I wish for wifi access

I hope that wifi access is in the pipeline. Risc looks like quite a good OS. My isp router is in another room, so a direct cable connection is not possible now. However it runs on my PI, when some many others have failed. Thanks very much.

so a direct cable connection is not possible

Devolo Powerline adapters work very well with RISC OS Pi

Has anyone made contact with a “smart phone” OTG cable?

I’d be interested in learning more about Devolo Powerline adapters. If Risc does not support wifi, how can I actually connect to it? Is there a tutorial I can view? Very much in the early days of using Linux. Thanks very much.

Powerline adapters help bridge the air gap between networkable systems in general – it doesn’t matter what they are running – in one room and another. You plug an Ethernet cable into your router and one powerline adaptor, and anoterh Ethernet cable into your ‘PC’ and the other powerline adaptor. It simply works.

Beware if your house is hooked up to three phase. Not usual in England, pretty common here in rural France (maybe other rural places like Wales?).

Why? Because the power line gizmo spits data to the phase it is connected to. The sockets in the other room might be on a completely different phase, and so the two simply won’t connect to each other.

There’s a nice trick to get round that: a small HT capacitor between the phases at the meter lets the signal across from one to the other, without letting a signficant amount of 50Hz across at all.

Powerline adapters help bridge the air gap between networkable systems in general – it doesn’t matter what they are running – in one room and another. You plug an Ethernet cable into your router and one powerline adaptor, and anoterh Ethernet cable into your ‘PC’ and the other powerline adaptor. It simply works.

I wish.

I’ve got three powerline adapters in the house for the areas that I can’t get cables to without major disturbance. They don’t work reliably at all. The network will lose connection over those links for a minute or so at a time.

Unfortunately they’re on circuits protected by three different RCCBs, which are exactly what you don’t want for power line networking.

It used to be possible to get Ethernet wifi client adapters, or wifi access points with a client mode, but they seem to have ceased to be available.

Stuart hoped

Powerline adapters…simply works.

On the same ring main, sure.

But if one is upstairs and one downstairs then they’ll be on different rings. These days, each ring will be protected by an RCD device, so the Powerline signal has to go the ‘wrong way’ through one RCD, across the power bus, and then the right way through another RCD… and here’s the problem:

RCDs are not designed for signal transmission, so whereas RCDs from one manufacturer will be as electrically transparent as pure gold in that frequency band, an RCD from another manufacturer will severely impede the signal.

An industry specialist I consulted found that some common RCDs reduce the Powerline signal by 50%. In addition, there’s little point paying for a more expensive “faster” one, as in a real installation they’ll never be able to maintain that connection and will have to revert to the original speed.

I have just replaced Powerlines that I’d used with patchy reliability over a decade or more with a mesh wifi of Mercusys Halo boxes, which are brilliant – not only do they boost your WiFi throughout the house, and use beam shaping tech to optimally target your mobile devices wherever they are, they each have three¹ network sockets on the back and are effectively a drop-in replacement for a Powerline+Switch² (which is what Dave is looking for I think).

Massive improvement to my networking and WiFi experience throughout the house, and cheap as chips too. Should have switched years ago. Bin the Powerlines.

¹ There are various models and speeds and the slower ones have fewer sockets.

² Not out of the box – they default to WiFi only, but download the excellent app (no really, it’s actually good) and flick one of the few settings and hey presto, an air-gapped network for take-away money.

That’s nice.

I should add that they’re 9cm, light as a feather, have a single discreet multi-colour LED, have screw mounting slots underneath, and come with PSUs (but no net cables IIRC).

The WiFi used to be patchy and slow upstairs. Now it works in the shed and the furthest recesses of the warehouse-I-mean-garage. This means I am now able to bark “Alexa, turn the fountain on!” from the comfort of my armchair like some dubious oligarch, thanks to a smart socket in the shed at the bottom of the garden. I digress.

My solution is a lot cheaper – but of questionable legality in the UK, involving as it does fiddling with the mains wiring. You only need a very small capacitance to provide high freqency bridges between phases (or between circuits protected by different RCDs) – too big a capacitance will cause the RCDs to trip, but you don’t need anywhere near that big a capacitor to connect the circuits at ethernet frequencies.

Unaccountably the required capacitors and instructions do not come with the Powerline adapters. What could go wrong?!

8~) Definitely not a recommended solution for the average end user of things like Powerline adapters…

I have a wifi repeater with an ethernet connector plugged into the mains and my Pi. It also improves coverage throughout the house.

There’s a nice trick to get round that

If you stick anything between phases, you’re a braver man than I am…

but they seem to have ceased to be available.

I have a Vonets VAP11G for giving internet access to the Pi.
It also works in repeater mode, so other WiFi devices in my room talk to the Vonets that shouts through the solid stone wall to the Livebox.

Plus, it’s regular WiFi and not the rubbish the CPL devices use, so if there’s anybody nearby that deals with AM radio, you won’t break it for them.

It simply works.

So do WiFi repeaters.

And since the Vonets only has one Ethernet plug attached, I whacked it into a dinky five port switch and plugged everything else into the switch (the Pi and the PC) and that just works, as does the internet radio box (mine or the commercial one) and Netflix on the tablet.

;)

Powerline adapters are really worth a try. The problems listed are real, but unlikely in a typical UK domestic dwelling.

Alternatively, flat Cat 6 network cables will very often reach the places other cables can not deal with.

If you stick anything between phases, you’re a braver man than I am…

I evidently am. It’s only four hundred and odd volts, or 240ish to ground from either of them. Obviously you don’t want to touch them, or allow anything conductive to touch them… there’s plenty of small capacitors that are designed for far higher voltages than that, with capacities of a few hundred picofarads or a nanofarad or two. But I’m not going to encourage anyone who’s not as daft as me to start soldering them across phases, and I’ll only do it on the safe side of switched-off switches.

It used to be possible to get Ethernet wifi client adapters, or wifi access points with a client mode, but they seem to have ceased to be available.

If you mean things like this, then there was definitely a big pile of them in York before Christmas. The one that I acquired seemed to work well with RISC OS.

there’s plenty of small capacitors that are designed for far higher voltages than that, with capacities of a few hundred picofarads or a nanofarad or two.

In that location, they would also need to have the requisite safety rating, taking into account the potential fault current. I think we’re a long way into “requires specialist knowledge and competence” territory.

The problems listed are real, but unlikely in a typical UK domestic dwelling.

Um. I’d beg to differ. In every location that I’ve considered powerline adapters, I’ve found the sockets to be on opposite sides of a pair of MCBs or worse. Most UK domestic dwellings have a couple of ring or radial circuits for their sockets.

There’s also the electromagnetic compatibility issue to consider, too… and whether you wish to be on friendly terms with your neighbours.

OK, I’m unusual.

The router is in the garage, next to the master socket (and where the fibre line will come into in due course.)
The rear garage wall is the lounge wall behind me.
The bedroom 1 wardrobe sits over the rear of the garage.
Bedroom 3 sits over the garage
Bedroom 4 wardrobe backs onto bedroom 3
I have a number of reels of CAT5E cable left after doing a cabling job or two.

Very little drilling required to put a socket or two in each room.

Problems: Kitchen, downstairs toilet, upstairs toilet, bathroom and bedroom 2 are on the other side of the house.
But I do have a couple of Cisco APs in autonomous mode I’ve not played with yet. Never have time, it seems.
A colleague uses a pair to link his workroom in the garden to the house, although getting a contact to do a fibre run out there is being considered.

OK, I’m unusual.

You certainly are.

downstairs toilet, upstairs toilet, bathroom

Three places that really ought to be wrapped in a Faraday cage so no signals can get in.
I mean, if you can’t have a modicum of peace and quiet while on the bog….

You certainly are.

Er, hum, have you been in contact with people I work with, friends, family…

thanks to all for a lively discussion. makes me feel welcome and I have gained knowledge. cheers!

In that location, they would also need to have the requisite safety rating, taking into account the potential fault current.

What location do you think I put them in? I’m not daft. They’re on the consumer side of RCDs, so any significant fault current will trip the RCDs. All safe.

I think we’re a long way into “requires specialist knowledge and competence” territory.

I did say, Definitely not a recommended solution for the average end user of things like Powerline adapters… – and I think I myself can fairly claim specialist knowledge and competence, albeit not the current certificate to say so. I didn’t design the circuits of Microvitec CRT monitors, but I did take the breadboarded versions and design the PCBs to turn them into regulation-compliant, safe, manufacturable products. They have 25kV at lethally low supply impedances flying around… https://clive.semmens.org.uk/Art/LCCD02Cu.jpg (1kV max on that board – the 25kV is at the top of the tripler, standing on that board at lower right).

There’s also the electromagnetic compatibility issue to consider, too… and whether you wish to be on friendly terms with your neighbours.

I’d assume that Powerline adaptors for sale in the UK comply with electromagnetic compatility regulations, no? Certainly without our little cap arrangement our neighbour in Ely wasn’t able to share our network (while with it, no problem).

(Steve F might, or perhaps might not, be relieved to know that the wire from my shed to the neighbour’s shed, that bridged from one phase to another, apart from being on the consumer side of RCDs at both ends, had two caps, one at each end, and the wire itself was earthed through a couple of turns round a ferrite core. Belt and braces. All dismantled now we’ve left Ely. We don’t have relations like that with any neighbours here in Greenock – yet?)