Today’s TVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles, and even AV receivers crave access to the Internet, but most will never get the pleasure of the ‘Net. Why? Because Mom and Pop don’t wanna run a CAT-5 cable through their house and power line adapters are about as reliable as two tin cans connected with string. But now there’s this: Netgear’s Universal Wi-Fi adapter.
This device is a lot like power line adapters, which utilizes a device’s Ethernet port to send and receive bits and bytes sent over power lines. But the Universal Wi-Fi Internet Adapter uses Wi-Fi instead. This means that the adapter should work without drivers or installation on any device with an Ethernet port, being an AV receiver, Blu-ray player, or game system. It can also leek power off an USB port if there’s one available.
It will be a tad pricey at $80 when it’s available in May, though. For that price Mom and Pop should be able to hire the neighborhood nerd to run a cable.