Home Entertainment Networks

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With photos on the computer's hard drive, and everyone gathered in front of the big screen television with surround sound in another room, there is a need for a device to bridge the two environments—converting a home network into a home entertainment network. In the early days of computer networking, people who were behind the times referred to their "sneaker network," a name that described how they copied files to a floppy disk and carried it to another computer. Most of us are just now getting into computer to TV sneaker nets—burning slide shows to DVDs and playing them in the DVD player. This may well be the best solution because the DVDs, once created, can be played on any DVD-equipped system anywhere. However, it's not the only solution. An emerging one is a wired (ethernet) or wireless (Wi-Fi) digital multimedia receiver (also called a home media server) that plugs into a TV or home entertainment system and communicates with other devices on the same network. Once connected, you can use a remote control to browse through your music and photos on the computer and choose what to view or listen to. Some devices even let you combine the photos and music into a multimedia slide show with background music. Some devices even allow you to include video clips along with still images.

The HP Digital Media Receiver gives you access to digital content stored on your PC over your home network. It lets you play digital music and view photos. Courtesy of HP.

When considering one of these devices be sure to read reviews and check what file formats they support. Most support JPEG and PNG but it can get sketchy with TIF, RAW, and Photoshop files. Most of them have no way to handle encrypted movies.

One way to connect PCs and other devices is using wires—an Ethernet system. However, the most popular systems by far are wireless with signals broadcast through the air up to 300 feet. All of the new and forthcoming wireless entertainment network devices use a standard called 802.11. Because this technology is wireless you have the freedom to roam about his house, or in some cases, their front or backyard, and still maintain access to the Internet and the rest of his network. You can also plug in wireless home entertainment devices and they should automatically recognize the network. There are currently three flavors of 802.11 that you’ll encounter:

802.11a transmits at 5 GHz and can send data at up to 54 megabits per second (Mbps) although transfers are usually slower at 6 Mbps, 12 Mbps, or 24 Mbps. Because it uses a higher frequency than other standards it’s not compatible with the more popular 802.11b or emerging 802.11g standards and has a shorter range.

802.11b - often called Wi-Fi - transmits up to 11 megabits per second at 2.4 GHz and has a range of about 300 feet. This is the standard used by Apple’s original AirPort and most other home networking equipment.

802.11g, the newest flavor, is up to 5 times faster than 11a—transmitting up to 54 megabits per second (Mbps) or 6.75 megabytes— at 2.4 GHz. Because it uses the same frequency as 802.11b it is backward compatible and can be used with devices using that standard, but only at the reduced speed they support. This is the technology used by Apple’s AirPort Extreme.

To create a home network, you need the following elements:

A router connects to the cable modem or any other device you use to access the Internet. The router has cable connectors you use to plug in nearby computers. You can also plug in a wireless access point although some newer units combine these two functions into a "wireless router."

A Linksys wireless router. Courtesy of Linksys.

Wireless access points have rabbit ear antennas because they send and receive signals from remote parts of the network. In some systems these are separate units that plug into the router, in other systems they are combined with the router into a single unit.

Network adapters are cards that you insert into a desktop or notebook computer or connect to it’s USB or Firewire connectors. Some are wireless and others have connectors for Ethernet cables. Many new high-end computers and even handheld devices have Wi-Fi built in.

After you connect all of the components, with Windows you use a Wizard to set up your computers and grant permissions for other computers to access folders.