The other two standards are HD-PLC (High Definition Power Line Communication, from Panasonic) and UPA (Universal Powerline Association, from D-Link, Netgear, and some others). Two earlier versions of the HomePlug standard, 1.0 and Turbo, are also still available, but they are much slower (14 Mbps and 85 Mbps, respectively), they aren’t interoperable with HomePlug AV, and they’re mostly inconfigurable from a Mac. There’s a lot of this older gear still floating around, so be sure you order HomePlug AV adapters if you decide on powerline.

Whatever hardware you choose, make sure that it’s either plug-and-play (requiring no software) or has Mac setup software before you buy. (All the kits in “Powerline Starter Kits” meet those criteria.)

Also be sure to buy from a store with a good return policy, in case your home wiring is not up to snuff. When powerline works, it’s great, but until you test it out in your house, there’s no guarantee that it will operate at all.

Finally, stick with one manufacturer. While HomePlug AV hardware is supposed to be interoperable, any problems may be hard to resolve across multiple vendors.

In rooms where you need to connect multiple devices, consider Belkin’s new , which has three Ethernet ports in the remote adapter rather than the usual one. It’s an economical solution for living rooms with multiple networked media and/or game boxes.