Powerline Networking in Commercial building

[RandyParlee 0]

Hi all,

 

I've got a wireless IP camera in the back of huge grocery store but the customer wants to watch from the office in the opposite corner of the building. The distance is over 500' so we'd need fiber or repeaters if we wanted to cable it. The cost for cabling is too high for one camera.

 

What am I looking at if I wanted to do power-line networking? Is there going to be issues if it's not on the same circuit? Product recommendations would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

[Kawboy12R 0]

If it were me, I'd get a pair of cheap D-Link (or whatever's available) powerline adapters and see if they worked. If they don't work (or if an extra $60 or so isn't an issue for billing), then stick them in the toolbox for later and get a pair of ZyXEL PLA5205 based on the Home AV2 standard. They're quite a bit more money and you probably don't need the extra speed (depending on noise in that environment), but the new AV2 standard uses the best two out of three wires for the connection and, hopefully, that'll mean a better change of connection in a difficult environment at distance. It might also get rid of the possibility that the two 110v plugs you want to use are on different sides of the 220v in the panel. With the new AV2 standard using a hot, a neutral, AND the ground wire, my guess is that you'll have a better chance of them working. I haven't verified the "same leg of the panel" theory for powerline adapters by checking connectivity against properly labelled breakers, but I've run into difficulties getting two adapters connected and simply swapping wall outlets gave me connectivity. The new standard might get rid of that if it can run on any two of three wires instead of just whichever hot you've got in that plug and a neutral. The ZyXEL has an advantage over the Linksys PLEK500 AV2 adapters at a distance- http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/lanwan-reviews/32164-homeplug-av2-head-to-head