Home, sweet digital home

From...

July 3, 2000
Web posted at: 10:19 a.m. EDT (1419 GMT)

by Tom Spring

(IDG) -- Imagine 20 Web cams, enough bandwidth and cables to wire a small town, and a smorgasbord of digital gadgets all jammed into one swank two-story Manhattan apartment. It could pass as Bill Gates' New York bungalow, but it's not. This digital home is 3Com's vision of the connected life.

	MESSAGE BOARD
Hardware innovation

On display off-site during the PC Expo, 3Com's digital home wires everything. Each computer seamlessly talks to printers and fax machines, and effortlessly roams the Internet. Entertainment devices such as a NetTV and Internet radio are networked so you can easily download movies or music and pipe it to any room. The house senses your presence, its cameras following your every move so that anyone watching the network can see what you're doing. Even the telephone is patched into the home network, allowing you to forward calls to any phone or paging device.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE

IDG.net home page

PC World home page

Network your home the easy way

Breathing life into computers

Choosing the right home network

Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net

E-Business World

TechInformer

Questions about computers? Let IDG.net's editors help you

Subscribe to IDG.net's free daily newsletters

Search IDG.net in 12 languages

News Radio

Fusion audio primers

Computerworld Minute

This is not a vision of the farcical future. If you've got the money, the bandwidth service, and the patience to set up the network, you could be living the 3Com connected life.

Closing the Loop

However, here's the reality check: when it comes down to it, few people besides tech hobbyists want to spend their weekends untangling wires and programming network gear designed for small businesses and office buildings. Tech support needs deter most people from wanting to actually live in a digital home.

But attitudes are changing. Cahners In-Stat Group predicts a 105 percent growth in home networks sold to consumers, who will buy more than 6.4 million units by the end of 2000. And 3Com and others want a piece of the action.

3Com is pushing ahead with home-networking technologies that it says are designed to be simple, practical, and inexpensive. The company has a slew of products available today, as do competitors like Intel, Diamond Multimedia, and Lucent Technologies.

PC Expo: Handhelds grab show spotlight
June 30, 2000
Microsoft, GE announce home networking standard
June 23, 2000
N.C. promises high-speed Net access for all residents
May 11, 2000
High-speed digital home networks on the way
March 30, 2000
Times Ten speeds Web access
February 29, 2000

Weaving 3Com's Home Net
PC World
Network your home the easy way
Macworld
Choosing the right home network
PC World
Intel launches Web appliance
IDG.net
When the piper plays on the Net
Industry Standard
WebTV looks to attract new users with free service
IDG.net
Welcome to IBM's wired home
PC World
Breathing life into computers
PC World

3Com home solutions product page
Intel home page
Lucent Technologies home page
Diamond Multimedia

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.