I’m an embedded systems engineer, and one of the projects I’m working on now is network-enabling some of our products. No longer will our customers have to connect our products to one computer at a time via USB, or install special software to control them!
Networked printers, and networked storage are popular these days. So are networked webcams, I think.
What do you have on your LAN (at home or at work) other than computers? Do you set up and control these devices through a browser, or with special software from the manufacturer? Do you like doing things that way?
I have one of these. It’s controlled through a browser application, which works pretty well. I have it set to wake me up in the morning, read me RSS feeds, titles of incoming emails, and tell me the weather before I get dressed. It’s rather useful.
On my home LAN, aside from the computers, there’s a NAS drive, a printer and a media bridge. (Not sure what today’s popular term is - it’s not a “home theater” PC, but it does pull MP3s off my desktop PC and play them to a stereo system.)
I have a TiVo connected to the network, but only for downloading program information.
My wife has a Chumby. It’s configured through their web site (chumby.com) - the device connects to the web site and downloads settings and specified widgets. It may seem like a roundabout way to control a household device but it’s actually very simple - no need to figure out the device’s IP address so you can point your browser to it.
I have a networked inkjet printer and an LG BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc Player. The printer is configured via a web browser. The Blu-ray player is mostly configured via the TV screen it’s connected to. You do need to have a computer handy to access Netflix.
Actually, I’m not sure about everything… There’s teenagers in the house. I’m sure you understand.
Anyway, I imagine that there’s one NAS, a wireless print server, a Linux box serving as a Internet gateway and web server (I know… it is a computer, but then, the NAS and the router are both running Linux too).
There’s probably a Wii, an Xbox360, a Palm device, and an iPhone as well.
We have a PS3, an AppleTV, and occasionally, a PSP and my Cingular 8125 mobile phone from work. They’re all managed directly, although the AppleTV syncs up with my iTunes library. Not sure if it counts, but we have Comcast phone service, and our phone box also serves as our cable modem.
I’ve also got a small Atom box running as a homebrew Samba NAS box, but it’s cheating for this thread because it also runs Ubuntu and serves as my “always-on” PC if I need to get to the interwebs right quick without turning on one of the big PCs.
I’ve heard that Comcast will soon enable TiVo (or something similar) on their DVRs locally, so we’ll add that one as well in a couple months.
Just a ethernet->parallel port adapter for my laser printer. (Plus 3 routers.) I know, pretty low stuff for a serious computer geek. Why do I need NAS when I can use a surplus PC that can also double for other purposes?
Oh, does a DVR count? I’m always transferring files to/from it.
Everything is browser based except the DVR. It would be a bad thing if I needed to use a standalone program as I hate having to install something on all the computers that I use that I need to manage from. (The DVR transfer software is particular idiotic since it needs to be updated regularly [no option], it loses it’s DVR key, etc.)
I have a Yamaha VX3900 audio/video receiver that I can control over the network through a fairly crappy browser interface. It can also play net radio streams directly from the net.
And my Sony Blu-ray player has a net connection so it can retrieve and play BD-Live data.
The net radio thing in the receiver is fairly nice, because it allows me to pick up my favorite local stations when regular OTA reception isn’t that good. And I can listen to a San Francisco radio station on which a friend of mine occasionally appears. And there are millions of other world radio stations I could listen to if I had the time and inclination.
But neither of these devices has really changed my life that much.
I wish my Verizon FIOS STB/DVR was net enabled so I could program it remotely via the Web. And save programs on the DVR to my own computer. That would be cool.
Nearly every home LAN built around a broadband router is what’s called a ‘Class C’ LAN, and can have 254 unique IP addresses, so there should be no problems getting addresses. As more and more devices are network-aware, it’s increasingly common for them to be able to get an IP via DHCP - far nicer than the ‘old days’ when you’d have to manually configure static IPs. It is still occasionally needed or simply useful to give things static IPs though - my laser printer can get an IP by DHCP and Apple’s Bonjour technology can find it on the network regardless of what IP it has, but to make life easier on the Windows PCs, I nailed it down with a static IP.
Ports to physically plug things in is a different issue and easily solved by plugging a switch into one of your router’s jacks.
Most things that want or need to talk to the outside world seem to use port 80 (http) or 443 (https) now as those ports are all but guaranteed to be open as they’re the default port for web browsers to use. If you need to open a specific port on your router/firewall, it’s usually very simple to do, assuming you’re the owner of the router and know its password.