Word: home
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Installation was straightforward, Blum says. It took him about two hours to link up the two computers and a laser printer in his home office. The necessary power cords, adapters and software all came in one box. He plugged power cords into the backs of each computer and the printer, attached the sandwich-size adapters to the opposing ends and plugged them into regular electrical outlets. (The $150 kit also came with extra power strips.) He then installed the software, provided on one CD-ROM, into both PCs. "This was definitely something we were looking for," he says...
...times have changed. A host of new technologies is promising simpler (and much cheaper) "plug-and-play" ways to network computers in the home or small office. What's driving the market is the notion that consumers would jump at the chance to network if only they were given the right tools...
Approximately 21 million U.S. households have more than one PC today, and that number is expected to jump to 31 million by 2003. Working at home is becoming increasingly popular as well: today's 37 million home offices are expected to balloon to 50 million in three years. Meantime, the Internet has become the "killer app" among all PC users, business or pleasure. And therein lies the most compelling reason to set up a network in the first place: to share a single modem and single Internet service...
Other people might not be so persistent. And that's the problem with today's "cutting edge" home networking products: they can't guarantee that the cheap-and-easy experience won't get tougher along the way. (To be fair, what tech product is ever bug free?) Kinks will be worked out, improvements will be made, and new versions of the Intelogis and every other new type of home-networking product will arrive in due time, just as you'd expect in any other area of consumer technology...
With that in mind, it's still possible to handicap the new players. The phone line networking crowd is clearly ahead of the pack, with more companies backing the technology. Compaq, for one, is selling a Presario desktop PC model already prepped to work with a home phone-line networking system. (See box for information on other products...