Maybe someone can help me with this... At home I have two computers upstairs that are connected by a 10/100 ethernet connection. Both computers and a cable modem connect into an ethernet hub. This works great. Now I have a computer that's downstairs and I want to get it hooked up to the network to take advantage of the cable modem. The problem is that running ethernet cable downstairs is pretty much out of the question.

Does someone know of another solution? I was thinking about either a phoneline-type connection or a wireless; the problem is that all of the phone line and wireless networking products I've seen assume that your entire network is going to be phoneline or wireless based. What I really want is something I can just plug into my existing ethernet hub.

I'd be willing to put a phoneline card into one of the computers on the existing network, but would that work? Would the downstairs computer be just like another computer hooked up to the central network?

Thanks, in advance, for any advice.

Well how 'bout a phoneline to ethernet adapter. Check out this one http://www.farallondirect.com/searchresults.asp?dept_id=10&sort_by=alpha HomeLine Ethernet, I imagine you could find it cheaper elsewhere though.

That's great, that looks like exactly what I need... thanks John.

For a wireless solution, you'd need a Wireless Access Point that will bridge the wired and wireless networks. Scroll through the list at http://www.practicallynetworked.com/networking/wireless_chart.htm to see the details on most of the ones available.

Wireless networking is *very* convenient. I have an SMC Barricade wireless router hooked up to my cable modem connection. I've connected my desktop, laptop, and printer (through the parallel port) to the router, and everything works together very easily. It's a bit quirky sometimes, but the convenience more than makes up for it... And the speed is excellent.

I agree that a wireless network would be more convenient than a phone line network, but wireless is significantly more expensive. I appreciate the advice though.