As far as I can make out - being not any kind of electrician - when the powerline or homeplug companies say circuit breaker, they actually mean electrical power phase. This here (http://electrical.about.com/od/panelsdistribution/a/breakerpanels.htm) explains it so much better than ever I could. I have four instead of the standard two because we had the electrical wiring of the house upgraded and I believe we have two main electrical feeds off the street.
You could either try and figure out what rooms belong to the same phase by looking at your panel, or by actually buying a powerline kit and figuring it out by trial and error, which is what I did lol. Also, if you don't have a connection with the powerline unit/box plugged into a specific outlet, unplug it and try again with it plugged in upside down.
I don't know how it works if you live in an apartment building with much more complex wiring but the tech-help-before-purchase departments of the companies that sell these things are generally very helpful.
Also, my primary computer is a Mac, so the powerline system is plug-and-play, you may need to install software if you're on a PC. That said, the powerline thing works with all my computers, three macs running osx, one pismo (my pride and joy lol) running sys9, and another three PCs triple booted with xp, linux mint and ubuntu or vista/mint/ubuntu.
Yet another thing to bear in mind when talking to tech help is some powerline or homeplug systems don't work with certain modems or routers, so be sure to tell the tech what you're working with, or plan to upgrade to.
I hope some of that was helpful, and that not all of it was clear as mud : )
no subject
As far as I can make out - being not any kind of electrician - when the powerline or homeplug companies say circuit breaker, they actually mean electrical power phase. This here (http://electrical.about.com/od/panelsdistribution/a/breakerpanels.htm) explains it so much better than ever I could. I have four instead of the standard two because we had the electrical wiring of the house upgraded and I believe we have two main electrical feeds off the street.
You could either try and figure out what rooms belong to the same phase by looking at your panel, or by actually buying a powerline kit and figuring it out by trial and error, which is what I did lol. Also, if you don't have a connection with the powerline unit/box plugged into a specific outlet, unplug it and try again with it plugged in upside down.
I don't know how it works if you live in an apartment building with much more complex wiring but the tech-help-before-purchase departments of the companies that sell these things are generally very helpful.
Also, my primary computer is a Mac, so the powerline system is plug-and-play, you may need to install software if you're on a PC. That said, the powerline thing works with all my computers, three macs running osx, one pismo (my pride and joy lol) running sys9, and another three PCs triple booted with xp, linux mint and ubuntu or vista/mint/ubuntu.
Yet another thing to bear in mind when talking to tech help is some powerline or homeplug systems don't work with certain modems or routers, so be sure to tell the tech what you're working with, or plan to upgrade to.
I hope some of that was helpful, and that not all of it was clear as mud : )