HyFi routers may finally solve your Internet woes

Dan Seitz Contributing Writer, Tech

hyfi 309x173 HyFi routers may finally solve your Internet woesMost people have wireless routers hooked up to their Internet connection, if for no other reason than they need the convenience of watching Netflix streams and, er, other stuff in their bedrooms. But wireless Internet is just essentially a weak radio beaming data packets: it can suffer from interference. Ethernet cable is more reliable, but it’s annoying to string everywhere and hard to cover up. Powerline networking, which we’ve mentioned before, can also be effective.

You know what’s better than any one of those? All three working together. That’s where the HyFi comes in.

HyFi stands for, in this case, Hybrid WiFi. It uses all three technologies: Ethernet cables, powerline networking, and WiFi. But the genius comes in with how it handles those connections.

Let’s say you’ve got a home theater PC in your bedroom. The HyFi router shifts traffic over technologies as needed, so if your WiFi signal starts to sputter, it will immediately shift some data into another pipe, like the powerline networking or an Ethernet cable you’ve got plugged in. It does this on the fly and it makes any connection you have absolutely rock solid.

So why haven’t you heard about this before? The technology didn’t have a set engineering standard, something that just changed recently. As more people get faster Internet, expect HyFi routers to keep popping up. And make it easier to access por-NETFLIX! Yes, Netflix streams!

Is a Crappy Wifi Signal Killing Your Netflix? HyFi Routers Aim To Fix That [Gizmodo]

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