Ethernet over Power

[nb705]

Hi,

 

I'm just wondering if anyone has used any of those homeplug whatsits in a live gig scenario? I know that they will all have to be on the same phase to work, but I'd like to hear if anyone has any stories about stability. I'm also worried about introducing HF noise into the mains, and the effect that may have on some pieces of equipment.

 

If on the other hand no one has tried these yet in a gig or festival scenario (I know they work fine at home, and I think that d0mest1c use is pretty o/t) then I'll be testing them at a decent sized festival next weekend. We'll be using them for remote control of processors and for text based comms etc.

 

Along those lines, if anyone has any suggestions for useful software (like lightweight IM clients that don't need a real server, and collaborative spreadsheet software) they would be most appreciated!

 

Thanks

[dbuckley]

I went looking for the phone line variant which I think would quite happily work down a multicore line, its jujst a balanced phone line. PhoneNet I think its called, but it seems to have vanished due to lack of popularity.

[danburns]

If you're running windows, I've used Network Chat before (details available from here and a direct link to download the exe is here).

Took a couple of minutes setting up but after that worked no problems (it doesn't autodetect other clients on the network, which I quite liked as it means I could have a few different rooms on the same network) but it supports 1 to 1 messaging as well.

 

Plus, it's freeware, which is always nice!

 

E2A - just had a thought. If you've got a spare computer, could you use that as your collaborative spreadsheet, and run excel and a copy of VNC server on it, and all other machines have VNC client to connect when they need to see the document? I know programs like word and excel have a hissy when I try to load the same document on more than one machine!

 

Mods - please feel free to cut bits if I'm sailing a bit close to the IT side of things!