Introduction
Netgear, is a trusted name in networking. You may remember a while back I reviewed their RT314 Gateway Router for easily connecting your computers to a high-speed Internet access like cable or DSL. Well Netgear has released another great product called the Ethernet to Phone Line Bridge.

Features and Technical Details

• One 10/100 Ethernet Port
• One 10 Mbps phone line 10X Port
• IEEE 802.3i 10Base-T Ethernet Compliance
• IEEE 802.3u 100Base-TX Fast Ethernet Compliance
• 12V Power Adapter
• Dimensions: 158(W) x 103(D) x 25(H)mm
• Weight: .87lb's

The Product
If you are like a lot of people nowadays, you probably have more than one computer for which you would like the ability to connect together so that you can share files, printers and most importantly internet access so that you can save money. These computers are probably located in different rooms posing a problem. You most likely don't really feel like climbing up in your attic and cutting holes in your wall to install Cat-5 cable to the computers. If this sounds anything like your situation, the Netgear Ethernet to Phone Line Bridge is something that may be of help to you if you have a phone line jack near your computer.

This great networking device allows you to connect an Ethernet network up to your existing phone line allowing you to connect any computer to an existing Ethernet network that you may have setup, or a high speed internet connection like DSL or Cable by simply installing a Netgear Phone Line 10X adapter card in your computer and connecting it to a phone line jack.

A question that you may be asking is will the Bridge tie up my phone line? The answer to this question is NO, your phone will function normally allowing you to send and receive calls.

If for some reason you do not have a phone line jack near your computer, you will probably have to look into going the wireless route or bite the bullet and install Cat-5 cable. I'll leave that choice up to you.

Despite how good the Ethernet to Phone Line Bridge sounds, I must mention one drawback, connecting your computers up to a phone line will only yield a transfer speed of up to 10Mbps unlike Cat-5 which would give you 100Mbps. The 10Mbps is maximum meaning you won't necessarily get 10mbps transfer speeds. It will all depend on the quality of lines you have installed in your house. Now for most people the speed is not a problem, because they are simply connecting a few computers together, and the majority of the bandwidth will be taken up from a few computers surfing the Internet, transferring files, or play LAN games. However, if you're a power hungry gamer who loves to have a dozen of his buddies come over for a LAN game ever weekend, you probably have to suck it up and start crawling in the attic installing Cat-5 cable.

I think the biggest demand for these will be from individuals wanting to network their computers together so they can share a high-speed network connection without all the hassle of running cable either on the floor or through the walls.