It was only a few years ago that Real Estate agents and
Builders were promoting the “Wired” feature as a must have when buying a new
home. Wired meant that the home not only had cable running throughout it, but
also Cat-5 wire. Cat-5 wire consists of four pairs of wire that are sheathed
into one bundle, and is used for interconnecting multiple computers and computer
peripherals throughout the home. Electricians went to great length to run Cat-5
throughout new homes, and home buyers paid a handsome premium for it. Now the
latest buzz from the Computer and Networking world is, “Unwire Your Home”, as
the Computer/Internet world rapidly moves to wireless interconnections.
Dell Computer is an example of this phenomenon. They are
touting new technology from Cisco that enables homeowners to wirelessly connect
their Personal Computers (PC) to their Home Entertainment centers. Through
Cisco’s Linksys WMA11B Wireless Media Adapter, connected via standard cables to
your Home Entertainment Center, and a wireless router connected to the PC,
homeowners can enjoy their digital photographs on their Televisions and play
their MP3 music collection through their stereo system.
The wireless protocol interconnecting the Media Adapter and
Router is known as Wireless-B (802.11b). The Media Adapter comes with a Remote
Control, and has user-friendly menus that are displayed on the TV. It can
support JPEG, GIF, TIF, and BMP type file formats. The Remote Control can also
be used for browsing your MP3 or WMA formatted music collection. The cost for
the Media Adapter is around $100.
Without a doubt, wireless is the present and future
technology for interconnecting home electronics. There are other similar
products and companies on the market today offering products such as Dell.
Definitely take a look at these products prior to paying any type of “wired”
premium on a new home.
