Dear John,
The good news is that all is possible using the Mac. I will have to get
back with you in a day or two about the controllers, but there are
several companies that use Mac for doing just that.
After tomorrow, your iTunes may change (at the keynote speech in MWSF,
the rumor sites are saying iTunes will get a significant upgrade, to
use Rendezvous to pipe music to various places (various computers).
If you are going to wire the house, use Cat 6 cable (CAT = Category) or
Cat 5E at the least. Cat 5 cable is not realllllly shielded properly to
use with the gigabit ethernet that recent Macs have in them, so you
would be topping out at 100Mbps in burst mode, and average 80 - 90
Mbps. The extra bandwidth will be needed as more and more Rendezvous
enabled, Bluetooth enabled devices come on the market. Phillips has
announced support for Rendezvous, so maybe you will be able to pipe
DVDs all over the house soon. You will need the Cat 6 at that point.
The folks that use fiber like it better than copper, but it does cost
more all around, the cable, the NIC (network interface card), the
switches, etc. But less data loss.
Jerry
On Monday, January 6, 2003, at 11:52 AM, profile wrote:
>
> Good Morning Group.
>
> We are building a new home, it is under roof and the wiring has begun.
> I am
> unsure about incorporating total automation from a computer, but I best
> search it out.
>
> I know there are many programs on the market for the Windows units,
> but I
> won't go that route. Does anyone know of a firm/program that allows
> the MAC
> (OS X) to control heat, lights, alarm system, video security, etc.
> etc.?
>
> Also, I had read somewhere in the past postings that there was a
> program
> that allows iTunes to pipe different music to the various rooms at the
> same
> time. Has anyone done this and who was this company?
>
> I also wonder about wiring the home with Cat 5 wire, as the expense
> may not
> be justified with the wireless technology that is coming on so strong.
> What
> do you think about putting in fiber for networking or internet? Worth
> the
> cost? I don't transfer huge files but I have several computers that I
> need
> backing up and they will be throughout the house.
>
> Any other suggestions will be appreciated!
>
> Thanks for your help. This group is growing in it's strength of
> lending a
> hand and that is so beneficial.
>
> John Robinson
> profile at ayel.net
>
>
>
> | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will
> | be January 28. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>.
>
>
>
| The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will
| be January 28. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>.
