Pros: Netgear´s XETB1001 85Mbps Powerline adapter is the greatest thing since sliced salami. Our house is fairly long, with four walls between modem and our main room -- and we like it that way. But despite excellent Cisco wifi setup, Netflix, computers and VOIP phones were spotty in that location. So we added two powerline adapters to try them out -- and the same day they arrived, we ordered two more for another part of the house. Super easy plug and play, NO difficulty whatever, and very strong reception for Netflix, computer, and phone.

Cons: Nope. No negatives whatever.

Overall Review: Builders should add these to their McMansions. Cheap and perfect solution for whole-house internet.

Pros: At $70 with a $60 rebate, I tried it, having read a lot of positives about Kaspersky in the past years. It came with cds for Mac and PC -- perfect for this household with five PCs and three Apple products.

Cons: I installed it on the MacBook on Monday eve. Tuesday morning, the MacBook ran syrupy. I checked modem and Airport Extremes, as our Internet is sometimes spotty, but all was peachy. In the course of the day´s work, the MacBook became unusable. Its speed resembled an invalid´s heroic attempt at running the Marathon -- its heart was in there, but the legs kept folding. And sites kept crashing, which had never before happened (would I have bought an expensive MacBook if I wanted to see crashes?).

Overall Review: This went on for two days, with multiple attempts to rectify. Nothing helped. So I did an Uninstall, using the Kaspersky cd. This, amazingly, worked like a charm. Uninstalled, restarted, I think I heard a very faint "Hallelujah!" from my MacBook, which then loaded in its usual rapid fashion, and ever since, not one crash, no slowing down. Nada. Just perfect Apple-ication. The way I like it. Bummer with the Kaspersky. I will not try it on the PCs or the iPads.

Pros: Easy setup, quick results and delivers an amazing amount of wifi power to previously dead corners of the house.

Cons: None yet, and I´m not expecting any,

Overall Review: I tried it all: the cable guy set up the wifi, but the darn house is so long it just would not reach into the bedrooms and the back office. So we wired back there. This little goody does what no cable guy could: for eighty bucks, it delivers wifi power to even the most distant place in the house.