New Network Technology for the Home

June 10 -- It's a couch potato's Garden of Eden.

In the smart home of the future, media buffs could download the latest hit movie off the Internet at the touch of a button. Another tap of the remote control could send video from their last vacation winging its way to friends and family. And surfers could easily follow their whims to find the latest hit song or installment of Survivor.

That's long been the dream for consumers and high-techies alike. And with an expected fivefold increase ahead in the number of homes with networked computers, the prospects for the wired home are more real than ever.

But there's a snake in this paradise. And it's not just the yards of wires and cables that can entangle even the most intrepid weekend warrior.

It's the baffling barrage of conflicting home entertainment standards that come with attempts to join TVs, DVDs, VCRs and audio equipment into a complex home theater system.

Try to add in the home computer, the latest electronic beast with its own standards and complexities, and total confusion is bound to reign.

The bottom line? For most, what could be a state of home entertainment nirvana ends up being the ninth circle of hell.

Geek Friendly, But Not Novice Friendly

"We're a far cry from Bill Gates' smart house," agrees Charles Golvin, a senior analyst who follows home entertainment technology trends for Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass.

Yet his latest research indicates American homes are undergoing a significant change that could eventually lead to the smarter homes many dream of.

According to Forrester's latest study, some 8.1 million homes in the United States will have established a home network by the end of this year. And within five years, that figure will jump to 37 million.

For now, the main reason for homeowners to establish a network is that a growing number of them have multiple computers — and they need to connect them all to the Internet.

"It's really about doing the same thing at home that you do at work — sharing competing resources such as printers and Internet access," says Golvin. But, he adds, "This is still very much an early adopter's market."