Cactus TurboNet Newsletter February 2008               

   Ethernet over Phone Wires

If you’re in an older home or business, it can be a pain to re-wire for Ethernet.  And wireless doesn’t work well over multiple floors or long distances, or through brick or cement.  If you’ve got phone outlets in each room, they can be used (with a little help from technology) to provide a very high-speed network for your computers.  The Home PNA Ethernet bridge needed is $69.95; you’ll need one in each remote room you’re networking, and one (or one for each phone number, if you have multiple numbers) at the switch or router.

Connect the Line jack of the Ethernet bridge to a phone jack.  Plugging a phone into the phone jack on the bridge is optional.  Connect the Ethernet jack to your computer or switch.  The bridge actually has two Ethernet ports.  If you have more than two computers in one room, you may connect a hub, switch, or router instead of a single computer as shown.

As you can see, the telephone in each room can still be used, even while the computer is on.  The bridge uses a higher-frequency signal, similar to ADSL, which doesn’t interfere with your telephone.

   Apartment Buildings

For large apartment buildings or office buildings, each tenant has his own phone number, so the solution above doesn’t work well.  For these applications, we usually use single-building ADSL.  We have small DSLAM’s (ADSL aggregation equipment) which we install near the phone panel in the building.  We run each phone line through the DSLAM before it goes out to Verizon’s phone network.  So whether a particular tenant has Verizon phone service or not, he can have inexpensive ADSL. 

ADSL under the above system is much less expensive than when the signal must run over Verizon’s phone lines back to Verizon’s ADSL equipment.  Many landlords will even provide it for free to gain more renters for their building.

There are other ways to connect an entire building’s occupants to the Internet.  Wireless works well for small buildings which don’t have multiple floors.  Even with multiple floors, we have special wireless equipment which penetrates much better than the average wireless router.

If a building already has Ethernet wiring in the walls, of course, inside wiring is a snap.  As with all of the above, of course, you still need to connect the entire building to the Internet.  This may be done through ADSL, high-speed wireless, fiber optic – the exact method depends on what is available in your location.  Ask us.