If you live in a really huge place or if your place is made out of bricks and not wood (like most places in India are), having a regular router with Wi-Fi just doesn't cut it. The signal loss from one room to the next is too significant not to notice and not too many places have ethernet cabling all laid out in every room. So how do you extend your connection without having cables running all over the place? Well for starters, you could buy another router for the room in question. But once again you will have to deal with the signal loss. There is another solution (mind you the technology is not new, it has been around for a while). It is called Broadband over Power Lines or BPL. With BPL, you can plug your computer into any electrical outlet in your home and instantly have access to high-speed Internet.
The idea of using AC (alternating current) power to transfer data is not new. By bundling radio-frequency (RF) energy on the same line with an electric current, data can be transmitted without the need for a separate data line. Because the electric current and RF vibrate at different frequencies, the two don't interfere with each other. Electric companies have used this technology for years to monitor the performance of power grids. There are even networking solutions available today that transfer data using the electrical wiring in a home or business. But this data is fairly simple and the transmission speed is relatively slow. We are going to look at a product (which is currently on sale in India) that can be used at home assuming you have an existing internet connection. And it is called the SlingLink TURBO.
The idea of using AC (alternating current) power to transfer data is not new. By bundling radio-frequency (RF) energy on the same line with an electric current, data can be transmitted without the need for a separate data line. Because the electric current and RF vibrate at different frequencies, the two don't interfere with each other. Electric companies have used this technology for years to monitor the performance of power grids. There are even networking solutions available today that transfer data using the electrical wiring in a home or business. But this data is fairly simple and the transmission speed is relatively slow. We are going to look at a product (which is currently on sale in India) that can be used at home assuming you have an existing internet connection. And it is called the SlingLink TURBO.
The SlingLink TURBO brings network connectivity to any electrical wall outlet, with speeds up to 85 Mbps. Not bad right? With four switched ports (or one, depending on the model you choose), it connects your Slingbox, game console, DVR, computer or anything with an Ethernet jack to your home network. Running your high-speed Internet through existing electrical wiring is as simple as a plug-and-play connection. And it works with any existing router. Usage is pretty simple:
- Plug the SlingLink TURBO into the wall electrical socket near your router
- Plug in the other SlingLink TURBO wherever you have your Slingbox installed or any other device that needs to be connected to the Internet
That's it. These days a lot of homes in India have inverters or other battery backups installed due to the frequent power outages, and this is a superb way of staying connected even if the power is out. As long as your electrical outlet(s) are connected to the inverter or a battery backup (along with the device trying to access the internet), you are good to go.
The SlingLink TURBO is currently on sale in India for Rs. 4,999 (~$100).
View the technical specifications of the SlingLink TURBO.
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