The Connected Home Page 4

Cutting the CordAn approach that's effective in existing homes is wireless connectivity using Wi-Fi technology. A wireless network can make it easy to build a whole-house entertainment system. You can use your computer as a multimedia jukebox and stream music to remote locations inside and outside the house - as long as they're within range of the Wi-Fi signal. And you can use the computer as a gateway that allows remote devices to gain access to the Internet. Rather than view vacation photos on your PC, you can send them to your big-screen TV. Or you can wirelessly connect game consoles to your computer, making multiplayer gaming a snap. connected 4

You don't even need a computer. Dedicated systems have servers with their own hard-disk drives that can interactively stream the contents to remote "client" devices (see "Media Servers"). It will soon be routine for a home theater system to play DVDs and stream Internet radio, as well as play MP3 files and display photos stored on your PC. Coming soon, when bandwidth limitations are solved, will be wireless TVs that can display high-definition video from anyplace in your home.

Look for Wi-Fi products that are compatible with the emerging 802.11e standard, which uses Quality of Service, or QoS, to prioritize multimedia data like video to prevent interruptions. And it's worth noting that most networks have both wired and wireless gear. Either way, home is where the data is.

A word of caution. Even a wired network isn't safe from people who use the Internet to steal into your house. And a wireless Wi-Fi network can be tapped into by someone who's just casually driving down your street. Remember that in a connected home, a hacker has access to everything that's connected. The only thing more irritating than a hacker turning on your blender at 4:00 a.m. is when he then reformats your hard drive. Encryption is fast becoming standard in home networks.

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