Is your home already built, and you now wish that you had put in electronic systems while you had the chance? Or maybe you had everything installed that you wanted at the time, but now you want to add some new technology. Now you look around your home and realise that you can't or don't want to drill holes into finished walls, ceilings and floors, to run the low-voltage wires required for many of these new technologies. Fortunately, wireless retrofit solutions for many of a home's electronic subsystems (computer networking, audio/video distribution systems, security systems, lighting control systems, phone systems and home control systems) have made great strides over the past year toward offering owners of existing homes a reliable, secure means of distributing information and control signals throughout their homes.
Computer networks
Wireless computing networks can change the way you live. With wireless you can check your stock prices from the balcony, send an email from the study, check a wicked recipe in the kitchen, all while sharing the same internet connection with the whole family where ever they may be in the home.
Wireless computer networks have come a long way in a very short time. Just a few years ago, you had to run Category 5 data cable throughout your home if you wanted to connect computers to each other and to the Internet. Today, a wireless chipset (incorporating the ubiquitous 802.11b standard) can be found in most new laptops, or can be purchased as an interface card or a USB connection to a desktop for less than $299. Companies like Linksys, D-Link and Veriplus manufacture not only these wireless interface cards, but also the access points with which the cards
communicate. A typical computer network today consists of a router (connected to a broadband Internet modem) with an access point built in that communicates with wireless computer devices around the home. Linksys,
D-Link and SMC Networks also make wireless print server devices that let you plug in a standard desktop printer wherever you can receive a wireless signal. Now everyone in the family can share a printer, even from a laptop on the backyard deck, because all the print jobs can be sent wirelessly to the printer.
Some companies, such as Simply Wireless, will even come to your home and set everything up for you. The hardware for a simple home wireless network starts at $399 for a one- laptop Wireless Starter kit. And from another $199 Simply Wireless will come to your home at a time that suits you and configure and secure your Wireless Network. For further information contact Simply Wireless on 1300 888 166.
