Five ways to get more out of your network (09/26/2006)

What's a network good for anyway?

We here at NETGEAR have been promoting networking for a decade now, but one of the surprising things to us is how most people only think of using their home network for browsing Web sites. So in the interest of getting people to get the most out of the networking investments they've already made, we've put together a list of non-Web-browsing things you can do with your network. And without further ado, here they are:

5.) Distribute music around your house. If you're like us, your best audio gear isn't near or directly connected to your computer; it's in your living room, while your computer is in your den or home office. Yet, you probably have hundreds or thousands of MP3 or Windows Media music files sitting on your computer that you'd like to listen to in other areas of your house. What to do?

Answer: use your home network to distribute your music. Get a music distribution product like the NETGEAR Digital Entertainer, and you can listen to your PC's music on your stereo system, complete with a remote control to select songs and playlists.

4.) Display family photographs. Nowadays, most of us have tons of digital photographs, but often don't have them printed for others to view. What to do other than run down to CVS?

Answer: Put them on the Web. Sites like Flickr.com, PhotoSite.com, ShutterFly.com, and BubbleShare.com all allow you to upload photos, organize them into albums, and share them with others in your house or across the country. Best of all, most of these sites are free for the occasional upload of the family vacation or Sister Susie's wedding.

But wait! There's more. Can you put them on that big high-definition TV? Sure, if you happen to have a Media Center PC networked to an XBox 360 on your TV. Don't have an XBox 360 or Windows Media Center? No problem; look for a networkable digital media player like the NETGEAR Digital Entertainer, which does the same sort of thing, but can also do it with ordinary Windows PCs.

3.) Monitor another location via video. If you are a homeowner, you may worry about your home when you are away on business or a vacation. Or maybe you just want to be able to remotely check that your basement isn't filling up with water. Fortunately, you no longer have to ask your neighbor to check. Instead, you can just install an IP video camera like the Axis 207W Wireless Network Camera. This device incorporates its own server, allowing you to connect to them directly.

2.) Watch your home TV from your office. We've all been sitting in the office working late, wishing we could take a break and see our favorite TV program before we finish up that presentation for tomorrow. Well, the Sling Box from Sling Media and your home network make that possible. Just hook up the box to your home TV and network, and install Sling's software on your computer, and you are good to go (so to speak).

Going to be on a plane where there's no Internet connection? No problem if you have the latest TiVO personal video recorder. Using its TiVoToGo service, you can have your TiVO automatically transfer TV shows it records to your laptop, allowing you to view those shows on your next business trip. Since the airlines make you bring your own food nowadays, why not your own entertainment as well?

1.) Play games. New gaming platforms like the XBox 360 can be networked and play games against other XBox players over the Internet. And there are countless other online gaming systems from World of Warcraft to more traditional games like Scrabble and Poker at Games.com. The only problem: many of these gaming sites have monthly online charges.

But did you know that many games allow you to play multiplayer games on your own network without paying monthly fees? Games such as Warcraft, Neverwinter Nights, and Doom III all allow you to run multi-player games on your home network using a server provided with the games. While some of these games are more family friendly than others, many provide intellectual challenges along with the always popular battles. And best of all, it's all free on your home network.

So that's our top five things we do to get more out of our home network. What are yours?