Some of the best gaming experiences on a PlayStation 2 or Xbox are had against real gamers online. Unfortunately, getting them connected can be a pain, as most game consoles are found in living rooms and most broadband modems are with the home PC in the den. That necessitates running a rope of CAT-5 cable across the house (or, in my case, dangling it down from a living room loft) to connect the game console to the internet.

Enter Actiontec's 54Mbps Wireless Game Adapter. This simple yet effective device lets a PS2 or Xbox (or any other device with an Ethernet port, such as a TiVo) be connected to a wireless home network.

The adapter itself is small (not much bigger than a deck of playing cards) and features two LEDs on the front that glow green to indicate connections to a power supply and the wireless network. There's an adjustable antenna on the rear, as well as ports for the power supply and the included Ethernet cable. The Game Adapter can even be wall mounted, thanks to two notches on the bottom of the device.

It did take a few steps to get the adapter up and running. First, we needed to hook it up to our networked PC and plug in its power supply. Then, we had to install the utility software from the included CD and configure the Game Adapter with our network settings. Finally, we were able to plug it into our game console. However, even with all these steps, it still took less than 10 minutes before we had the adapter ready to go and our console hooked up to the network. The included Quick Start Guide walked us through the steps with adequate detail.

We tried the Game Adapter with both Xbox and PS2. The throughput was excellent, and we were able to swap the Ethernet cable between the consoles quickly and easily, depending on what games we wanted to play online.

The Actiontec Wireless Game Adapter sells for $130, a bit on the high end for such a niche device. However, to hook up a game console for online play without stringing 50 feet of networking cable across the house, the Game Adapter is the perfect product.


Pros:  Small, easy to configure
Cons:  Not inexpensive

Warranty
1 year limited