How Power-line Networking Works

Power-line networking is one of several ways to connect the computers in your home. It uses the electrical wiring in your house to create a network.

Power-line networking is based on the concept of “no new wires.” The convenience is even more obvious in this case because while not every room has a phone jack, you will always have an electrical outlet near a computer. In power-line networking, you connect your computers to one another through the same outlet.

Because it requires no new wiring, and the network adds no cost to your electric bill, power-line networking is the cheapest method of connecting computers in different rooms.

In this article, we’ll talk about power-line networking and the technology used to make it happen. We’ll also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using a power-line network.

Pros and Cons of Power-line Networking

There are two competing power-line technologies. The original technology is called Passport, by a company named Intelogis. A new technology called PowerPacket, developed by Intellon, has been chosen by the HomePlug Alliance as the standard for power-line networking.

Here are the advantages of a power-line network:

It’s inexpensive. (This author bought a complete Intelogis’ PassPort kit to connect two computers for $50.)
It uses existing electrical wiring.
Every room of a typical house has several electrical outlets.
It’s easy to install.
A printer, or any other device that doesn’t need to be directly connected to a computer, doesn’t have to be physically near any of the computers in the network.
It doesn’t require that a card be installed in the computer (although there are companies working on PCI-based systems).

The new PowerPacket technology provides a couple of other advantages as well. It is fast, rated at 14 megabits per second (Mbps). This speed allows for new applications, such as audio and video streaming, to be available throughout the house.

There are some disadvantages to connecting through power-lines when using the older Intelogis technology:

The connection is rather slow — 50 Kbps to 350 Kbps.
The performance can be impacted by home power usage.
It can limit the features of your printer.
It only works with Windows-based computers.
It uses large wall devices to access an electrical outlet.
It can only use 110-V standard lines.
It requires that all data be encrypted for a secure network.
Older wiring can affect performance.

According to Intellon, PowerPacket technology eliminates many of these concerns, citing the following advantages:

It is very fast, rated at 14 Mbps.
It “avoids” disruptions in the power-line, maintaining the network’s connections and speeds.
It does not limit the features of your printer.
It can be compatible with other operating systems (depending on driver availability).
It may have the necessary circuitry embedded within the device, necessitating only a standard power cord to access an outlet.
It works independent of line voltage and frequency of current.
It includes encryption.
In tests, it showed no signal degradation due to older wiring.

Now let’s find out how each of these technologies works.

Methods

Intellon and Intelogis use different methods to establish power-line networks.

Intellon

Intellon’s PowerPacket technology, which serves as the basis for the HomePlug Powerline Alliance standard, uses an enhanced form of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) with forward error-correction, similar to the technology found in DSL modems. OFDM is a variation of the frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) used in phone-line networking. FDM puts computer data on separate frequencies from the voice signals being carried by the phone line, separating the extra signal space on a typical phone line into distinct data channels by splitting it into uniform chunks of bandwidth.

In the case of OFDM, the available range of frequencies on the electrical subsystem (4.3 MHz to 20.9 MHz) is split into 84 separate carriers. OFDM sends packets of data simultaneously along several of the carrier frequencies, allowing for increased speed and reliability. If noise or a surge in power usage disrupts one of the frequencies, the PowerPacket chip will sense it and switch that data to another carrier. This rate-adaptive design allows PowerPacket to maintain an Ethernet-class connection throughout the power-line network without losing any data.

The latest generation of PowerPacket technology is rated at 14 Mbps, which is faster than existing phone-line and wireless solutions. However, as broadband access and Internet-based content like streaming audio and video and voice-over-IP become more commonplace, speed requirements will continue to increase. Along these lines, Intellon’s OFDM approach to power-line networking is highly scalable, eventually allowing the technology to surpass 100 Mbps.

Intelogis

The older power-line technology used by Intelogis relies on frequency-shift keying (FSK) to send data back and forth over the electrical wires in your home. FSK uses two frequencies, one for 1s and the other for 0s, to send digital information between the computers on the network. (See How Bits and Bytes Work to learn more about digital data.) The frequencies used are in a narrow band just above the level where most line noise occurs. Although this method works, it is somewhat fragile. Anything that impinges on either frequency can disrupt the data flow, causing the transmitting computer to have to resend the data. This can affect the performance of the network. For example, this author noticed that when he was using more electricity in the house, such as running the washer and dryer, the network slowed down. Intelogis includes line-conditioning power strips with its network kit and encourages you to insert them between the wall outlet and your computer equipment to help reduce the amount of electrical-line noise.

Because the current crop of power-line networks are designed to work on 110-volt electrical systems, the technology is not very useful to countries outside of North America that use different standards.

What Choice Evokes the Best Response

Color is one of the most fascinating things in the world. It attracts attention, evokes emotion and can trigger the memory.

Something so powerful should not be taken lightly, especially when creating visual elements to a website, in an advertisement or for a brand. Colors can increase brand recognition, increase participation and provide brands with a competitive edge.

Of course everyone has a favorite color, but marketers should be aware of the meanings behind colors, as well as what colors yield the best response from consumers.

Red – This color draws attention, and is often the color that eyes are drawn to first. It is also known to increase the heart rate and create a sense of urgency, and is often used for clearance sales. Its complimentary color is green, however, adding just a spot of red can be useful in some cases, because it can accent other colors or draw attention to a specific spot of an advertisement or webpage. Big brands that are associated with the color red include Target and Coca-Cola.

Orange – This is an ambitious color. It is associated with fun and energetic times or citrus fruit. It is recommended for kid’s websites or call to action buttons, such as subscribe, buy or sell. The complimentary color to orange is blue. Brands associated with this color include Nickelodeon and the Home Depot.

Yellow – The color of the sun is associated with laughter and happiness. It is said to make people feel optimistic and youthful. In its brightest form, this color is often used to grab consumers’ attention. Its complimentary color is purple. Many brands are associated with this color, including Best Buy, McDonalds and Sprint.

Green – Who doesn’t love the color of money? This color is associated with growth, nature, wealth and can also be calming, depending on its shade. Its complimentary color is red. Brands that are associated with this color include Starbucks and Android.

Blue – This is probably the most popular color in the world, perhaps because it is the color of the sky and the sea. It is calming, and can be associated with dependability and security. It is used by many brands, especially banks. Its complimentary color is orange. Brand’s associated with blue include Facebook, Chase and, of course, Website Magazine.

Purple – This color is associated with royalty, and therefore represents sophistication and prosperity. It is often used with anti-aging and beauty products, and can be used to soothe or calm consumers. Its complimentary color is yellow. Brands associated with this color include Taco Bell and Yahoo.

Pink – This feminine color is best associated with romance. However, depending on the shade it can also be seen as sentimental or youthful. Many times this color targets women and young girls. This color is associated with Victoria Secret’s Pink line and Barbie.

Black – This is a powerful color (or absence of color). It represents authority, stability and strength, and is often seen used for expensive products. It is usually used in combination with other colors, especially white. Brands associated with this color include Nike, Adidas and Smashbox Cosmetics.

White – Simple and purity are two words that describe this color. It is often seen used is conjunction with black, or with health related products. While most brands won’t only use white, many use white in at least some aspect of their color scheme, including Apple, Volkswagen and Tylenol.
Posted Jan 19 2012, 07:51 PM by AllisonH

Speed Your PC Up

If you do not feel comfortable doing this yourself I (ThorTechServices) will do it for you. I can either come to you or we can do it remotely. Just let me know!

1. Unwanted software:
Remove all tool bars for your browsers. All of them. You are not so lazy as to be unable to type www.google.com or www.msn.com or whatever to get a search bar. They suck up resources. Then uninstall all trial software, games, and other bloat programs.

2. Be malware free:
Install a malware hunter such as malwarebytes. Or whatever one you’re comfortable with. Update and run a full scan.

3. Ensure your system is ok:
Click on Start and in the input box type “sfc /scannow” without the inverted commas and hit enter
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5 Bad Habits That Keep You From Selling More

By Larry Prevost, Dale Carnegie Training Instructor

A few weeks ago, I attended an in-house sales training session for one of the big Cleveland sports franchises conducted by Lance Tyson. Most of what this team handles are corporate ticket sales for suites, but I’m sure they handle a variety of other types of sales as well. They contact business owners, have contests, do call reviews… They do the same types of things that every other type of sales organizations does.

And all of their prospecting and sales activity is done over the phone.

On this day, Lance spoke on the topic of why some sales people have such a difficult time breaking into new accounts. See if you recognize any of these in your daily routine.

Habit 1: Sticking to People You Know

In our communication programs, one of the first activities that we do is to get people on their feet and participating immediately. We conduct a handshaking exercise where participants get to introduce themselves to other participants in the class. The main challenge at this point in the program is that everyone in the room is a stranger.
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Follow These 5 Guidelines to Sell Anything to Anybody

By Larry Prevost, ProspeX Sales Coach

I was sitting in a sales call with “Bob” and “Bill,” two of my favorite sales reps, as the president of our small company, “Bert,” prepped for a product demonstration. We were a newly formed consultancy helping other small business owners leverage the power of unified communications technology, lowering their costs while increasing their teams’ productivity.

I had worked with Bob and Bill on some previous tech projects, supplying everything from technical information to sales support. On this particular project, we were all partners and Bert had the lead role.

For this meeting, we used our rented conference room to control the environment and Bert was leading the sales discussion. I had my radar up because Bob had been on a previous sales call with Bert and had highly praised his ability to sell this idea to prospects.

Naturally, I was curious how Bert was achieving these remarkable results and I was dubious about the results that Bob reported. Hey, I may have worked in a few states, but today, I was from Missouri: You had to show me! So not only was I watching Bert like a hawk, but I was also watching the prospect to see how he responded.

And I noticed an interesting interaction.

First, there was nothing exceptional about Bert’s public speaking skills. He was in front of the room performing a canned presentation and demonstrating the product, but the presentation process was nothing exceptional, certainly not for the results that Bob was reporting:
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