Have you ever wished your computers at home were networked like the ones at your office? The trick is getting your home wired so you can connect your PCs and share that ISDN connection or color printer, or maybe play a quick game of Doom before supper. The good news is your home is already wired. Electrical wires connect outlets in every room, and your telephone jacks are connected to each other as well. With two new networking products you can use this existing wiring to turn your home into a LAN.

The $199 Intelogis PassPort Plug-In Network uses the 110-volt power outlets in your house as network connections, giving new meaning to Plug and Play. The $199 Tut Systems HomeRun network cards let you connect your PCs over the telephone wiring in your walls. Together they give you two different approaches to creating a home LAN without ever stringing a cable.

Electrifying The PassPort Plug-In Network from Intelogis comes with two PC modules and one for your printer. The modules plug directly into electrical outlets and connect to your PC's or printer's parallel port.

Once connected, the modules recognize each other automatically. Setup's a snap using PassPort Administrator software that lists all the devices connected to the PassPort modules. Since any outlet on the wiring between you and the nearest transformer can connect to your network, the PassPort lets you set up secure networks and limit who is part of your group.

The PassPort supports Windows user-level security, and you can share devices connected to your PC, such as a local printer. You don't need to connect printers plugged into the PassPort printer module to any PC.

Phone Home? Tut Systems' phone-wire solution makes for a more involved installation, as you must install a HomeRun network card into an available PCI slot in each PC you're connecting to the network. However, it boasts better bandwidth, up to 1Mbps vs. PassPort's 350Kbps.

Each card plugs right into your telephone jacks, and they communicate over your wiring without disrupting normal phone operation. (You can make calls while copying files between computers.)

The HomeRun cards also sport an RJ-45 Ethernet port, which allows them to connect to a network over traditional 10Base-T (twisted-pair Ethernet) wiring as well. This gives the HomeRun cards added flexibility should you want to connect to a traditional network. Windows 98's New Hardware Wizard installs the correct HomeRun drivers automatically, although you will need to switch the network cards between phone wiring and 10Base-T manually.

Bottom line: The Intelogis PassPort is an easier--albeit slower--choice for basic home networking. However, Tut Systems' HomeRun boasts better bandwidth, and the company is working on an external version that won't require you to crack open your computer to install it. Also, 3Com, Compaq, and Intel have licensed the HomeRun technology and should have kits available soon. An upcoming wireless contender: Diamond Multimedia's HomeFree.

Tut Systems HomeRun

$199 for NIC, $249 for adapter, direct prices /Tut Systems / (800) 998-4888

Intelogis PassPort

$199 est. street price (2 PC plug-ins, 1 printer plug-in) / Intelogis / (888) 756-5199

— Lee Hudspeth and T. J. Lee