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When it comes to home networks, one size does not fit all. I had myhome built five years ago and spread Gigabit Ethernet-ready CAT5edrops all over the house. I was lucky (or perhaps foolish,considering the present housing market). Most people don t havethis sort of structured wiring in their homes. But most have coaxcabling in the walls, and just about everyone who doesn t live ina tent has power to every room. If all else fails and you re justnot within reach of any plug, there s WiFi (usually). I think we can all agree by now that everyone who does more thanplay Windows Minesweeper needs a network. But which type of networkconnection is best for you, given issues of cost, availability,bandwidth, and application, remains a big question mark. There isno one-size-fits-all answer. Wi-Fi is fairly cheap and would seemto have omnipresent reach in the home, but anyone who has used WiFiin a space larger than 1,200 to 1,500 square feet knows better.There are plenty of sources for signal disruption, including RFinterference from neighbors. Likewise, wired Ethernet isinexpensive and fast, but to implement it beyond a single room,you re either going to have to spread some cable clutter or incurtime and/or cost for stringing wires through your walls. Netgear should need no introduction among Tom s Hardware readers.The company has long been a leading name in consumer networking.Some technologies stick around longer than others (Windows MediaCenter extenders, anyone?), but Netgear has historically been anearly adopter in all fields surrounding the home LAN and works hardto build in some of the best features. For instance, I might takejabs at extenders, but Netgear s latest evolution in the genre,the Digital Entertainer HD, supports H.264 video, HDMIconnectivity, optical S/PDIF, and lossless FLAC audio. Extendersare a niche space, but if you re going to do it, that s how to doit up right. Our subject today is infrastructure, especially when it comes topicking a topology suited to entertainment applications. The fourprimary technologies available today for creating a home networkare Ethernet, 802.11 wireless, Powerline, and coaxial . Each of these four has a needed place in today s market. Inorder to compare them with the fewest possible variables, we optedto source the latter three of the four from Netgear. Ethernetconnectivity generally comes built onto the motherboard these days,at least in consumer circles. There are discrete options, such asBigfoot s Killer NIC, but most people will simply save their moneyfor other, more palpable upgrades, and use integrated options. Which of the four connection technologies is right for you? Let sfind out. Our Test Environment We should state right here at the beginning that our goal was tocompare these four technologies as mainstream LAN options. Weweren t out to set new land (or air) speed records. Nor did wenecessarily want the latest, highest-speed models in any givenspace. Netgear may not have the fastest product in any giventechnology, after all. Similarly, the latest dual-band 802.11nrouters might eke out better numbers than the 5 GHz kit weevaluated. We wanted gear that was easy, affordable, andeffective the three criteria we think the majority of consumersare after. Given that, we should be able to evaluate performanceand get a better sense of which technologies offer better value indifferent circumstances. Our test platform began with two notebooks: an HP Compaq nc8000(1.66 GHz Pentium M, 2GB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, Windows XPProfessional) and a Dell Latitude E6400 (Core 2 Duo P9600, 4GB RAM,Gigabit Ethernet, Windows XP Professional). These were selectedmore for their portability and because we had them laying aroundthan anything else. Gigabit Ethernet aside, their specs are quiteordinary, which is what we were after. Next, Netgear was kind enough to drop a small mountain of test gearon our doorstep. We started with the WNR854T RangeMax NextWireless-N Router Gigabit Edition, a now-mature 2.4 GHz unit withfour Gigabit ports, to be the LAN s central axis. Next came theGS605 5-Port Gigabit Switch. We then busted out a Netgear ReadyNASDuo, complete with Gigabit Ethernet port, outfitted with a single500GB drive from which we could stream our transfer test sourcefiles. On this backbone, we then brought in our three competingconnections, which we ll detail momentarily. The whole affair wasset up in a standard issue suburban home: 2,600 square feet, twofloors, built in 2003, lots of studs and sheet rock, modern powerand coax lines in the walls, etc. The only thing missing, as inmost homes, was structured wiring for Ethernet connectivity. We tested in two locations. The router, main system, and NAS wereset up in an upstairs bedroom toward the corner of the house. Fromhere, we tested connectivity to the client system on an adjacentdesk, about five feet away. For longer-range in-house performance,we then moved the client to the living room downstairs, crossingabout 40 feet, one floor, and multiple walls. The specific locationof this distance test was governed by the location of thedownstairs one and only coax drop. Given that Gigabit Ethernetresults would be almost identical in-room versus the distance test,and that our main focus was on the three Ethernet alternatives, weopted not to run a 100-foot cable through the house for severaldays. 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