It used to be that the wireless router only did one thing and threw in a few wired ports for computers close to the hub. Today the wireless router is becoming a converged device that serves multiple purposes. Netgear has announced a new router called the Rangemax Wireless-N Gigabit Router with USB model number WNR3500L.

The router has gigabit ports on it for fast wired connections and has a single USB port on it. The USB port will allow you to share USB peripherals with the wired and wireless network including hard drives and other devices.

Netgear’s Digital Entertainer EVA2000 is perfect for those who don’t have a home theater PC or a networked console. The device will stream all of your PC media onto your TV. It connects to the TV via HDMI/composite and to your router via ethernet and it will stream a bunch of codecs from your PC or networked storage, as well as load media from a USB drive or stream YouTube from the web.

There is a catch of course. You need to purchase PlayOn for $40 if you want to stream video services like Hulu, Netflix and CBS from a computer. That takes the price from $150 for the Netgear Digital Entertainer up to $190.

I have wished on several occasions that I could get my DVR connected to the internet. The problem for me is that my house is larger and my router and modem are a long way from my living room and running new cable through the walls is not an option.

At CES Netgear was showing off its Home Theater Internet Connection Kit and the company has announced that the kit is finally shipping. The kit is nothing more than a powerline networking system that includes a switch for the entertainment center with four ports and the adapter that plugs into your internet router.

I would really like to connect all of my home theater components to my wireless network, but most of the gear I have can’t connect wirelessly. My router is in a different room and running wire through my walls is much more than I am willing to do. Netgear has launched a new Coax-Ethernet adapter kit that might be just what I need though.

The kit is called the MCAB1001 Netgear MoCA Coax-Ethernet Adapter Kit and is designed to offer the bandwidth needed to distribute HD video and multimedia content to your Blu-ray player, TV, and cable box.