WiFi verses Powerline

[AMOS33]

If anyone is interested in this: I live at a RV Park that has free Wifi but the problem was how to ensure every customer receives access. We have discovered that Wifi coupled with Powerline adapters are the answer. If anyone is interest, post here and can share more.

[AMOS33]

alanrader wrote:
Hello, it sounds interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you sir. This last exchange was about "Power over Ethernet"(POE) versus "Ethernet over Power"(EOP), I reckon.


I have shared all that I have learned on this thread and my reason for doing so is to help my 'fellow traveler'.

My landlord who owns the RV Park where I am staying is quiet satisfied and is ready for "Broadband Powerline" when our Power Company can deliver it. And I will post on that when and if it does occur.

[alanrader]

Hello, it sounds interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[AMOS33]

Sorry for too much posting

[AMOS33]

Ended.

[eb145]

"Ethernet Over Power" is one of the technologies being discussed here. It is the same as "Powerline" technology.

There are many "Ethernet Over Power" consumer products available (google will show you some...). I have two of them I bought from Monoprice several years ago. They work pretty well in my home. They can be thought of as "Modems" that convert ethernet to run over the power lines in your house.

I am getting 7.4 Mbits/second on mine right now. Not great but saved me from running cat6 cable to where I needed to put my wireless access point this week for a temporary configuration.

You can't use them on power strips because the power strips do some filtering of the power which reduces or eliminates the signal.

How well they work will depend on the wiring between the two of them. Circuit breakers seem to not be a problem to them.

How well they will work in any given campground can't be known until they are tested. And the results may vary depending on where the endpoints are. And may vary depending on the brand of Ethernet Over Power equipment.

Ed

[AMOS33]

For those who may be interested. The Wifi at our park is serviced by
pole mounted APs with a range of 1.5 miles. These are directional antennas and have to be located close the main router. Obviously, I could not service every RV in the Park. So, I installed a pole mounted Range extender and covered about 70% of the guests. I had thought to continue that technique but it was getting counter productive.

So, I decided to think a bit and realized that with my park fully on PL, I did not have to have all my APs at a central location. This is a major plus and resolves a lot of issues with trees, blockages, etc. Now I can relocate my AP towers and ensure everyone gets adequate Wifi.

Will continue to report on this if there be an interest.

[AMOS33]

Bill.Satellite wrote:
AMOS33, thanks for the visit. I find the information to be very interesting and believe you have been able to wire the park with powerline devices. It sounds like a great application. Early adopters are often ridiculed for new ideas. If you have done this successfully, congratulations. Campground WiFi is notoriously bad (whether it qualifies as broadband or not) so anything that could make it more dependable, no matter the speed, would be an improvement.
I hope you don't go too far away but I certainly understand why you might. The very best to you!

Thank you sir. Our little park is ready should we obtain a bigger feed, nothing else needs to change. The park is ready for Gigabit speeds even tho we are currently limited to 'bonded DSL' at 20 Mb/s at the present. So the outlook looks bright even tho we are not providing "Broadband Powerline" services, it is still free.

[AMOS33]

Dutch_12078 wrote:

AMOS33 wrote:

America's First RV Park that offers both WiFi & Broadband Powerline (BPL) - Free!

Note that even the full 20Mb/s DSL backhaul you mentioned does not meet the FCC's 2015 definition of "Broadband". The current definition of broadband calls for a minimum 25Mb/s down and 3Mb/s up.

Thank you sir for that vital piece of information. Since my feed only allows for 20Mb/s down and 2.5Mb/s up, I shall make no further claim about "Broadband." I stand corrected.

[SCVJeff]

AMOS33 wrote:

SCVJeff wrote:
That doesn't mean you can't use BPL in the park to attach to remote routers. But... if there is a transformer in the way there will need to be coupling installed

Simple solution to that sir, since the signal cannot pass through a Transformer; you just jump over them pesky Transformers using a proprietary technique just invented which I shall call etiGate.

Thanks so much RV friends for letting me post here and since it does appear this thread is dead, I shall move on.

America's First RV Park that offers both WiFi & Broadband Powerline (BPL) - Free!

THIS may be proprietary but the technique has been around for over 30 years. Thats how all the old automation gear that needed to communicate across power line phases got the job done. The pieces are all out there.

[Bill_Satellite]

AMOS33, thanks for the visit. I find the information to be very interesting and believe you have been able to wire the park with powerline devices. It sounds like a great application. Early adopters are often ridiculed for new ideas. If you have done this successfully, congratulations. Campground WiFi is notoriously bad (whether it qualifies as broadband or not) so anything that could make it more dependable, no matter the speed, would be an improvement.
I hope you don't go too far away but I certainly understand why you might. The very best to you!

[Dutch_12078]

AMOS33 wrote:

America's First RV Park that offers both WiFi & Broadband Powerline (BPL) - Free!

Note that even the full 20Mb/s DSL backhaul you mentioned does not meet the FCC's 2015 definition of "Broadband". The current definition of broadband calls for a minimum 25Mb/s down and 3Mb/s up.

[AMOS33]

SCVJeff wrote:
That doesn't mean you can't use BPL in the park to attach to remote routers. But... if there is a transformer in the way there will need to be coupling installed

Simple solution to that sir, since the signal cannot pass through a Transformer; you just jump over them pesky Transformers using a proprietary technique just invented which I shall call etiGate.

Thanks so much RV friends for letting me post here and since it does appear this thread is dead, I shall move on.

America's First RV Park that offers both WiFi & Broadband Powerline (BPL) - Free!

[AMOS33]

westernrvparkowner

The "Poles" are the park pedestals. That 36Mb/s speed is the speed between my pedestal #33 and pedestal #40 which are 200 feet apart. The theorectical limit is 500Mb/s for these cheap Nano adapters but you can get them at Gb/s.

As to degradation with multiple users, I know not, but once I have them at capacity, perhaps I can post the results here.

There should not be a security issue since the Nano link looks just like a Wifi signal and they are programmable and must pair so that no one could just purchase one and join the link. In other words, you the park owner would own the first node and the resident would have to pay a deposit fee or whatever to get one for his RV. I assume this is the better way, so that no one gets charged for the improvements.

Because we all know that "free Wifi" access is a big plus.

Time for me to post a disclaimer here folks, I am just a novice tinker at this and by no means an expert on anything. Was just wanting to share some new technology with me fellow RVers.

Now it's time for me to leave to the experts which are many on this site, I am sure. Perhaps I shall make one final post and then move on to somewhere else.

[westernrvparkow]

AMOS33 wrote:
Dutch
"I'm trying to figure out how you're getting "36Mb/s to Pole 40" from a "20Mb/s DSL link". Which speed test are you using?"

Hi Dutch. The 36Mb/s is the max speed at a distance of 200'for that link between Pole 40 and Pole 33(my RV). Using Ookla speed test I am getting 8.58 Mb/s download and 1.86 upload with a ping test of 31ms.

The shorter the distance the greater the speed of the Nano links.

What are these "poles" you are referring to? Are they the park pedestals? Are they utility company poles? Is that 36Mb/s speed just the theoretical limit of the Powerline system? If so, how significantly does it degrade with multiple users on the same line, which would be the case if more than one user had an adapter on a line? How secure is the system should there be more than one adapter on a line? It sounds like such connections would be linked before the router or access point applied it's security protocols such as WPA2-AES. Do the adapters create a back door security issue?