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News Archive - 1999 Here is an archive of our news items from 1999. D-Link enhances Network in a Box kit Excerpts from a D-Link news release: D-Link, the world's leading manufacturer of networking Hubs and SOHO Switches, today announced that it upgraded its DFE-910 10/100 Network In A Box, with the powerful DSS-5+ 10/100 NWay auto sensing full duplex Switch that delivers a 1.6 gigabit backplane at no extra cost. That is a 50% increase in value to the industries leading network kit at the unbelievable price point of $99. Check it out at D-Link. 8/31/99 Intel reveals a vision of the future, networked home At the Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs, Calif., Intel today unveiled a display that showed the power of the PC and the Internet coming to every room of the house. In a series of rooms representing a typical home, Intel displayed the vision of home computing with small and stylish PCs. Designed for broadband connection and high performance, the PCs are networked to each other and the Internet for increased information and entertainment capabilities. Read the entire press release here. 8/31/99 Farallon offers PC/Mac phoneline kit Farallon Communications is shipping their new HomeLINE solution for networking both Macs and PCs over existing phonelines in the home. HomeLINE includes all the hardware and software users need to connect one PC to one Mac including a PCI-slot card for the PC and a PCI-slot card for the Mac. The included CD-ROM includes Macintosh and PC Internet gateway software to allow users to share a single ISP Internet connection using an analog modem, ISDN, xDSL (Digital Subscriber Line) or cable modem over their HomeLINE network:
Tthe HomeLINE NetPack CD-ROM contains additional software, such as for printer sharing, file transferring and web site installation, including
Check out more info on the kit at Farallon. 6/14/99 Miramar provides A.K.A. for online purchase Miramar Systems announced that its versatile Macintosh-based file renaming utility, A.K.A., is now available for online purchase. A.K.A. enables PCs to recognize Mac files by adding PC file extensions to Mac files and replacing illegal PC characters. The “smart” utility has the capability of learning new file types and automatically adding them to its already vast Character and Extension Mapping databases. These databases may also be edited manually to recognize unique or custom applications. A.K.A. is currently only available online. Suggested retail price is $19.95 for a single user license. The utility runs on Mac OS 7.x or higher and requires 1MB of RAM and 1MB of hard drive space. Check it out here. 6/14/99 Linksys offers kit with dual-speed hub Linksys has shipped the Fast Ethernet 10/100 Network in a Box. This starter kit includes an EtherFast 10/100 Dual-Speed 5-Port Hub (also equipped with a 100 meter distance extender uplink port), FREE LanBridge modem sharing software from Acotec, two EtherFast 10/100 LAN Cards with Wake-On-LAN capabilities, two 15 foot Category 5 UTP cables, a Hub AC power adapter and an easy to follow user guide. The Fast Ethernet 10/100 Network in a Box has an estimated street price $139.99 . Check it out at Linksys. 5/1/99 D-Link targets home networks for new, low-cost switch D-Link has unveiled a new desktop network switch, the DSS-5+, priced at a level that makes this technology within reach of home PC network users. For those who don't know, switches provide "full duplex" transmissions on networks, meaning your network cards that are full duplex capable (nearly all of them these days) will be able to send and receive data at the same time. Theoretically that doubles the speed of ethernet and fast ethernet to 20Mbps and 200Mbps, respectively. The switch also automatically detects 10Mbps or 100Mbps devices, such as network cards, and sets each port accordingly. Very nice and D-Link's list price is $149. We haven't looked around yet to see what the street price is. HomePCnetwork will see about getting one of these eval and review. Check it out here. 4/23/99 Intel launches home network kit and adapters Intel has launched it's AnyPoint home network kit and adapters. The AnyPoint system uses common phone line technology to connect your PCs, but Intel throws in a unique feature with one type of external adapter that connects to the local PC via the parallel port. Very interesting. Check it out here. HomePCnetwork has already requested a test kit and should have an evaluation posted within the next few weeks. 4/23/99 Windows 98 upgrades many benefit home networks According to several sources, Microsoft is planning a major upgrade to Windows 98 called Windows 98 Second Edition. This upgrade will incorporate bug fixes already released and also a number of new features such as internet connection sharing (a big plus for home PC networks) and Internet Explorer 5.0. The full version of Second Edition will be a whopping $89, but a CD upgrade available directly from Microsoft only will sell for around $19.95. 4/12/99 Compaq launches PC servers that might work for home Compaq recently launched the Compaq Prosignia NeoServer – "a new category of server technology specifically designed to offer small businesses a ready-to-go, easy-to-own server featuring integrated hardware and software functionality for quick setup and easy use of a small business network." Clearly, Compaq is aiming these machines at the small business market, but with the basic model starting at $1399, it may not be too far fetched that these, or similar machines, could end up as the basis of our home networks. Check it out here. 3/29/99 homePCnetwork.com is "in the news" againOnce again, homePCnetwork.com is in the news and we hope you won't mind just a bit of bragging. Of course, many of you already know this since you came here from those sources, including Lockergnome and MSNBC. We appreciate the publicity and appreciate even more that many of you are helping spread the word about homePCnetwork.com. Thanks to everyone. 3/14/99 homePCnetwork.com is "in the news" We were ch
Microsoft announces new home networking standard We'll let Microsoft speak for itself on this one. This is from their press release on the Consumer Electronic Show: "Meanwhile, Microsoft's innovative announcements at CES also include new benefits for consumers of a broad range of intelligent electronics products. Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), the next phase of Microsoft's seven-year Plug and Play initiative, makes it easier for consumers to install and configure their intelligent consumer appliances and devices on a home or small-business network. UPnP also makes it easier for those products to work together on a network and to share resources from any device in the home or business. For example, a homeowner with two PCs and one high-speed Internet connection can share Internet access across both PCs. Major companies pledging to produce UPnP-compatible products include Intel, Hewlett-Packard Co., Compaq, Dell Computer Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., Eastman Kodak Co., Samsung Information Systems America (SISA), Toshiba Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc., Axis Communications Inc., National Semiconductor Corp., 3Com Corp., ATI Technologies Inc., Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc., Conexant Systems Inc., Texas Instruments, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), Lexmark International Inc., ShareWave Inc., NEC, Honeywell, Proxim Inc., Intellon Corp., Echelon Corp, Fujitsu Limited, SHARP Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and AT&T Corp. "As appliances become more intelligent, and as the distinction between appliances and computing devices blurs, much of their value to consumers will come from their ability to communicate with other intelligent devices," Craig Mundie, senior vice president, consumer strategy at Microsoft, told CES attendees during a packed keynote address. "Because UPnP is built on existing standards, it will be relatively easy for vendors to implement, and easy for consumers to take advantage of." EDITOR'S NOTE: This sounds promising, but we won't hold our breath. If it's anything like USB, it could be years off. 1/11/99 Consumers to drive this year's PC market This is a bit late, but a report released late last year indicates that consumers will drive the overall PC market in 1999. According to International Data Corp., the worldwide PC market will grow 12.8% in 1999 to 100.6 million units. IDC said, "the consumer market, rebounding via portable PC sales and purchases from an expanding number of internet users, is driving the overall market." We didn't find specific numbers in the report we read on how many of those consumer machines will be second home PCs waiting to be networked, but we know from other reports the number is massive. Time will tell, we suppose. 1/11/99USA Today: "PC Networking: Try this at home" In case you missed it, today's (1/5/99) USA Today Life section had a front page article entitled "PC Networking: Try this at home." The writer did a good job of cramming lots of "news" and trends about home networking into the usual super short USA Today style article. This won't be news for most of you, but rest assured if it makes USA Today, it is probably going to become a bigger deal. 1/5/99 Cache standard proposed for networks Several major companies are working together on a standard for network caching. The idea would be to provide a method for internet clients to locate cache services, such as from a proxy, on a network and work with them to speed access to web pages, etc. The draft specification is called the Web Proxy Autodiscovery protocol (or WPAD), quite a mouthful but could be meaningful once we all get our cable modems and xDSL modems and want instantenous access to the web. 1/5/99
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