WiPNET port: $199.99 per unit
Sounds like it's time for an update to the old saying, "The family that plays together, stays together." After all, today's infotainment-centric kin play, work, stream, download and watch together. But they needn't stay together -- not in the same room, anyway. One product that enables a diaspora from the den, WiPNET, was announced this week as a 2012 CES Best of Innovations Awards winner. It delivers a consistently speedy signal using the existing network of coaxial cables running throughout most homes. (Similar to powerline solutions, but using different technology.)
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Each patented in-wall sleeve and interchangeable cartridge features two Ethernet ports and is professionally installed in 5 minutes without ripping apart or drilling into sheetrock. Even better, the system is future-proof. As the technology evolves, you'll be able to customize/upgrade your home media set-up by simply swapping in a new cartridge.
The MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance) technology employed is a sort of home version of the same coaxial-to-Ethernet conversion the cable companies use to pipe Internet to our doors. Wi3 claims their system is just as fast as a hard wired direct modem connection. Supposedly, even maxed out with 16 ports running up to 300 feet throughout your house, you shouldn't notice an appreciable slowdown online or (since it's layered on a different frequency) at the expense of your cable TV. So perhaps the new saying should go, 'The family that avoids long streaming movie load times, dropping video game matches and weak wireless signals, stays together.'
Credit: Wi3
Tags: Computer Networking, Gadgets, Internet, Online Community and Social Networking, Television
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