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Review: Powering up a home network
By MATTHEW WAITE, Times Staff Writer Let's just throw some things out right away. I am not your typical computer user. I own three of them. Soon to be four. Wife permitting, a fifth will enter my home by the end of the year. Why? I have no good reason, my wife tells me. I don't read instruction manuals. I wanted to be the first kid on my block with a Linux server running the house. How hard could it be? After turning an old PC into a Linux box, it occurred to me that I should start reading manuals on the free-spirited techie's answer to Microsoft Windows. I hate reading manuals. I am skeptical. Of everything. It's just my nature. So when I was given Phonex Broadband's NeverWire boxes (www.phonex.com) and told to make my home network out of the electrical wiring in my apartment, the first thing I did was get the make, model and serial numbers of my computers' network cards. That way, when the juice from the wall fried them I could bill the Times for new ones. I'd heard of companies claiming they could convert your home electrical wires into a complete and fast data network. I chalked it up to the hooey of another soon-to-flameout venture capital waste. The Phonex box that I was told would work this networking magic looked like a typical nondescript computer peripheral: gray, upright, about the size of a hand. There's one cord to plug into an electrical outlet, one to connect to the computer's Ethernet connection. So I unplugged my existing Ethernet network and plugged the Linux box I use as my server into the NeverWire box. Then I walked into the kitchen and plugged my laptop into the wall and a NeverWire box. I use the laptop to design, build and test Web sites as a hobby. Its operating system is Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, and it runs Microsoft's Personal Web Server software. I walked back into the spare bedroom, brought up Netscape on the Linux box and punched in the Internet Protocol number assigned to my laptop. In a flash of Celeron-powered bliss, there was my Web page. I'll be. It worked. And it's really fast. There was no more magic required (other than the physics behind it, which I won't even attempt to understand). I plugged it in, and it worked. Of course, it helps if you have a network set up. But, out of a sense of professional responsibility, I read the instructions, and they give a clear guide on how to set up a basic Windows network. (They used Windows 98, but 95 and Me aren't all that different. Windows 2000, NT and Linux, however, are very different animals, so they require a lot of fiddling that's not in the manual. Macintosh computers can also use the network, but they're not covered in the manual either.) For those without a network, setting one up isn't all that hard. The instructions include a pretty good step-by-step. All the software you need is included in Windows' built-in networking system (so that's a bonus: no software to install and learn). The instructions show you where to go in the Control Panel, how to set up a workgroup, how to manually assign your computer an Internet Protocol or IP address. Even the most technophobic user could have a network up and running in about 10 or 15 minutes. There is no trick to telling the network where you are. You don't have to tell the box you're in the kitchen, bedroom, porch, garage or bathroom. It just knows. And networking allows more than one computer to share other resources. Say you have a broadband connection such as a cable modem or digital subscriber line. Now two, three or however many computers you want can surf the Internet on one connection. Printers can be shared, too. The practical side of setting up a network this way is simple: You don't have to wire up the house. Your house, apartment, condo, mobile home, whatever, already is threaded with electrical wires. So why not use them? One catch: If you're like me (and Heaven help you if you are), the area behind your computer is already a rat's nest of wires, and each plug is full. But that's a small problem, when you consider one of your wired alternatives is drilling holes in your wall and stringing Ethernet wire through your walls. There are alternatives that tap into your home phone outlets instead of the electrical system, but that means you have to have a phone jack within reach of each computer you want to hook up. You also could go wireless, but the knock on those are that your neighbors can tie into your network and surf on your Internet connection if it's not configured properly, and that appliances such as cordless phones and microwave ovens can interfere with them. Phonex is one brand of about a half dozen that will be coming out with products this year that say they can do the same thing. The Phonex NeverWire boxes cost about $130 each (you'll need one for each computer, printer or high-speed Internet modem), plus you have to get the network cards for your computers if they don't already have them, which will cost you from $20 to $120, depending on your needs. -- Matthew Waite can be reached at waite@sptimes.com.
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