I’m not sure if I am explaing this right or how it works and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it for weeks.
So if a power cable emits a magnetic field which can interfere with data transmission through data cables, then how can a tp link, for example, use the mains or cabling of power currents to transfer Internet through a house without being degraded beyond use
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Internet is not transferred along power lines. A tp link is a wifi extender. It picks up the wifi signal, amplifies it, and sends it back out. To emphasize this point, no data is ever ever transferred along electric lines. It does not work that way. Electric lines do put off an electromagnetic field, but one wire is not enough to interfere with anything, it would take a coil of wire to produce enough.
>So if a power cable emits a magnetic field which can interfere with data transmission through data cables, then how can a tp link, for example, use the mains or cabling of power currents to transfer Internet through a house without being degraded beyond use
Power cables do emit a magnetic field but it doesn’t inherently interfere with data through cables. It can create noise on those cables which causes issues once it gets high enough but for the most part we shield data cables so they don’t have too much trouble. Ethernet can run 100 meters without issue
Its more of a problem on audio cables which carry analog signals at low frequencies. Then the magnetic field can create a signal that the speaker reproduce and cause buzzing. Digital signals don’t have a problem with this
Powerline adapters run at a frequency *wayyyy* higher than most noise on your power line. Your power lines run at 50 or 60 Hz, your speakers pick up noises on their audio cable between 20 and 20,000 Hz, but the powerline network adapters run at 2,000,000 to 100,000,000 Hz which is outside the range that most things are creating noise at so it has a pretty clear channel
Ethernet over power line communicates at a much higher frequencies than the 50Hz to 60Hz that AC power is transmitted at, usually between 2Mhz and 50Mhz.
Because it’s using a completely different frequency the ethernet over power adapters are for all intents tuned to that frequency. Similar to how your radio works.
The data is travelling as 1’s and 0’s. Meaning that even if the voltage fluctuate, it wont affect the message as long as you can make out if its a 1 or a 0. This is what is called a digital format. Analog equipment use the voltage level to send more information than simply 1 or 0 and can thus be affected by magnetic fields.
Also the data only has to make it to a data-center. The isp has servers positioned not too far from your house which will then send the data to the correct domain/server.
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