I mean infraread does it's job near perfectly, except for one area, video projectors inside of metal cages. For those I would recommend newer ultrasonic systems using OFDM.

As for Bluetooth, I have yet to see a full implementation of it. Virtually no device on the market today can do meshed Bluetooth networks. This is, in my opinion, the most important feature of wireless networks.

IR is no use for anything except the TV. As explained in the article, tv is the one application where you can expect to always have LOS.

Home plug looks clunky, it's slower than 802.11n and it won't work in any house that doesn't have modern wiring, or across different ring mains.

As far as computers and other devices that connect to your router go, modern housing should come with cat6 and access sockets throughout, you can't beat gigabit at the moment with wifi or plugs. Wifi is sufficient for all secondary access, laptop, handheld etc... But it's not appropriate to control your light switches or close the curtains. I suspect that we'll end up with 2 or 3 different standards in place by the time convergence has run it's course, a low bandwidth C&C channel and a higher bandwidth data, video and audio standard.

I have three of these evil plugs in my house and I have not noticed any planes falling out of the sky round here.

If some stone-age geeks who persist in communicating by CW shortwave rather than just picking up the phone like everyone else get buzzing in their earphones, then so be it, it is the price of progress.

It is only rarely that one comes across a computer related device which needs no setting up and works to such a degree of perfection as my Devolo blue plug thinggies.

Knocking out HF's not the price of progress. Homeplug's slower than wifi while also being more expensive. It's quite unneccesary.

I bought three Solwise 85Mb/s units and they worked straight out of the box as soon as I plugged them in - I was impressed.

However, The best true data rate I see is 14Mb/s between my living room based router and dining room based laptop. The upstairs desktop sees a lower data rate from the router. I live in a 30 year old house and my distribution box has old fashioned fuses, not MCBs. Functionally, it's impressive but the data rate is less than I can get from Wireless-g. I get 16Mb/s with Wireless-g but only downstairs, upstairs is about 8Mb/s. I'm considering going for wired connections next time I move house.

A lot of Short Wave Listeners and Radio Amateurs are being affected by the interference that these Homeplug / Vision adaptors put out. Radio equipment is not cheap and why should someones hobby and interest be destroyed by some nasty, cheap technology that pollutes pretty much of the whole of the HF spectrum? Throwing wideband RF energy into mains cabling is such an ill-conceived idea and it's obviously going to cause widespread problems. As the author of the article mentions, there are many other technologies for moving data around the home. Why use PLT? Because of ease of use.

Many cases have been reported to Ofcom who are treating the matter as Spectrum Abuse.

Even the manufacturers of the chipsets (eg DS2) know that they cause interference to licensed users of the HF band because they incorporate notching into the devices. Its up to OEM's to implement the notching. In many cases the Amateur Bands are notched, but the International Broadcast bands arent.

Regarding "If some stone-age geeks who persist in communicating by CW shortwave rather than just picking up the phone like everyone else get buzzing in their earphones, then so be it, it is the price of progress" In the US the Amateur Radio service is an integral part in many disaster recovery plans and we have served in many times of need, for example on 9/11 to support the Red Cross and traffic between emergency services. There are also many other modes apart from CW which happens to be an extremely efficient mode of communication.

its all a crock of shit to me, until a wireless surroundsound system appears

However not everyone can run structured cabling throughout. Homeplug is a winner because it's cheap, easy and works surprisingly well.

I take the point about HF interference but might be more sympathetic if, during the five years I held an amateur radio license, I came across a single ham who wasn't superior, obsessive, exclusive, perversely competitive and/or just generally unsavoury.