They can scan a juice carton as it's tossed into the garbage and then update an electronic grocery list. They control the camera system that identifies a repairman and the doors that let him in. Instead of a video, they showed slides of their own networked home. Another, the plant light system that had a Y2K problem. And in room after room, masses of wires to make it all work together.
All sides agree, the home networking market is poised to take off.
Of the 20 million U.S. households with more than one computer, only one million has even a basic network linking the machines together so that users can share printers, files and an Internet connection. Broadband Internet access multiplies the reasons for having a home network, with always-on connections and the capacity to transmit Web pages and audio or video files at high speeds. New York research firm eMarketer Inc. And as high-speed access takes off, industry experts say, so should home networking. How that will happen is the subject of an enormous industry debate. Other home networking options include wireless networks inside a house or systems that use existing phone jacks or power plugs.