Sunday Times Review: Banish the wi-fi woes with a mains wizard

POWER ETHERNET SOCKET
£111 each including VAT (minimum of two required), powerethernet.com

Does your home suffer from wi-fi bottleneck?  You may be paying for super-fast broadband but if you have a lots of devices sitting on your wireless network, or use wi-fi to download big files such as high-defination films, that connection will begin to crawl -- even before the neighbours crack your wi-fi password and pile in too.

The quicker, more reliable alternative is to set up a wired network from your internet router or modem, but that doesn't have to mean laying miles of cable around the house.  The electrical mains wiring in your home will also pipe the internet into any room, and Power Ethernet sockets are the neatest way we've yet seen of exploiting that.

Earlier versions of such hardware used adapters plugged into the mains; they were large and ugly and provided only one ethernet connection apiece.  The Power Ethernet socket, in contrast, hides all the gubbins behind the plate and can connect up to four devices to the internet.

You will need to replace a double mains socket in any room you want to connect (as well as the room where the router is).  So best call in a friendly sparks if you don't know where your fuse box lives.

Nick Rufford

Published on the Sunday Times review: Banish the wi-fi wobbles with a mains wizard (requires registration)