Surely anyone reading this is aware of those cool power line adapters that allow ethernet networks to be connected by the wall-socket wiring in a home. I had a set of these adapters around, and I thought the process of internet enabling a PC with them could be simplified a bit. Since the PC and the adapter both need to be connected to mains power, why not turn two plugs in to one? Thus I decided to embed a power line adapter into the power supply of a PC, so that it could be internet connected with only power connecting it to the wall.

This requires a few things, namely a power line adapter small enough to fit in an ATX power supply and an ATX power supply with enough free space to fit said adapter inside. Luckily, I happened to have both of these on hand. The process is quite simple:

  • Mount power line adapter inside power supply
  • Solder wires from the IEC plug on the PSU to the wall socket electrodes on the adapter
  • Run a short Ethernet cable from the adapter out of the PSU with the rest of the power cables
  • Install in PC

Adapters and power supply. Check.
power_supply_and_adapters

Open power supply, mount adapter somewhere it will fit (and where the power prongs wont touch anything!).
attach_to_psu

Solder wires to the IEC inlet on the power supply.
solder_wires_to_iec

Solder the other ends of the wires to the prongs on the adapter. Now is the time to plug in a short Ethernet cable. Make sure you cover the power prongs with electrical tape before closing up the power supply to be sure they wont short against anything.
connect_ethernet_to_adapter

Run the Ethernet cable out of the power supply with the other wires and close it up.
ethernet_from_psu

Does it work? Huzzah! Maybe you can’t see, but it says I’m connected to my network in the corner of the screen.
network_connected_psu

Finally, build a PC with it and run the Ethernet cable out the back like so.
ethernet_outtheback

Ta-da! Now you’ve got a PC that’s connected to the internet as soon as it can be turned on. This took a little more than an hour to put together. If you decide to do this little project yourself, please feel free to comment about it here! I’d love to see how it works out for others.