I tried powerline for quite some time and thought it was useful. But once I became a homeowner, I decided it was time to wire my house for ethernet. To be honest -- it's one of the smarter things I've done when it comes to networking. Not only am I getting the full bandwidth out of my cable modem subscription, but I also walked away knowing more about how my house fits together.

Since I've done that, I've been able to diagnose other problems in the house that don't have anything to do with networking. It's not that hard, and if you're not-a-renter, it's a great little project that'll give you knowledge over your house should other things go wrong.

Don't get me wrong -- powerline's great. But cat6 is greater, cheaper, easier, not mutually-exclusive, and, unlike powerline, adds value onto the house.