@Amiboy

Quote:

Which would be better to use to get my Sam460 on the internet. A Ethernet to wireless adapter or a powerline network adapter? If the powerline system is better (i.e. faster/more reliable) then does anyone know how best to set-it up? Many thanks to any sensible helpful replies.

I use a powerline network adapter with my SAM460 as didn't have a spare slot for a wireless card, it works fantastic, just plug them in, connect ethernet cables and off you go, so straightforward and easy to use, have had no problems whatsoever!

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SAM 460 with 2GB or RAM, 1000GB HD, 4 port SATA, DVDRW drive and Radeon HD 4650 GFX card.

@olegil

Quote:

so your opinion is: "I can't see what would be the point of this hobby, so I don't mind taking it away from other people". Nice attitude coming from someone on an _Amiga_ forum. I'm willing to bet ANYTHING that there's at least 100 times more ham operators than there are active Amiga users

I actually envisioned someone making exactly this response when I was typing the post.

I wouldn't want to intentionally take away from anybody elses hobby, but I am just not convinced there's a ham operator on every street in the country, I could be wrong, but say there's like 5 guys who are still into that hobby in my city, should everyone else have to be inconvenienced for them, when the chances are so rare there are any nearby?

For a comparison, say Flatscreen TVs interfered with Amigas, should we insist that all our neighbours on every street stuck to using CRTs just in case there was an Amiga user on their street? I don't think it would be unreasonable to say "there are so few Amiga users today, it's unreasonable to ask that", if it was the case I'd just use emulation on a PC.

I'm all for hobbies, but asking others to be inconvenienced or spending a lot of cash on the off-chance that there may be someone with a very niche hobby on your street seems a bit unreasonable to me, especially when there are alternatives now (listen on-line?).

@olegil

My sentiments exactly when I read that. There are around 2,000,000 amateur radio enthusiasts in the world, and many more shortwave listeners. Add to that what I said about VHF interference (especially on some of the faster PLA) that is a problem.

I thought Amiga and the Amiga user was all about elegance and efficiency. Piggy backing a noisy digital signal onto the mains doesn't seem elegant to me.

Quote:

olegil wrote: @danwood so your opinion is: "I can't see what would be the point of this hobby, so I don't mind taking it away from other people". Nice attitude coming from someone on an _Amiga_ forum. I'm willing to bet ANYTHING that there's at least 100 times more ham operators than there are active Amiga users

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Amiga A1200, 3.1 ROMs, Blizzard 1230 MKIV 64MB & FPU, 4GB DoM SSD, Workbench 3.1

@danwood

Plasma TVs (some) are also a problem for SW radio. See
here.

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Amiga A1200, 3.1 ROMs, Blizzard 1230 MKIV 64MB & FPU, 4GB DoM SSD, Workbench 3.1

@sicky

You could have used a WiFi bridge, that plugs into your Ethernet port on your Sam, just like a PLA would use but would use your WiFi connection instead. Only one box instead of 2 and much more EMC friendly (EMC = Electromagnetic Compatibility).

I use WiFi bridges in my IT world with great success.

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Amiga A1200, 3.1 ROMs, Blizzard 1230 MKIV 64MB & FPU, 4GB DoM SSD, Workbench 3.1

@A1200

It is a shame that technology like PLA and Plasma TVs cause problems for Hams, but that's just the world we live in today, the more electronics are prevalent in our homes, the more interference there will be, progress sometimes has a price...

I use home plugs because I cannot get wifi in the room I use for my computers, it's the most convenient and affordable solution for me, it's the same at my parents house, my mother's home office is located at the opposite end of the house from the router so a set of home-plugs are the easiest and cheapest way for her to work from home.

Plus, even if I could get wifi, I'd still struggle with configuring some devices, and I'd not be able to connect some of my ethernet only devices to the internet, and some that only let me use WEP wifi which my router does not support. PLA is useful for situations when wifi can't reach, and when cabling simply isn't an option.

I've seen demos of PLA causing problems on Youtube, but most of these seem to be from people using them in their own house, is there actual evidence of neighbours causing problems, and if so, how far does it go? If I use PLA and someone 10 houses along from mine is a HAM, will it cause problems for them?

From a complete outsiders view, nobody has answered this, but surely the Internet brings distant stations to you much more efficiently than a shortwave setup ever will?

Last edited by danwood on 02-Jul-2013 at 10:46 AM.
Last edited by danwood on 02-Jul-2013 at 10:45 AM.
Last edited by danwood on 02-Jul-2013 at 10:44 AM.
Last edited by danwood on 02-Jul-2013 at 10:38 AM.
Last edited by danwood on 02-Jul-2013 at 10:31 AM.

@danwood

Commented below:


danwood wrote:

>>It is a shame that technology like PLA and Plasma TVs cause problems for Hams, but that's just the world we live in today, the more electronics are prevalent in our homes, the more interference there will be, progress sometimes has a price...

There is no need or excuse for interference causing devices to be marketed. There are strict standards all manufacturers should follow.

>>I use home plugs because I cannot get wifi in the room I use for my computers, it's the most convenient and affordable solution for me, it's the same at my parents house, my mother's home office is located at the opposite end of the house from the router so a set of home-plugs are the easiest and cheapest way for her to work from home.

You could use a repeater.

>>Plus, even if I could get wifi, I'd still struggle with configuring some devices, and I'd not be able to connect some of my ethernet only devices to the internet, and some that only let me use WEP wifi which my router does not support. PLA is useful for situations when wifi can't reach, and when cabling simply isn't an option.

Wifi bridges are just as simple to use as a homeplug device and only need a power socket used at one end. Plus they are as cheap as chips.

>>I've seen demos of PLA causing problems on Youtube, but most of these seem to be from people using them in their own house, is there actual evidence of neighbors causing problems, and if so, how far does it go? If I use PLA and someone 10 houses along from mine is a HAM, will it cause problems for them?

Hams wouldn't complain to Ofcom etc. if they were the cause of their own interference. I have people who are old and don't have a lot of luxury who have been affected by this and its not fair when the Wirless Telegraphy act and EC standards was put in place to stop noisy devices getting on the market. The only time Ofcom were concerned with enforcing this was in the Olympic games in London, they were sure to keep interference to a min. Rest assured if you take an AM radio and tune into the noise and walk away from your house, you will see what the problem with PLAs is.

>>From a complete outsiders view, nobody has answered this, but surely the Internet brings distant stations to you much more efficiently than a shortwave setup ever will?

OK so what about when there is a local or national disaster? Ham operators all over the world provide comms for the emergency services as normally their communications are compromised.Also ham radio isn't all about talking to people, its the science of radio: experiementing and discovering new things. In fact, a lot of modern communications have derrived from breakthroughs in ham radio.

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Amiga A1200, 3.1 ROMs, Blizzard 1230 MKIV 64MB & FPU, 4GB DoM SSD, Workbench 3.1

@A1200

I'm surprised they cause so much interference against wireless networks. Given they run over cable I would have thought they could keep interference to a minumum. I've also read that EOP doesn't work on another circuit, such as between two units.

Then again, we have been subject to interference for years. If someone was running a power drill down the street we would see it. Mostly on the TV. Now we've gone digital the TVs are more sensitive. Open the fridge or flick a switch and the picture is gone momentarily. Some channels just break up at any given time thanks to the smaller weak attenna and booster box the TV guy thought would be best for our new digital setup. The older, bigger analogue attenna was no worse. Infact it looked better IMO.

Regarding wireless bridges, if they are easy to setup up they haven't been easy for long. I helped a friend set them up a couple years back when he tried to get two wireless routers to bridge but it didn't work and he didn't know why. We went through WDS bridge routers to wireless bridge mode routers which were hard to setup and if they lost the signal DHCP was usually turned off and there was no fallback. Totally flawed. I even flashed a router with DD-WRT to get a bridge mode. That's going too far! Also, the signal kept dropping out, so he just went back to dragging a cable from the lounge down the hallway to his computers.

Another thing is security. If you go wireless there is the concern of keeping it secure. Though with WPA2 that concern has died down. I get a bit obsesed. I turn off SSID, use a MAC filter and WPSA2-PSK minimum. Given smart phones aren't so smart when you have hidden SSID it's annoying to have it like that.

At the end of the day, if I may be inspired by the long gone sneaker-net (or is it?), cable-net is the best and fastest solution. Best with it wired properly in the wall with ethernet jacks. As long as you don't mind the labout and [arts of installing it or paying someone else too.

@all

Managed to get the TP-Link Powerline working.

Decided to re-pair and then selected manual setup.

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1 AmigaOne G4XE (OS4 Pre-Release Update4)
Minimig
Sam440ep + OS4.1FE
Sam460cr + OS4.1FE

@1Mouse

Reading the topic you replied on, I realized it is 7 years old !


@all

Are you still using the same Powerline adapter or did you upgrade as I see there are now speeds to 2.4 Gbps ?

@bennymee

Same powerline as before, not sure what speed they are supposed to reach.

Got to remember it is a Sam440ep running at 400mhz so even with a fast connection may not make a difference speed of loading internet pages.

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1 AmigaOne G4XE (OS4 Pre-Release Update4)
Minimig
Sam440ep + OS4.1FE
Sam460cr + OS4.1FE

I use powerline adaptors, they work really well.

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@1Mouse

Quote:

Got to remember it is a Sam440ep running at 400mhz so even with a fast connection may not make a difference speed of loading internet pages.

I find when going to Amiga pages such as OS4Depot for downloading software or even downloading Amiga updates that fast internet wouldn't matter, as Amiga sites are always slow. Or, they are slow where I live, I wonder if there is a cap of 200 KB/s. That's the best I usually see.

@Yssing

Same for me. I've been using a couple of powerline adapters at home, with ADSL/router at ground floor and receiver at 2nd floor. No issue at all. Since they were ageing, and more modern solutions have come, I recently updated them with a newer couple, so speed increased.