I need to find out if there is anyone or company that have developed a
way to connect computers through electrical wires without the use of
any hardware, simply through a software installed on two PCs and
enabling them to communicate through existing home electrical wires.
If there is anything like that I need to know if they can connect
computers at any distance apart or are there distance limits.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 09 Mar 2006 14:19 PST

ibrahimrayyan-ga,


It is possible to create a network through the electric lines in a
house, but as far as I know, all options require a hardware interface
to function.

Here's one example:


http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1115416876218&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper


Is this the sort of thing you're looking for?


pafalafa-ga

Yes, there is (or was back in 2001) a company that is/was testing
broadband using the electric grid in Reston or Ashburn, Virginia.
Sorry I can't be more sepcific, but that's for a Researcher to do!

Last summer I ran across an article that mentioned Mitsubishi of Japan
was testing and intended to impliment this technology. I cannot recall
the source of the article.
Link to article was from www.fark.com. (a link site)

No...this is NOT a software only solution...WHAT YOU PROPOSE WOULD BE
IMPOSSIBLE as today's computers are not built to have data coming
through the electrical cord! think about it...how would you have data
coming through the electrical cord into your motherboard without some
kind of hardware?  You need a BPL modem.

The tech is called BPL or PLC(broadband over power line, powerline
communication)...

See these links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_P1901
http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/1901/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_line_communication


Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) aka Powerband is the use of PLC
technology to provide broadband Internet access through ordinary power
lines. A computer (or any other device) would need only to plug a BPL
"modem" into any outlet in an equipped building to have high-speed
Internet access.

BPL offers obvious benefits over regular cable or DSL connections: the
extensive infrastructure already available would appear to allow more
people in more locations to have access to the Internet. Also, such
ubiquitous availability would make it much easier for other
electronics, such as televisions or sound systems, to hook up.
However, variations in the physical characteristics of the electricity
network and the current lack of IEEE standards mean that provisioning
of the service is far from being a standard, repeatable process and
the amount of bandwidth a BPL system can provide compared to cable and
wireless is in question.

High-speed data transmission, or Broadband over Power Line uses the
electric circuit between the electric substations and home networks. A
standard used for this is ETSI PLT.

PLC modems transmit in medium and high frequency (1.6 to 30 MHz
electric carrier). The asymmetric speed in the modem is generally from
256 kbit/s to 2.7 Mbit/s. In the repeater situated in the meter room
the speed is up to 45 Mbit/s and can be connected to 256 PLC modems.
In the medium voltage stations, the speed from the head ends to the
Internet is up to 135 Mbit/s. To connect to the Internet, utilities
can use optical fiber backbone or wireless link.

Much higher speed transmissions using microwave frequencies
transmitted via a newly discovered surface wave propagation mechanism
have been demonstrated using only a single power line conductor. These
systems have shown the potential for symmetric and full duplex
communication in excess of 1 Gbit/s in each direction. Multiple WiFi
channels as well as simultaneous analog television in the 2.4 and 5.3
GHz unlicensed bands have been demonstrated operating over medium
voltage lines.

Differences in the electrical distribution systems in North America
and Europe affect the implementation of BPL. In North America
relatively few homes are connected to each distribution transformer,
whereas European practice may have hundreds of homes connected to each
substation. Since the BPL signals do not propagate through the
distribution transformers, extra equipment is needed in the North
American case.
[edit]

Definitely not possible, as commented by the Canadian fellow (you can
always beleive Canadians!)

Power supplies filter out most "noise" from the powerline. plus the
signal is rectified and smoothed with a bunch of capacitors.  There is
no way to get data out of the powerline (let alone put it on) with
just software.

If powerline data transmission caught on (and there are lots of
companies working on it - see http://www.homeplug.org/en/index.asp )
the hardware could be incorporated into a computer so that you didn't
see it, but it would still be there. But contrary to what every
software guy would like you to beleive, SW guys need HW guys and
vice-versa.  :)

One of the challenges of long distance powerline data communications
are the transformers on the pole outside your house, or at the local
transformer station.  You need to 'jumper' the data around these or
you lose it.  Some are starting to look at short-range wireless as an
easier means to do that than previous thoughts- actual jumper
hardware.

I would like to thank you all for your comments and valuable
information. I would like to mention the following for those
interested in the subject or those who can help in developing the
project that we have in hands. First of all I would like to clarify
that I am not a technical person and that I am only in charge of the
marketing and business side of this invention.

I understand those who said that it is impossible to connect computers
through electricity without a hardware, but we have in handes now is a
purely software solution to do that, at the begining it was hard to
beleive until a demo was presented to me. I won't go into any details
at this stage, but I will simply describe what we have ready now, and
the way we guarantee a demonstartion to anyone intereted in helping in
the business side of it:
- You can bring any two or more computers you like, make sure they
don't have any hardware to support connecting through electriciyt or
BPL.
- We will simply install our software on the two computers or more
that you provide. Those computers will only be connected into the
power source through the normal power supply cable, no other
connections and no wirless connections what so ever.
- We will then demonstarte that we will connect these computers to
each other, and as a proof of connection we will transfer a big file
from one computer to the other at an unbeleivable speed.

If you think you are interested in buying or helping to sell this
invention then we are interested to talk to you. If you have other
thing you would like us to demonstarte as a proof of connection then
please let me know and I will inform you if we can do it or not. We
will arrange for a full demo when things get serious.

If you are interested please email me at:

ibrahimrayyan@gmail.com

Again, thank you all.

Best regards,
Ibrahim