Installation

Just the review

We've already explained home phoneline networking in our previous AnyPoint review, but here's a brief technology description. In short, phoneline networking operates over the same phoneline that carries normal voice and DSL data. Phoneline networking uses its own operational frequency that allows it to coexist peacefully with voice and DSL. You could browse the web over DSL, talk on the phone, and transfer a file over a phoneline network all at the same time.

Phoneline networking speeds are slower than regular 100Mbps networks, but keep in mind that phone lines were originally designed to only carry voice. Phoneline transfer speeds are improving nonetheless. We've seen a 1Mbps to 10Mbps jump in less than a year.

The Intel AnyPoint system is HomePNA (Home Phoneline Network Alliance) compliant, which means that it's compatible with other HomePNA systems such as Diamond's HomeFree Phoneline system.

Who needs manuals?

To tell you the truth, we didn't even bother looking at the installation manuals until it was time to write the review. We were able to install the Intel AnyPoint card and software without reading a single instruction.

We simply inserted the AnyPoint card into an open PCI slot, ran the phone wire to open wall jack, directed Windows to the AnyPoint installation CD-ROM when it detected the new hardware, rebooted, and then installed the AnyPoint software. The AnyPoint software pretty much installs itself. You just have to sit there and click next, and maybe select between the client and server settings.

Did you like it?

The AnyPoint phoneline network functioned exactly like a normal network. File and printer sharing behaved normally. Intel includes its own Sharing and Mapping software that allows you to set the sharing access levels for all your local drives. We found that you can also set the sharing parameters with the usual networking options in Windows.

Truthfully, the Intel Mapping and Sharing software was annoying because it felt redundant, but that's probably just because we're hardened gamers who had to learn networking the hard way. We're starting to wonder how kids these days are going to truly appreciate a LAN when Intel is creating fancy programs that make configuring a network so easy (we still remember using ipxcopy back in the day).