I have a problem: my cable modem comes into the house in the spare room upstairs, where it goes through the firewall and drops down to the switch.
This then runs to the other computers in the spare room, and then the Rio Receivers in the upstairs bedrooms.
At the moment, there is no way to plug anything into the network downstairs, so I'm exploring some options:

1. Use HPNA. This would work great for the HSX-109 and for the Rio Receiver, but won't work so well for the car player. I could put a small PC downstairs to bridge PNA->Ethernet, but I'm trying to avoid this.
Are there standalone PNA->Ethernet bridges available?
Also, this'd require US->UK phone convertors. Do these work with PNA?
I'm reluctant to do this, 'cos PNA isn't great.

2. Run Ethernet downstairs, inside. This would be the ideal solution, but there's a problem. I live in a rented house, which has got all sorts of nice-looking coving in it, and a wooden floor in the lounge.
To get Ethernet from the spare room to next to the fireplace (which is where the amp and TV are) is going to be tricky at best. Any ideas for hiding UTP cable?

3. Run Ethernet downstairs, outside. This is probably the simplest solution - get a big drill and put a hole in the wall of the spare room, and another in the wall of the lounge. This would allow running the cable down the front of the house.
However, there's a difference of opinion in the office w.r.t isolation, if it gets hit by a lightning strike (Peter thinks this could happen, Hugo doesn't, John says you can't tell).
I don't want to lose a couple of grand worth of computer gear. Isolators aren't cheap. Are they necessary?
On the bright side, ISTR that my UPS has a UTP isolator in it, so that's one end catered for.

4. Wireless. This is obviously the coolest solution, but I'm not sure how to proceed. It's likely that I'll have more than one device downstairs, but won't have a PC.
It's also possible that, in future, I'll want wireless access from elsewhere (e.g. a laptop). This kinda dictates that the wireless access point has to go upstairs.
Which means that I need some way of connecting the empeg to it, from downstairs.

Suggestions?