Finding the right networking option can be a tricky thing. Knowing that there are very few cases where Wi-Fi cannot be made to work these days with all of the crazy antennas, signal boosters, etc., I thought it might be fun to look at some older solutions that were thought to become popular.

Powerline Networking
One of my favorites had to be Powerline Networking. As you can see from this link, it is a rather clever idea. It allows you to utilize the existing house wiring to extend the availability of broadband access to potential users throughout your home. This option was gaining some real acceptance back in 2000-2001. Since then however, it appears to have all but dropped off the face of the map.

Phoneline Networking
This option is probably even less known about than the powerline option. Similar in pricing options as the networking option above, the Phoneline option has a lot of really great advantages as well. One of the things that makes this a plausible way to go for some is that it requires no router to share with up to 25 different devices. Now how is that for cool? On top of that, the speeds are very much usable and, best of all, it is super easy to set up.

Now, which of these alternative options make the most sense here? Hands down, the Powerline Networking. The reason I say this is that the speeds on the phoneline option are quite slow and has the tendency to do weird things with voice calls as well. Some disadvantages for both of these networking ideas include older wiring affecting performance and the speeds for both don’t really compare.

So in my opinion, I would really prefer to go with an Ethernet solution or even the Wi-Fi solution instead. To be honest, go with what works for ya. You might run into a situation in which one of these alternatives is the only way to go. You just can never tell what your needs are going to be until you are immersed in them!