Overview

Home networking is going to be big, really big. Research from Dataquest indicates that there are at least 18 million homes in the United States with more than one PC. Of these multiple-PC households, only 10% have a LAN. That means that there are over 16 million families out there in need of home networking.

Easy enough, just lay down some coax or cat5 cabling, follow the FS How to Setup a LAN Guide, and the FS Guide to Windows Networking, and the whole family will be fragging away in no time. Well, it's not quite that easy for the average family. Unfortunately, most people don't know how to setup a LAN, and many might not even want to go through the trouble of setting one up.

While we have no problems stringing networking cable everywhere, Mom and Dad might object to lining the hallway with cat5 cable. Installing internal cabling would be ideal, but how many people would actually consider that option?

Simply put, there's a huge market out there for easy-to-install home networks that don't require extra cabling. Recently there's been a surge in new alternative networking products. There are RF wireless products such as the Diamond Homefree Wireless system, other products that run a network over household electrical wiring such as Intelogis' PassPort Kit, and kits that run networks over normal phonelines like Diamond's Homefree Phoneline.

Now Intel has entered the home networking arena with a phoneline based networking product. Intel's AnyPoint system gives users a simple, easy-to-install home networking option. Offering complete compatibility with the Home Phone Networking Alliance specifications, the AnyPoint system looks like a winner.