This is the information I couldn't really squeeze in without side tracking my entire point.
There are "good" extenders, that use different channels/radios, but the cheap ones people buy are not those.
MystikIncarnate
joined 2 years ago
Wi-Fi is convenient more than anything. You just have to know the right passphrase and as long as you are in range, you can get in.... In most cases.
When it comes to WiFi, I'm a fan of many smaller and lower power access points vs a few high powered ones. This is rarely the case in residential situations though. Most people buy a single, high powered Wi-Fi in the form of a all-in-one wireless router, and call it a day, then almost exclusively use Wi-Fi and wonder why it sucks, then go buy a newer more powerful unit once one is available.
My motto is: wire when you can, wireless when you have to. Devices like laptops, tablets and phones, usually do not have Ethernet built in, or are too mobile to make it practical to use. Meanwhile anything that doesn't move, like TVs, desktops, etc, need a wire run once, and it will work perfectly until the building falls over.
That's a lot of return on the investment of running the cable once.
I usually prefer all home runs (everything going back to a central point) but networking is diverse, so using a cable to get to an area, then using a switch to serve that area is entirely valid. Just don't Daisy chain too many switches or your going to have a bad time. Whether that link is copper, fiber, MoCA/coax, doesn't matter... As long as it's reliable and fast.
In any case, I have at least 8 access points serving my home, and they need to be moved, since I still have one spot that's a dead zone.
This is the way.
Hobby shamer
In the USA maybe.
Everywhere else it's pretty common.
I literally have all my small device boxes in a reusable tote box in a storage location at my house, and larger boxes for TVs and stuff sitting next to it.
I keep this stuff for warranty, resale, and a place to store any unused or unneeded additional items that came with the device. Maybe a cable or power brick, since I have most of my power/charging needs already solved, or documentation like receipts or included user manuals or something... Depending on what came with the device. Whether it's a cellphone box or something like a Google/nest home speaker thing or whatever.
This only serves as a reminder to go through it sometime. My SO sold her phone without me being involved (she's a strong independent person, so I'm not upset about it at all), but I know the box for the phone she sold is still in there somewhere. If I had known she was intending to sell it, I would have fetched the box for her to sell with it, and honestly that's the only part of that I'm somewhat disappointed with. Now I have to find the box and get rid of it.
Boxes for larger items like TVs are great to have on hand when moving, since I can care a bit less about what's placed in/around the TV, since I just pack it in its original box which has plenty of protection for the screen.
I may discontinue the practice in the coming years since, a few years ago, we moved into a property that we own rather than one we are renting. Once I feel established enough that we're not going anywhere, a lot of those larger boxes are headed for the shredder.
"Saving every box", is a hobby.
Are we hobby shaming now?
This.
Also useful for warranty/returns.
For larger items like TVs, there's specialized packing material, which if used correctly, can better protect the TV from damage during a house move.
There's a lot of good reasons to keep this stuff.... Just, put it in a closet somewhere and forget about it. Every time you add anything to the collection, go through what you have and throw out any boxes for things you no longer own. Maybe they were damaged, maybe they were stolen, who knows, but if you're adding to the pile, something can very likely be taken away from the pile too.
No.
"square" aka Robertson
Alien can be boiled down to simply meaning "foreign". As in, not coming from the wire bundle that is used for the connection.
Crosstalk is the term usually used for interference coming from other pairs in the same bundle, which should be minimal due to the electrical/magnetic properties associated with twisted pair.
Alien interference is any inference from an outside source, usually by inducing a current on the Ethernet pairs, that shouldn't be present. Usually this results in corruption of the data in transit or a failure to sync (and establish a connection at all).
No extra terrestrial interference was meant to be implied; though, I'm not excluding the extra terrestrials from creating interference; I'm sure if such beings exist and are here, they could interfere, but that wasn't the intention of my statement.
Alien inference is a very common term in wireline networking. I'm surprised you haven't heard it.
You are the subset of people who happen to be in a situation where they're working as they should. I'm going to guess that you're not in North America, and live somewhere with 240v power outlets.
In any country that uses 120v, usually it's split phase power, and if your powerline adapters are sharing a phase with something that's inductive or crossing the split in the phase, generally they're going to be rubbish. So you basically need a degree in electrical engineering to figure out what circuits are on what side of the split phase, and what is on each circuit that may be an inductive load, and could interfere, just for them to perform like they should.
There's a whole lot more to it, and I'm simplifying a lot here, but that's the overview of the problem.
With UK power circuits, there are fewer breakers and everything is fed from a single phase of 240v. That makes it much more likely that you'll have a good experience with powerline. Just have to avoid the circuit with stuff like your air conditioner (if you have one) and stuff like the fridge, and generally you do quite well with powerline.
Ethernet is still better tho. Heh.