PC World's 20th World Class Awards

World Class: Most Promising Newcomer

HomePlug

A Wi-Fi gateway took home our Hardware Product of the Year award, so we might as well admit it: We're hooked on networking. And anything that makes it faster and easier is a welcome change. Slow speeds and outlets the network wouldn't reach hampered early attempts at power-line networking, so we were skeptical when the first HomePlug network adapters arrived in our office. But solid transfer rates of 5.5 mbps in our tests (the standard is rated at 14 mbps) with nary a nonworking outlet banished our doubts quickly. Once the prices drop from their current vicinity of $200 per adapter and a better selection of gateways becomes available, HomePlug products promise to make networking PCs as simple as finding and plugging into the nearest power outlet.