Forging High-Tech Family Ties

Now that PCs are getting cheaper, it’s increasingly common to have two or more machines in the same household. It can also be a good idea.

I love my children dearly, but I don’t want them using the same machine I use for work and for tracking our family finances. If something goes wrong with my machine, I’d rather take responsibility or blame it on Bill Gates. I don’t want to be pointing fingers at the kids.

But having more than one machine in your home doesn’t mean you have to have multiple printers and modems or that you have to transfer information between PCs with floppy disks. By connecting the machines to a local area network, or LAN (I like to call it a home area network or HAN), each PC in your house can not only share equipment but can access the same files.

The software and equipment to set up a local area network has been available for years. In fact, I set up a network in my house several years ago using the same type of Ethernet cables and hardware that are used in most offices. After installing and configuring network cards in each PC, I hired an electrician to drill holes and run Ethernet cables between rooms in my house.

But thanks to a consortium of PC companies, you no longer need special cables to set up a home network. Intel, Tut Systems, Diamond Multimedia, IBM, 3Com and others have formed the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (https://www.homepna.org) to promote the use of standard phone lines for home area networks.

I installed a pair of Intel AnyPoint Home Network connectors to PCs in my house and, to my pleasant surprise, the two machines were exchanging data and connected to the Internet in a matter of minutes. The devices, which cost $99 each or $189 a pair, connect to a PC’s parallel port, so there’s no need to take your machine apart. The parallel versions allow you to install the network connectors and your printer to the same port. Intel also offers an optional $79 card that connects to a PCI slot on a desktop PC.

Unfortunately, Intel doesn’t offer a USB version, which would make life a bit easier for people with newer PCs that have USB ports.

I plugged one device into a desktop machine and another into a laptop. The desktop PC was also connected to my cable modem and to a printer, which became immediately available to the notebook machine. I’m writing this article from my kitchen table--several rooms from my desktop PC. In addition to accessing files on my desktop, I can also surf the Net, check my e-mail and access the printer. Even while using the network, the phone line is available for making and receiving calls or using a modem or fax machine.

In addition to sharing a cable modem, the device also allows you to share a regular dial-up modem or a high-speed DSL (digital subscriber line). The Intel software that comes with the AnyPoint automatically enables the sharing regardless of what Internet service you use.

The device is not foolproof. Although it worked in other rooms in my house, it didn’t work on the phone jack in my bedroom, which, as it turned out, was improperly wired.

The Intel device and most other phone line systems transfer data at one megabit per second, which is slower than the standard Ethernet, which operates at either 10 or 100 megabits per second. Still, 1mbps, which is about 20 times the speed of a 56K modem--is fast enough for exchanging files between PCs or accessing the Internet.

My only complaint about using the adapter on a laptop is that the connector, while portable, is a bit large (8 inches tall and 3 1/2 inches deep) and must be plugged into both an electrical outlet and a phone jack.

Diamond Multimedia (https://www.diamondmm.com) has a home-networking product that frees you from both electrical and phone outlets. The company’s HomeFree Wireless adapters allow you to share Internet access, printers and files via radio waves between PCs that are up to 150 feet apart.

I installed a $99 HomeFree Wireless PCI card adapter in a desktop machine and inserted a $129.95 HomeFree PC card into my laptop machine and was able to access files and the Net from any room in my house and from my backyard. I wasn’t able to get the full 150 feet, however. My network started degrading when my laptop was about 75 feet from my desktop PC. Like all radio devices, range can be affected by a number of factors, including interference from other equipment or obstructions between the devices.

Diamond also offers the HomeFree Phoneline ($99 a pair), which uses the same technology as the Intel product but is available only as a PCI card, which works only on desktop PCs and requires you to take apart the PC for installation.

Before you install a phone line or wireless LAN, consider using a standard Ethernet network, the way most businesses do. True, you’ll need to install Ethernet cards in your PCs, buy a hub and run cables between the hub and each PC, but that may not be as expensive or difficult as it seems. Network interface cards start at less than $20 each, four port hubs can be bought for less than $40, and Ethernet cables cost about $20 for a 50-foot length and about $9 for a 10-foot length.

If the computers are in the same room, you can just run the cables behind the furniture. If they’re in different rooms you’ll have to punch holes in walls, but depending on the layout of your house, that could be relatively easy. If you’re shy about drilling holes in walls, look for a telephone or network installer or an electrician who will do the job for you.

Now, thanks to home area networking, my son Will and I are able to chat via the PC. What a concept. A dad and a soon-to-be teenage kid actually communicating. Now all we need is technology that allows us to do this face to face.

*

Lawrence J. Magid can be heard at 1:48 p.m. weekdays on KNX 1070. He can be reached at larry.magid@latimes.com. His Web page is at https://www.larrysworld.com or keyword “LarryMagid” on AOL.