2Wire HomePNA 2.0

HomePNA is also falling to HomePlug; the RF over powerwire scheme.

The installations I know of with HomePNA are solid....

Thanks David... I had an Intel like HomePNA 1.0 system (not compatible with HomePNA though). And that system was flaky. Like if nothing was happening it would time out or something and the connection was lost. Although it would automatically log back on a little while later. Worse Intel never updated the drivers for it. So that system wasn't too hot. Seemed to work well if you had activity going on though.

Wow HomePlug! I never heard of that one before. And I found a review from 2002 which might help others wanting to know more about it. Thanks again David.

Wireless has very low power. You can avoid most of the EMF by not sleeping with your router under your pillow.

And just a note, all devices which distribute network signals via house wiring will basically bath your entire house in a cloud of EMF. But if you stay 1' to 2' feet from the walls at all times you'll be safe. :)

Have you gotten rid of your cordless phones, baby monitors, etc...?

I have used PCI-PNA for at least 5 years and have never missed once..The early USB versions were pretty sad.

I have 4 PCs on line, one as a passive gateway to the internet so the others are always up no matter what kind of maintenance I do.

I get the top rated speed to the internet from each machine and PC-PC is excellent.

Since I live in a hi-rise apt surrounded with lots of steel and having no access to run cables to another area, I have been pleased with PNA. I tried wireless, but it was too flaky.

I did see some sort of neighborhood router that was supposed to interface with PNA but I saw no need to bother.

Oh no, I'm not thinking of harmful radio waves... I'm thinking of security. A few years ago there was a hackers convention in Las Vegas. And they had a contest who could hack into a system the farthest away. And one hacker group managed to hack in 51 miles away (they made their own directional antenna of course). While we not so hot people have trouble getting a signal just 600 feet away. :(

HomePlug has a few advantages:

- Coverage since you can use every outlet anywhere in the home

- Performance. If you can see other wifi access points, they are eating your bandwidth regardless of your signal strength

- Best for gaming

HomePlug if FCC and ARRL compliant so it isnt screaming EMF every where.

Jim

If you're running windows and have a wireless network set to WPA-PSK or better passwords, you're much more likely to have your computer infected from the Internet or your mail stolen than have your wireless network hacked. Unless you're a target with a special reason to be hacked it's easier just to swipe your mail or trash.

Yeah true and I live in the middle of nowhere. So it isn't a big worry at all. But still someone having access to the bank account is really unnerving. And because of one computer, I have to drop from WPA to WEP. And WEP can be cracked within 30 minutes or less. Using WPA would take someone months to crack it. But if you change the password within that time, they would be screwed. HomePNA is much better security-wise.

Speaking about breaking in from the Internet, I think that just happened last night. It sure looks like one computer on my home network was hacked in. Although this person is easily fooled into things. So I am not surprised. But I have stopped all file sharing within the network because of it. See:

Excessive Sessions Warning - "blaster type virus" [2Wire HomePortal

1000HG] thread.

Hi Bill,

months to crack it.

You may wish to revise those figures, WEP can now be cracked in 1-2 seconds and I have SEEN a demo of WPA being cracked in 8 seconds, however even the demonstrator said it usually took about 15- 20 seocnds to find the key.

The only current practical way to protect YOUR Data over Wireless is to use a VPN. That wont stop your Wireless LAN being used by others to transport THEIR Data, but at least it protects YOUR Data.

Cheers.............pk.

A word of caution Bill. 2Wire does not support HPNA anymore. 2Wire models 1701HG and later do not support HPNA. So if you need to replaced your 2wire HPNA gateway, ensure the model is any model other than

1701HG and 2700HG. Models 1000SW, 1000HW, 1800HW and possibly the 1800HG all support HPNA - check eBay

K> Anybody using these with 2Wire Routers? I'm all wireless, but I like the

Thanks King... Yes this is disappointing. According to 2Wire:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Exceptions: HomePNA is not available on the 1070, 1701 or 2700 HG-B, direct USB is not available on the 1070 or 2700 HG-B and Wireless is not available on the 1070

**&p_li=&p_topview=1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also SW and HW support wireless 802.11b. But I don't know what is the difference between them (SW comes with an Ethernet card perhaps?). While the HG models supports 802.11g.

And yes it is a buyers market right now on 2Wire products on eBay. Most models can be purchased for under $25. Which is a far cry from mine purchased from SBC for about $150. Well they had a $100 rebate so it was really $50, but still.

I moved to a place which has a ma & pop phone company which was never bought out by the old ma bell. And so far only 2Wire DSL modems work rock solid out here. And the local phone company's modems can't stay connected all of the time and they eventually burn out in a month or two.

Wow okay. I thought WPA with random letters and numbers as a passphrase would take a hacker months to decode. I know using a dictionary word takes far less time to crack.

And yes about VPN and I have read about it but I am still confused about it. I have to buy VPN software for each computer, right? And I can't use it if my ISP doesn't support it, right?

**&p_li=&p_topview=1>

Bellsouth is supporting and selling homeplug adapters. You may want to look on ebay or on the net too. Here is a link for the adapters on Bellsouths web site.

Jim

someone months to crack it.

And people can break into my house in less than a minute if they want to ram the back door. Home Depot, Lowest, etc... will sell you a fence post rammer for about $30 which is small, heavy, and has nice handles. It will open any door without large dead bolts connected to a steel door in a steel frame.

If someone wants into your network they'll get in. You're more at risk from bot attacks than someone picking your home network out and trying to break it. Or have you really teed off all your neighbors?

Hi Bill,

Yes you would need VPN S/W for each machine you wanted to protect (plus the VPN end-point), however there are VPN products for most platforms that are "Free/Low Cost". It all comes down to how complicated you want to get...........;-)

You also only need to terminate the VPN at your Wireless to Wired interface, so your ISP never comes into the game. As long as you have a VPN end-point in your Wireless Wired Router (IE somewhere on the Wired portion of your LAN), you would only need a VPN Client for each machine.

Cheers...............pk.

Well here is an update on my HomePNA. I'm on day 5 or 6 now and I got the USB HomePNA from eBay (4 of them). I'm only using 2 of them right now and I disabled my wireless which was running solid as a rock. One computer is directly connected by Ethernet.

DAY 1: It sucked. Got disconnected within 5 minutes to a few hours at a time. Had to disenable and reenable to get back on the LAN. IPCONFIG couldn't fix it. Install was very easy though. Install the driver and I was on the LAN. Nothing to setup or anything.

DAY 2: Same crap, different day

DAY 3: Things really improved. Just 2 disconnects all day

DAY 4: Windows XP said the connection was limited and offered to fix the problem. I allowed it.

DAY 5: Working solid as a rock! Go figure!

I know some DSL modems weed out noisy frequencies (called channels I think) over time. I don't know, maybe 2Wire does this too for HomePNA. Or that Windows XP actually fixed something. I have no idea what is going on. But it seems very stable now. No problems at all at the moment. Thanks everyone! And you too burris! ;)

I am surprised you chose HPNA over HomePlug. Why would you use phone lines when power outlets are all over the home?

Jim

Well Jim, because I am very pleased with 2Wire DSL/Wireless Routers (other brands won't work here) and they only support HomePNA for now. And it was only a few bucks to add HomePNA capabilities to a few computers, so it was worth a shot to experiment with. Although you can be sure I'll be playing with HomePlug next. ;)

This HomePNA started acting up a bit again. It does it like twice a day again. It will log back on automatically though and it screws up the webcam when it does it. I mean I have to restart it. Some other things have to be restarted too. :(

BillW50 wrote on 10/17/2006 11:23 AM:

Good luck. I was just curious.

I guess problems like what you are seeing are why Bellsouth stopped supporting it.

Jim