Home Network Road Test

Home Office Computing, Sept, 1999 by Dave Johnson

Are your expectations realistic? Here's how today's technologies and products fare against our wish list of productivity tasks

FEW TECHNOLOGIES HAVE BEEN HYPED AS MUCH AS HOME networking. After months of hearing how connecting your PCs and peripherals will reveal a new world of bright possibilities--a world where your teeth are whiter and your car runs farther on a tank of gas--it's time to take a step back and examine the ways a home network can and can't improve your home office productivity.

Because a host of companies using several different technologies are competing for your home networking business, overenthusiasm can occasionally color marketing claims. The truth is that each platform has a unique set of strengths and weaknesses--there's no magic bullet among them. Why? Although the ability to network PCs and peripherals dates back to 1976, the new technologies built specifically for home use--phone line, AC power, and USB-based Ethernet--suffer from first-generation quirks and limitations. And two seasoned technologies--conventional Ethernet and wireless --were never meant to do residential duty.

To give you the straight scoop, we sized up today's offerings against a wish list of specific productivity tasks. Want to share files or Internet access with an intern at an adjoining desk? Or between upstairs and downstairs systems? How about controlling a desktop PC from your notebook in the backyard? We'll tell you which technologies--if any--are best suited for each task. A green light means all products perform the particular task well, or one or two do it outstandingly. Yellow indicates that a home network can do the job, but your options may be limited or the solutions slow (we expect these to improve over time). Finally, red means stop, back up, and find a new route: A home network will never go there.

Share Files Between PCs in the Basement and Second-Floor Study

You've got two offices separated by a floor or two, and you want access to common files, such as your Quicken database, from both PCs.

Three technologies can accomplish this, but each has pluses and minuses. Ethernet requires that you run cabling through your walls and ceilings to connect the systems, which is fine if you're building a home from scratch, but unacceptable if you're averse to drilling through drywall.

An AC power-line network is superbly easy to set up, and lets you transfer data at a range of up to a quarter mile, even connecting systems not in the same building. The trouble is that AC systems like the PassPort Network Starter Kit ($200 for two PCs, $80 per additional PC; Intelogis, 801-571-4000, www.intelogis.com) have a rated speed of only 350Kbps (our testing has proven actual speed to be even lower), which is too slow to comfortably transfer or download any but the smallest files.

If you need more speed and have phone jacks installed near your PCs, consider a phone-line network. Although most phone-line products oblige you to install a network card in each system, they deliver acceptable 1Mbps speeds. You can make and receive voice calls while you're networking, and thanks to the industry-wide HomePNA alliance, you can choose from plenty of interoperable products, such as the HomeFree Phoneline Network ($100 for two PCs; Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc., 800-468-5846, www.diamondmm.com) or ActionLink Home Networking Kit ($104 for two PCs; ActionTec, 408-752-7700, www.actiontec.com). Even better, if you can hold off a bit longer, the first wave of 10Mbps phone-line products is expected to hit the shelves by the holidays.

Share an Internet Connection Between Two or More Systems

You and your spouse or coworker want to surf the Internet at the same time, but you have only one phone line. If you already have a phone-line, wireless, or AC-power network, the ability to share the Internet connection over the network is built right in. But if you have a USB or Ethernet network, you'll need to buy modem sharing software like WinGate 3.0 ($40 for three to six PCs; Deerfield.com, 517-732-8856, www.wingate.com). For just a few PCs, such products are affordable, though some are easier to configure than others. (See "Insider's Guide to Sharing Internet Access" in the August 1999 issue.) Sound too good to be true? If your house contains Web-hungry surfers who are constantly downloading graphics -heavy pages, a shared 56Kbps connection will have them gnashing their teeth. But for a quick check of e-mail and some light surfing, this solution will do.

Transfer Files at Lightning Speed

Clearly, all home networks aren't created equal, especially when it comes to transferring bulky multimedia files or large images. In fact, sometimes it seems as if the easier a product is to configure, the slower it runs. Wireless and first-generation phone-line networks have rated speeds in the 1Mbps to 1.5Mbps range; power-line systems, as mentioned, are more sluggish. Traditional Ethernet's 10Mbps is your best bet, but don't expect to see corporate-standard 100Mbps Fast Ethernet in the home anytime soon.