Networking Remote Locations Powerline is perfect for providing access in areas of the house where your Wi-Fi signal is weak or nonexistent and where it’s too inconvenient or expensive to run Ethernet.

Video Streaming Powerline adapters can provide reliable bandwidth for video streamers and game consoles in your living room. Powerline throughput is not as high as with Gigabit Ethernet, but it’s high enough for HD video (which requires up to 25 Mbps.)

Extending Wi-Fi Access Need Wi-Fi in that attic suite or apartment over the garage where your main base station doesn’t reach? You can buy hardware that combines a powerline adapter with a wireless access point (see below). This means that you can create a Wi-Fi net almost anywhere there’s a wall plug. You could also plug a Wi-Fi access point (such as an AirPort Express configured in access point mode) in to a powerline adapter.

The biggest trick in buying powerline hardware is distinguishing among the three incompatible powerline standards out there.

The leading standard, which has the most support from vendors and is the one I recommend, is HomePlug AV. HomePlug AV products are rated at 200 Mbps and are available from vendors including Belkin, Linksys, Netgear, ZyXEL, and several others.