireless	54Mbps
802.11g	Wireless	54Mbps
100BASE-TX	UTP	100Mbps
1000BASE-TX	UTP	1,000Mbps

In addition to speed and cable types, consider the issue of interconnecting a HomePNA network to a standard Ethernet network. You'll need a special PC Card or a HomePNA/Ethernet hub to interconnect the two networks, and some products of this type support only HomePNA 1.0 1Mbps speeds. You can't simply install HomePNA networking software onto a system that already has standard networking software installed; they aren't designed to coexist unless you use these types of dual-purpose hardware. HomePlug 1.0 has multiple-vendor support, but its real-world performance is the lowest of any nonwireless technology and fewer products are available than for other types of home networks.

I recommend HomePNA 2.0–compatible networking for use only in a home-office environment in which technical expertise is scant and installing UTP wiring is out of the question. With the current rock-bottom pricing of Fast Ethernet 100BASE-TX NICs and hubs, Fast Ethernet is very close to the pricing of HomePNA 2.0 products, offers 10 times the speed, and has compatibility with a broad range of network protocols. As you learned earlier in this chapter, 802.11-based wireless networks are now cost-competitive with home network standards and allow you to cut the cord and work anywhere.