Smart Home Blog

Many houses already have coax cables for TV. But currently consumers need join their rooms into computer network. So, to do that we have a least two ways: put new CAT5 or use existing coax. The WiPNET’s products might help with the second option. Actually the procedure to replace existing coax wall plate by WiPNET sleeve and cartridge won’t take more then 5-10 minutes. And the fast wired network (about 100 Mbit/s), plus extended WiFi range will cover almost all consumer’s needs. Nice, isn’t it?

D-Link announced its new PowerLine adapters – single adapter unit DHP-310AV ($59.99), AV Mini Adapter Starter Kit DHP-311AV ($109.99) with two units and AV 4-Port Switch Mini Adapter Starter Kit DHP-348AV ($129.99). Those adapters can give up to 200Mbps speeds over existing electrical wiring (should be enough even for 1080p streaming). Which together with non-expensive price and slim design makes new D-Link products very attractive in case you don’t want additional wiring for your home network.

[via SlashGear]

Many of you should know about possibility to control AV equipment connected via HDMI from remote control of one of those devices. Sony calls it Bravia Theater Synch, Toshiba – Regza Link, LG – SimpLink etc. But basically all those technologies use CEC – Consumer Electronic Control – bidirectional serial bus that allows components to control each other across an HDMI cable. However, in case of Sony, Toshiba, LG etc that technology works only between devices from the same manufactures. The new kwikwai unit not only fixes that limitation. It also allow to send commands to two AV devices via LAN, USB or RS232 ports. That fact makes this device extremely useful when you need integrate AV equipment into whole house automation system. It’s more reliable then IR transmitters and gives more flexibility and power.

The kwikwai unit can be used as a tinkering and discovery tool as well. It provides a web interface to see detailed communication information between devices and allows to send specified command to the connected device. So, professional integrators may have a big benefit to use it.

The kwikwai unit is already available at £230.

[via AutomatedHome]

NAS for the SOHO is not so expensive now. So, to make access to the various files from different PCs much easier it’s better to add it to your home network. But if you already have some USB connected hard drive you can transform it to NAS using NASU2 NAS adapter.

It’s equiped with a USB 2.0/1.1 and an Ethernet 10/100Mbps connection. Additionally NASU2 provides an ability to power most 2.5″ USB hard drives or any low powered USB storage device.

For uses NASU2 offers both SMB (Server Message Block) and the open source Samba network protocols. So, it’s doesn’t matter which OS runs on client PC – MS Windows, MacOS X or Linux. It always will have access to the data on the storage. To access to the storage outside the LAN NASU2 provides FTP connection. Additionally you can use that adaptor as print-server or Torrent client. Not bad for the 50 bucks device, isn’t it?

[via Business Wire]

Netgear offers easy way to extend the Internet to any room in your home without having to run new wires – XE104G. XE104G is a 85 Mbps Wall-Plugged Ethernet Switch. Simply plug one XE104 into your router and another XE104 (up to 4 can be used) to any Ethernet-ready devices including a PC, a gaming console, Netgear’s SC101 Storage Central, a Slingboxâ„¢ a DVR or Netgear’s PS121 USB Print Server.

The XE104 works with 2 or 3 prong standard 110 volt electrical outlets and is compatible with any standard 10 or 100Mbps Ethernet drive. The switch reaches data rates up to 85Mbps with other XE104 PowerLine devices. The XE104 4-port switch is ideal for setting up a LAN party in minutes.