Wireless Networks are fantastic but what do you do when they just won’t cut it? Maybe you live in an old house with thick walls, suffer from drop outs, you’re along way away from your router or (and maybe most importantly!) it’s causing a lag when you game. There are many reasons why you may wish that your had an Ethernet port to plug into. Unfortunately most people (especially significant others), aren’t very pro wires trailing all over the house so many people think they have to live with the problems Wi-Fi can bring. Thanksfully there is an alternative! It’s possible (and has been for a surprisingly long time) to send information through already installed power sockets via an adapter. It works by sending the data through the power lines of your house at a very high frequency so it’s not affected by the actual electricity.

I discovered this method when I moved into my current flat, I’d just built a media server but didn’t want it in the same room as my TV for aesthetic reasons. Wi-Fi would have worked but didn’t really have the bandwidth I wanted. This and the fact that I’m not too impressed with the wireless adapter for the Xbox360 (what I stream to) due to drop out meant I really wanted a better solution. The adapters are sold in pairs, but if you plug one into your router you can use as many as you like on your network. They really are plug and go and could be set up by pretty much anyone, the whole things really easy. It’s just a case of finding a power outlet near the device you wish to put on your network, plugging one in and linking it up with a short ethernet cable. Then assuming its got a pair (or as I like to call it, “friend”) plugged into your router or even directly into another device you’re good to go, they even work in power adapters if you’re short on plugs. My experience has been completely trouble free, not something which I expected when first buying them. You can even get extra speedy ones which run at 200mbps but do remember that most routers only run at 100mbps so you wouldn’t be able to access that speed. Unless you plan to do some fairly intensive file manoeuvring I’d suggest you go for the standard 85mbps version.

As with all devices these do have their shortfalls, for me the main one is that they use a fair amount of power, something you might want to think about if you’re going to use alot of them. Also the box that plugs in is surprisingly large, you may want to make sure it’s plugged in behind something so it’s not too obvious!

Is this what you’ve been looking for, or have you found a even more novel method of linking your devices together without Wi-Fi? Let me know in the comments, I’m interested to hear your experiences.