I am trying to understand exactly how 120v and a second signal can travel through the same wires without interference. Is there only certain voltages that will work (Like will 120v and 60v not work together)? Thanks
the internet cannot travel through the same wires as electricity. they travel through different wires that should not be run side by side or the electromagnetic field from the power will screw up the internet signal. internet signals travel in either a coaxial cable or a phone cable. do not attempt to plug either a phone cable or a coaxial cable into a power outlet. it will not work.
I don't know details, but the data signals would be at a much higher frequency than the 60 Hz of the power, and much smaller than 120v. If you looked at it on an ocilloscope, you would see the 60hz power, and fuzzy ripples around that which would be your data signal.
There has been some work on this; I don't know that devices have yet reached the market as a commercial product. Cable used for power distribution works well enough at the higher frequencies of Ethernet, but there is so much electrical noise on a power line (things getting switched on and off, fluorescent lamps, etc. etc.) that it requres some fairly sophisticated circuitry to keep the noise out of the data. I doubt that it will make a splash in the market -- judging by what I see in the ads, everybody is going wireless instead.
