Netgear Powerline AV turns your electrical wiring into a home network

Wi-Fi is a wonderful thing. Well, mostly. Like any technology, it has its limits. All WiFi really is, in the end, is packet radio: your computer communicating with a router over the airwaves. And just like going behind a mountain can kill your reception, there are places even in your house that your router can’t reach.

Cue Netgear and the Powerline AV.

While it won’t work with older types of wiring, the concept itself is actually ridiculously simple; you’re turning your house into a phone network, basically. You plug one Powerline AV into an outlet near your router and hook it up. Then plug another in an outlet near whatever you want to connect to the Internet and hook that up. The copper in your house’s walls doesn’t care: all you’ve done is make the electrons pulsing through it a bit more complex.

The best part? It’s ridiculously simple. No software, no special adapters, nothing. Just plug them in, add some Ethernet cables, and you’re good.

So, if there’s a place in the house that just can’t be reached through conventional means, just grab a few of these, and wire it up. You can look like a tech genius and not even do anything, for just $120.

XAVB5001 [Netgear]

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