Picking Out Powerline Hardware
If you're still game, you're going to need to bring three things to the Powerline setup party: a Powerline network adapter, a router, and some cables.
Powerline Network Adapters
Like every type of network, Powerline requires the use of network adapters (Section 1.1)—sometimes also called bridge adapters—that let your computer to talk to the Internet and to other computers hanging out on the network. If you've been reading this book from the beginning, you know that Powerline adapters (Figure 4-2) look a bit different than those used by Ethernet and WiFi networks.

Figure 4-2. At the top back of this Powerline network adapter are the prongs that you plug into an electrical outlet. You plug a cable into the Ethernet port (which is not visible in this photo), which then lets you connect the adapter to a PC or a router.
Powerline network adapters come in two varieties: Ethernet and USB. Both versions use their respective cable types to plug into the appropriate port on your computer. (If your computer doesn't have an Ethernet port, check out Section 2.1.3, which tells you how to open up your system and install one.) Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a Powerline adapter that you can install inside your computer. You always have to use a Powerline-to-Ethernet or Powerline-to-USB adapter. If you do have an Ethernet port on your PC, you'll want to use the ...