I realised the title may be misleading when seen with the picture on first glance - so to avoid confusion, the pictured Netgear powerline networking adapters are awesome devices, see below for my review. The title refers to a rant about networking in general in the latter half of the post.
Over the weekend, I decided to move a computer from one part of the house, to another. In this new location though, the wireless network signal was too weak to be useful, and me being lazy, could not be bothered running a network cable to this part of the house. That really only leaves one option for networking - powerline networking. Powerline networking (aka HomePlug) is a technology where by you can bridge the gap between your network and your computer using the existing power cables and sockets built into your house. (Not to be confused with Power over Ethernet, which allows you to transmit power over your network cables.)
The prominent ones are the Netcomm HomePlug devices, and the Netgear Powerline range of adapters. There are two speeds too - the older ones run at a theoretical max of 85Mbps (just under standard network speeds of 100Mbps but faster than wireless-g which runs at 54Mbps), while the newer ones run at a theoretical max of 200Mbps (double standard network speeds if it is to be believed). I ended up getting the Netgear Powerline HD Network Kit HDXB101, mainly because they look better than the Netcomm ones.
Fully knowing how difficult it is to setup most network devices, except maybe a standard hub or switch, I expected a long, frustration, google-filled experience. But nope, I was very surprised - just take these two devices out of the box, plug one into the power point near the existing network setup (i.e. where a network cable is available), hook up the plugged in device with a network cable to the hub/switch, then plug in the other where your computer is, connect it to your computer using a standard network cable, and you're done! It worked right out of the box, no drivers, no need to read instructions, no setup wizard; this was genuine plug-and-play. And as a bonus, the signal comes encrypted out of the box!
I have a multiple-phase electricity system, and even though it says you shouldn't connect it to power boards and extension cords, it still worked fine. Speeds are very comparable to a standard network cabled-only connection.
These devices don't come cheap - the two above cost around 280 bucks in total. But it is definitely a worth while alternative to manually wiring your house. In fact, I'd recommend it over a wireless network in some situations, unless you actually need the ability to be completely cord-free.
--- rant starts ---
But the experience I had with this network device is far from the norm. Even after the years we've had wireless routers, there are still tons of networks out there without encryption, and worse, many average users have no idea how to install them (even after reading the often cryptic installation manual). At least now, most routers include software that helps with the discovery of the router, the setup, and some even enforce wireless encryption.
This is only the tip of the iceberg though.
The networked household has begun, and over the next few years we will begin to see more and more devices to be hooked on to the home network. Even now, many have media centres like MCE, Apple TV and Tivos, Bluray disc players, IP cameras, and wireless music streamers like the Squeezebox and SoundBridge all hooked up. Some of these devices have their own interface for users to set things up - these devices generally work without a problem, and are easy to use on their own. But other devices don't, and have to be setup on the computer, or may need to interact with the user's computer and/or other devices; this is where the user is in trouble.
With all the fearmongering going on about the internet and security, it is not uncommon to see users with all sorts of security programs installed, especially firewalls (in worse cases, more than one). But ask the user to explain what they actually do, and I'll bet 9 out of 10 won't have any idea. So how the hell are they expected to setup their devices, without any understanding of what TCP or UDP is, what a port is and what direction the data is moving? They probably can't even access a device's HTTP web interface because they have no idea what the IP address is, or what an IP address is for that matter!
I had to help setup an IP camera system from off-the-shelf parts with remote access over the phone recently to your typical user. All I have to say is, good luck trying to explain the difference between opening ports on your computer, and opening ports on your router, especially if there are more than one device and both are set by default to HTTP port 80, among other things. Don't get me started on how stupid the Netgear router setup interface is.
Universal Plug and Play (uPNP) was designed to help mitigate this issue by creating a standard discovery protocol, and a standard way of communicating between devices on a network, including computers. But from my experience, apart from maybe the AV side of things, it is a big failure. I've never seen it promoted as a way to connect devices to a network in any of the instruction manuals I've read, and most only offer the feature in a hidden menu on the device - the main features and interface all occur outside of uPNP.
The problem with networking at the moment is that it is too complex. It was designed as enterprise technology, then brought down to the home space without much consideration as to the usability of it. And now, with home networks taking hold, it needs to be fixed, or we'll be stuck with an unworkable system for the user, eventually stalling the uptake of networked devices.
For starters, there needs to be a standard discovery protocol for all devices, and operating systems need to support and integrate this.
Secondly, any device-specific information such as drivers for protocols, new or special uPNP profiles or firewall settings should be stored on the device itself, and there should be a standard protocol that allows another device/computer to download and utilise that information for auto-configuration. If that information is not available on the device, provide a URL for the device/computer to check for the newest updates.
Continuing from the previous point, thirdly, there needs to be a standard for firewall settings definition that all software firewalls on computers can understand and act on. The user should not have to tinker with the ports and other crap directly - the device should push out a settings file to the firewall directly, or the user should just have to 'import' the settings into their firewall. If the device needs external access from the internet, then it should be able to push a standard firewall settings file to the router as well, and the router should be able to open the required ports.
Finally, if the device is wireless, simplify the security system by making the device request authentication with the wireless access point/router. If the device is new, a new entry will appear in the router's setup interface, and you can authorise or deny it within the next 5 minutes. Yes, this means everyone with a wireless network nearby will know about your new device, but unless they know when you activated it, the risk of them authorising it on their router instead is minimal, and if so, a simple reset of the device will allow a retry. Once authorised, it will be authorised until removed from the router's approved list. This way you don't have to connect the wireless device by cable and setup the wireless settings first. Of course, the existing system of having a passphrase is shouldn't be scrapped as it is still useful in some situations, e.g. hotspots only accessible for clients.
These four points are nothing extraordinarily big or hard to do, just requires effort and collaboration between competitors. But seriously, I think they all benefit out of it as well, because I'm sure over 50% of their tech support calls can be traced back to network/firewall configuration issues.
If something isn't done, I'll probably go nuts with everyone asking me to help them setup their internet fridges, internet microwaves, internet alarm clocks, internet air conditioning, internet cameras, internet security systems and who knows what else. Think of the customer, the users, and the poor people who have to support your non-user-friendly products!
UPDATE (14/08/2007): Revised the fourth point to allow for cases when there are multiple routers around, which is quite common.
UPDATE (18/08/2007): Added title explanation at top of post to avoid misunderstanding.
UPDATE (20/08/2007): Here's a similar post over on zdnet's Hardware 2.0 blog about broken wifi - http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=683