[ALUG] Wireless networking

[Peter Alcibiades]

I've installed three homeplug sets and 5 wirelesses.  

The three homeplugs were working within a minute of unpacking and plugging in.  
I got them from Solwise, and basically they stayed tthat way.  Two of my own 
early plugs failed, one outside the guarantee period.  This was the first 
one, and the only one that had any problems, but it was early days for 
homeplug.  Solwise cheerfully replaced them by return mail, and on the second 
occasion when I told them they were outside guarantee, the answer was 'Oh 
don't worry about it'.

Its super easy to tell what's happening with the Solwise:  you either have 
three lights or you don't.  And you just plug in a spare, assuming you have 
one.  If it works, you know.

Of the wireless ones, only one has been trouble free either to get working or 
more worrying, keep working.  This one is with a Buffalo wireless router 
going into a Cable modem.  The others had a variety of issues and were from 
several suppliers, and with Mac and PC both.  Two worked perfectly, but later 
stopped working (and they are remote, so I don't know why).  One gave all 
kinds of mysterious intermittent problems. One worked fine on a Mac, worked 
with a laptop, and then stopped working first on the laptop and then on the 
Mac. I asked the owner if he wanted me to come by, but he said he was fed up 
and bought some Solwise units which he did himself with no problems and 
wondered why he had not done that sooner. The latest wireless to go poof did 
so last week, after working fine for a year, and with no change of the 
connected computers.

The problem is, some elderly lady is on the phone from a remote city, and its 
very hard to either get a coherent description of what's happening, or be 
sure that what you ask to have done is really happening.  This is with 
wireless.  On the other hand, look at the plug and tell me how many lights 
are on is very easy.

So I now tell people:
 
(1) get homeplug 
(2) get it from Solwise 
(3) you really want wireless, then
	-get the Buffalo
	- that is, get a separate access point not a wireless modem/router
	-get a man in.  I don't do that anymore....

The netgear 5 port wired modem router has been fine.  I've put in three or 
four of those.  The great thing is it runs cool, it seems very reliable, and 
the user interface is easy for people to use.  By contrast, the bargain wired 
router/modem from ebuyer works fine once its in, but heaven help the ordinary 
user who tries to set it up.

Well, just my own experience. 

Peter