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Bell Atlantic Tests DSL with HomePNA in Washington, DC


HomePNA, the Home Phoneline Network Alliance, is a group promoting the use of existing in-home telephone wiring as a high speed network within a your home. Old-school Mac users may remember setting up PhoneNet connectors to run LocalTalk (AppleTalk) over an unused second line. HomePNA networks will run at up to 7 Mbps, much faster than LocalTalk. Bell Atlantic started a trial where their DSL service will connect to multiple computers in a home via Phoneline, with several HomePNA partners providing the networking hardware for the trial.

Apple offers AirPort as another home networking solution, since their new iMac has AirPort capability. In an old house, wiring up a house for Ethernet can be difficult. HomePNA and AirPort look to be competitors for this new market.

The HomeFree Phoneline USB already offers HomePNA networking for USB-equipped Macs.

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.