Ethernet through Electrical Outlets

I'm trying to remember who it was that was talking about it in our raid, but I wanted to inquire more.

-is there a max range within your house that it's effective at? if the two boxes are at complete opposite ends of the house?

-is there any risk of dropoffs or surges that would affect connectivity?

I also forgot the link to the product you shared. You said you highly recommended that one? Any pros/cons to it over other solutions?

(Edit note: Do you need two pairs of the boxes for each location (totaling to 4 boxes - 1 in one room, 1 in another, and 2 by the router) or can you buy one set and then get one extra terminal box for the second location (totaling to 3 boxes)?)

My house is having wireless issues with two people being very far from the router, so they have spotty/slow connections. I really don't want the router moved from upstairs (where I am wired in) just to have their connections get better only for browsing the internet (that's all they do, no downloads or anything). So I was thinking maybe this would be a good solution for the both of them.

Thanks!!

I've never used powerline networking before, but I've heard a lot about them so I can provide some perspective. Here are also some things you should know that they won't tell you on the side of the box:

• Everything has a maximum range and powerline is no exception. A typical house is not much of an issue but it has a bad attenuation rate; almost as bad as wi-fi. Meaning, the further the two points are away from each other, the slower the transfer rate.
  
• Some devices on the same circuit will degrade the signal, such as incandescent lights and microwaves.
  
• Every time you jump between circuits, the signal quality goes down.
  
• Having a dropoff or surge technically won't affect the communication, but all other issues with such power deviations still apply. A dropoff will stop the adapter from functioning because it's no longer getting the power it needs to work (duh) and a surge that is too high can fry it. You also should not plug it into a surge protector because that too lowers the signal quality.
  
• You only need one by the router, regardless of how many devices you have. So if you have 2 computers, you would need 3 adapters.
  
• Just like wi-fi, the theoretical bandwidth shown on the side of the box (typically 54mbps for 802.11g wifi or around 500mbps for powerline) is nowhere close to the actual speed you will get. They will likely be around the speed as T100 ethernet, which is fine for most uses. As long you aren't trying to run netflix or torrents while you're playing wow you should be ok.