aychamo
Jun10-04, 09:17 AM
Hey guys!
In a magazine I was reading recently, they mentioned that they are now testing wireless internet over the power lines!
They said they've known for years that the powerlines are a great way to do such things, because they are nice copper cables that are run practically *everywhere*. They then said that they had problems because things like washing machines, and dishwashers and all those big current pulling devices created a lot of "noise" on the powerlines. But with WiFi or whatever, the frequency range is so much higher than the disturbance causing devices (MHz vs KHz I think), that the interferrence isn't really an issue anymore.
They then said that the problem was getting the internet access through things like voltage step-up and downs (transformers?), and that a lot of companies came up with good solutions for it. That is freakin awesome.
With a system like this, it seems you could just pay your monthly fee or whatever for the power company, and be basically anywhere there is electricity and get internet.
But, this leaves a question: How do accounts work on wireless internet providers? What stops me from giving my account info to all my friends and we all just use it at will? Or what if I pulled my laptop out and used it at mcdonalds, but my home network is still pulling it at home?
In a magazine I was reading recently, they mentioned that they are now testing wireless internet over the power lines!
They said they've known for years that the powerlines are a great way to do such things, because they are nice copper cables that are run practically *everywhere*. They then said that they had problems because things like washing machines, and dishwashers and all those big current pulling devices created a lot of "noise" on the powerlines. But with WiFi or whatever, the frequency range is so much higher than the disturbance causing devices (MHz vs KHz I think), that the interferrence isn't really an issue anymore.
They then said that the problem was getting the internet access through things like voltage step-up and downs (transformers?), and that a lot of companies came up with good solutions for it. That is freakin awesome.
With a system like this, it seems you could just pay your monthly fee or whatever for the power company, and be basically anywhere there is electricity and get internet.
But, this leaves a question: How do accounts work on wireless internet providers? What stops me from giving my account info to all my friends and we all just use it at will? Or what if I pulled my laptop out and used it at mcdonalds, but my home network is still pulling it at home?