HomePNA networks can operate on the same phone wire as normal phone (POTS– Plain Old Telephone Service) service.  But what if you have an ADSL Internet connection?  Could you still use HomePNA to network your computers together?

The short answer is that HPNA (Home Phoneline Network Adapter) and ADSL are fully compatible, and are designed to be used at the same time, on the same wire. In a home phoneline network, you use existing phone lines to connect your computers together. Each computer must have an HPNA that is plugged into a phone jack. Every phone jack in your home becomes a port on the network.

Details

There are two ADSL systems: G.lite (low rate) and G.DMT (full rate).

In the case of G.Lite (which is what is commonly being installed these days without a splitter) HPNA has no effect on G.Lite and G.Lite has no effect on HPNA, by design. The same phone wire can actually carry analog voice (POTS), splitterless G.Lite, and HPNA, with all 3 systems working together! Phones may need filters to keep G.Lite noise out of the phone, but this is a G.Lite issue, not an HPNA issue.

In the case of splittered G.DMT, the G.DMT signals are split off of the main phone wire at the edge of the home, so HPNA and splittered G.DMT are not on the same wire, and therefore won’t interfere with each other.