Wireless Networking--Without Wi-Fi
By Steve Bass
Want to network your home office or business? Wireless is definitely an option; and if you have the courage, you can crawl under the floor and drag wires from room to room, or pull a cable through the ceiling.
There's a third alternative: Use your electrical wiring. With HomePlug AV, you use power lines to move anything you'd transfer through a regular network--data, movies, TV signals, and so on. Learn more about it at the HomePlug Powerline Alliance site. http://www.homeplug.org/home
The advantage over Ethernet cabling is, of course, that HomePlug AV is easier to install, and at 200 megabits per second is faster than Ethernet's 100 mbps. And with HomePlug AV you avoid Wi-Fi dead zones and range issues.
I tried Actiontec's MegaPlug AV 200 Mbps Ethernet Adapter Kit (about $130). Each device you're planning to network needs an adapter, and you can add up to 16 devices. The kit comes with two MegaPlug Ethernet adapters, two Ethernet cables, and CDs with drivers.
You can add an adapter to any wired or wireless broadband router on a system using Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, or Vista. (By the way, the HomePlug AV standard has a 128-bit AES security to prevent neighbors from plugging into your bandwidth.)
Overall, I was able to add two MegaPlug adapters to my existing wired network in about 20 minutes and it worked as expected.
If you're not sure about the technology, I have two articles that'll bring you up to speed.
First, try "Powerline Adapters: Home Networking Without Rewiring"
http://tinyurl.com/2t2453
And then follow up with "Home Networking Technologies Vie for Position."
http://tinyurl.com/344ce8
Source: Steve Bass's Tips & Tweaks, http://tinyurl.com/2uroy5