Home Networking Next Big Thing for Families With Multiple PCs

For the last three years, Internet and PC industry insiders have gathered at the Digital Living Room conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel to talk about what our homes will look like in the future.

(The conference is sponsored by Upside Media, for which I write an online column.)

No single theme emerged from this year’s conference, but after I spent two days listening to presentations and looking at products, it’s clear that the industry is looking beyond the PC for its growth.

Last week, the National Science Foundation reported that 54% of the homes in America now have at least one PC. But a growing number of homes have multiple PCs, which is spawning the development of home networking products to share files, printers and Internet connections.

3Com Corp. used Digital Living Room to announce its HomeConnect Home Network Gateway for “consumers with multiple home computers.” The device, which will cost $249 when it becomes available later this summer, lets all the computers in the house share a single Internet connection. It works with either cable modems or digital subscriber lines, the two leading “always-on” high-speed Internet technologies for the home. For those who don’t have cable or DSL, the device also comes with a built-in 56K modem that allows several people in the house to access the Internet simultaneously with a single phone connection.

Intel Corp. was at the conference showing off yet another way to network PCs and the Internet throughout your house or, for that matter, your deck or backyard. Intel’s AnyPoint Wireless Home Network uses radio waves to send data from one PC to another one up to 150 feet away. One version of the product ($119) plugs into the USB port of a desktop or notebook PC. Another version ($129) slips into the PC card slot on notebook PCs.

SOHOware Inc. (https://www.sohoware.com) was also at Digital Living Room, with its Cablefree NetBlaster ($289), which the company calls a “wireless bridge” for distributing cable modem or DSL Internet signals to PCs up to 250 feet apart. The device transmits the data via radio waves. Each PC or laptop on the wireless network needs a $189 wireless network adapter.

If you’re ready to wire your house in style, you can spend anywhere from $500 to $5,000 for a Network Connection Center from Home Director, an IBM Corp. spinoff (https://www.homedirector.com). The system, which is usually professionally installed, provides a complete solution for distributing video, voice and data throughout the house. The hub of the system is a large cabinet, typically installed in a closet or spare room, that accommodates just about any type of cable you’ll need, except electrical wires. The company also offers a Home Network Controller, which allows you to control lighting, heating and appliances from a PC or TV.

Speaking of TV sets, America Online Inc. debuted its AOLTV service that will enable customers to surf the Net, access AOL content, send e-mail or engage in online chats and exchange instant messages from their living rooms. There wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm from the rather techno-jaded crowd over this announcement. Several attendees were quick to point out that Microsoft Corp.’s TV offering, WebTV, has failed to take the world by storm so far. Still, the idea has potential, especially when Internet access is combined with special programming that allows viewers to interact with TV shows. Who would pass up the chance to play along with “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” if we had a chance to win $1 million without leaving home?

Not all the cool Internet products shown at Digital Living Room were for the home.

Boeing Co., late next year, will offer a service for those of us who spend too much time at 35,000 feet. Using a mock-up of an airliner, the company demonstrated how passengers will be able to plug their laptop computers into ethernet connectors at their seat to access the Internet at several times the speed of standard phone lines.

Currently, the only way to access the Net from a plane is to use an air phone, which has about one-fourth the speed of a regular home modem and typically costs $2 or more per minute. Boeing hasn’t announced pricing for its high-speed airborne service, but it is expected to cost $10 to $25 per hour, a spokesman says. Some airlines might offer it for a flat rate for the entire flight. Word of the service got a warm response from many in this highflying crowd who, like me, are anxious to surf the Net at 500 kilobits per second while traversing the globe at 600 miles per hour.

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Technology reports by Lawrence J. Magid can be heard between 2 and 3 p.m. weekdays on the KNX-AM (1070) Technology Hour. He can be reached by e-mail at larry.magid@latimes.com. His Web site is at https://www.larrysworld.com.