Solid connector block; cheap way to gap a single tile?

[zetaPRIME]

At the moment, there's no actual way to have your storage system enter or exit an NPC house without making it "missing a wall" (except of course to use a remote access, which is kind of expensive...)

A solid version of the connector block would not only solve this issue but make for far greater versatility in how you set your network up.

Also, the way I tend to set my base up involves a rope/chain reaching all the way up and down the middle, extending down past the floor into a hellevator. Crossing the network from one side to the other is made rather difficult, what with needing a remote access to jump the gap; perhaps a version of the connector block that searches 2-4 tiles away linearly would be a suitably elegant way to solve this?