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Picking the Right Home Net

Technology standards emerge, and home networking options merge.

Nancy Weil, IDG News Service

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With market researchers predicting more than 8 million home networks in the U.S. by 2002, it's no surprise that the home networking areas at Comdex this week are crowded with visitors picking up literature and asking lots of questions.

They're concerned about standards. They also wonder whether to run a home network over phone lines, power lines, or a wireless infrastructure. Both issues may soon be moot.

Top-tier vendors and small players are working in standards groups on wireless and phone-line options, and some workable standards are already on market.

When it comes to choosing infrastructure, vendors no longer seem inclined to argue merits. Instead, this year's theme is that various options work together. A typical home network may use existing phone lines to connect PCs, while power lines are the network vehicle for major appliances. Wireless segments offer mobility.

Some analysts and industry observers herald the day that major appliances will be part of home networks, but vendors call that a distant vision at best. They're focusing on how to connect consumer electronic devices.

Less Puff, More Practical

People were put off by the hype about homes of the future in which literally anything that can be networked is linked.

"Why does your toaster need to talk to the Net?" questions attendee Tracy Castoe, visiting the Philips Electronics home of the future. The demo is not networked; its vision seems to mean multiple Philips products in every room.

Castoe has a TV in most rooms of her house and isn't averse to having a home network. She just doesn't want it in her kitchen.

Others, however, do. The wireless vendors are ready for them, too.

Cisco Systems, 3Com, Lucent Technologies, National Semiconductor, and a raft of others are trumpeting wireless products to extend networks to every room in the home.

Internet appliances, including Web pads and handheld units, can easily move among rooms via wireless protocols and standards that provide enough range to cover most homes. National Semiconductor and Lucent have teamed to create a wireless Web pad that you can carry around the house and use to access the Internet, e-mail, calendars, and the like from anywhere.

Bundling Service, Equipment

Cisco announced Wednesday a digital subscriber line router priced at less than $200. It's intended for Internet access on a wireless local area network, at a maximum 11 megabits per second.

Some options are slower, but aren't necessarily less viable.

For instance, data transfer rates using existing power lines might be only 1 mbps or 2 mbps, and may have a problem with interference. But that matters little if you care less about very fast transfer rates than convenience, like a built-in touchpad on the refrigerator to access recipes online.

Is wireless the great enabler for home networks? Vendors push the concept of spread-spectrum connectivity, which uses a low-level radio spectrum for which the Federal Communications Commission does not require a license.

The HomeRF Working Group is demonstrating how wireless works with fixed-wire home networking options.

"What HomeRF allows you to do is to be flexible," says Wayne Caswell, the group's marketing chair. Of the different home networking options, he notes, "There's no clear winner and there shouldn't be."

Support for wireless Bluetooth technology will also likely boost momentum. Bluetooth uses low-level radio signals to connect devices for networking over short distances, and is deemed ideal for home networks.

The advocates say home networking is a logical step in technology's progression. Increasingly, we live in a networked world. Devices are connected in ways we didn't dream of just a few years ago.

During his keynote speech Tuesday, Cisco chief John Chambers described a gasoline pump that lets you access the Internet while you pump gas. You can order groceries while waiting for the tank to fill, or get maps or driving directions. Such functions will extend to our home lives as well, Chambers notes.

Forecasts for home network growth spurred by the Internet will prove far too low, Chambers says. Given the Comdex buzz, that estimate of 8 million networked U.S. homes may need an update.

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