Looking for "Home Plug" knowledgeable people.
I'm looking for efficient ways to hook up WiFi in hotels and need some info on Home Plug technology.
Here is the scenereio...
In a hotel, most WiFi installers usually go from:
Internet > Internet gateway > switch > CAT 5 cable > hidden access points (hidden so they won't be stolen)
or
Internet > Internet gateway > switch > CAT 5 cable > ethernet wall jacks in hotel rooms
One big expense is the installation of CAT 5 cable going to the switch. There is a technology with a generic name called Home Plug. This converts the ethernet output out of the switch to a special signal that can ride over the AC wiring in a hotel.
You can take a special device in each hotel room that will extract this special signal into an ethernet signal again. In effect you have extended the ethernet signal from the switch to the hotel room.
Different manufacturers call their Home Plug equipment different names.
On the surface this seems to be a pretty good way to extend ethernet signals from the switch...at least if you want the signals in each h otel room. So this is good for a wired system.
But...
If you want wireless, it seems to me that this home plug system can be more expensive then stringing CAT 5 cables to the hidden access points, which are usually in hidden locations in dropped cielings...where there is no AC plug from which to extract the ethernet signal.
So if a hotel wants wireless, then you must hire an electrician to install AC outlets where each access point is located.
Plus the injection point for the signals must be done by an electrician.
All this can add on to the expense considerably in a hotel situation as compared to just stringing CAT 5 cables.
Plus Home Plug still doesn't do away with the Internet gateway and the switch, nor the access points if you want wireless.
It's just an efficient way to get ethernet to the rooms. But if you want to get ethernet to the access points (which are usually not in rooms to prevent theaft), then it seems to me that you have added on to your expenses considerably if you use Home Plug as compared to just stringing CAT 5 cables. This is assuming the CAT 5 cables can be easily strung (which they usually can).
One company that sells Home Plug is Telkonet in MD. Their advertising makes it look like a total solution, when it really is just a method to extend the ethernet over the AC power lines in hotels. They still need an Internet gateway and switch...and access points if they are going to be wireless. Plus you have to add AC power recepticles next to the hidden access points in a hotel, which is more expense.
So I'd love to hear the pros and cons of Home Plug. To help educate me on this subject.
Just in case I'm in a situation where the hotel owner wants just wired ethernet in a hotel room, who is a good company that makes this equipment, whereby I can still use my own Internet gateway and my own switch.
Does this Home Plug distribution of the ethernet signals over the AC power lines act as just one big switch (as opposed to a hub, which is less efficient and slower)?
This seems to me that this would be much slower then using CAT 5 lines from a switch to the access points.
Also I would think this method of power line distribution is LESS SECURE since the ac power lines also go outdoors where other people could access the signal and hack into the system.
Thanks so much for any help on this.