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| Introduction | |
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| About This Book | |
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| What You're Not to Read | |
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| Foolish Assumptions | |
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| How This Book Is Organized | |
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| Future-Perfect Homes | |
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| Making Your Home an Entertainment Center | |
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| Now We're Communicating! | |
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| Livin' Off the Fat of the LAN | |
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| Keeping the Bad Guys at Bay - Security | |
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| Putting It All Together - Home Automation and Control | |
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| The Part of Tens | |
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| Icons Used in This Book | |
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| Where to Go from Here | |
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| Future-Perfect Homes | |
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| Mi Casa, Cool Casa | |
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| Living in Your Smart Home | |
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| Starting your day | |
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| Getting down to work | |
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| Dinner time | |
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| Peace at last! | |
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| The home-network revolution | |
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| What's in a Smart Home? | |
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| Why Network Your Home? | |
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| What Does It Take to Network Your Home? | |
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| Zen and the Art of Whole-Home Networking | |
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| All Together Now! | |
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| Moving Your Network into the Closet | |
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| The contents of your wiring closet | |
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| The location of your wiring closet | |
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| Feeding Audio and Video from the Media Center | |
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| The contents of your media center | |
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| Setting up your media center | |
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| Choosing Cables | |
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| Cable categories | |
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| Patch me in! | |
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| Jacks and plugs for everyone | |
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| Modular wall outlets | |
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| Investigating All-in-One Wiring Solutions | |
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| Structured cabling systems | |
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| Where all-in-one systems work (and don't work) | |
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| Makers of all-in-one systems | |
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| Hints for Designing a Futureproofed Home | |
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| Racking It Up | |
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| Cool Stuff Home Networks Can Do | |
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| Neat Phone Tricks | |
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| Entertainment Everywhere | |
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| Save Energy - and Money Too | |
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| Internet Outlets | |
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| Remote Control of Almost Everything | |
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| "I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up!" | |
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| Pool, Anyone? | |
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| To Infinity and Beyond! | |
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| Connect your kitchen appliances and more | |
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| Let your TV show you the Web | |
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| Make phone calls on your computer | |
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| Check up on your house over the Net | |
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| Timelines and Budgets | |
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| New or Existing Home? | |
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| What Do You Want from Your Home Network? | |
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| Deciding How Much to Spend | |
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| Going Over the Costs | |
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| The Home Team | |
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| Starting Down the Smart-Home Path | |
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| Making Your Home an Entertainment Center | |
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| Breaking the Entertainment Bottleneck - Without Breaking the Bank | |
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| TV and Video Systems | |
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| Analog still rules the roost - but not for long | |
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| Digital is here! | |
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| Next-generation digital TV | |
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| I want my HDTV! | |
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| TV types | |
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| Video source components | |
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| TV Connections from the Outside World | |
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| Broadcast TV | |
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| Cable TV | |
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| Satellite TV | |
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| Audio Systems | |
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| Intercom Systems | |
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| Getting Video Where You Want It | |
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| Distance Counts in Video Signals | |
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| Cabling between components (A/V interconnect cables) | |
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| Cabling the video-distribution network (broadband) | |
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| Coaxial Video Networks | |
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| Coaxial cable | |
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| Coax connectors | |
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| Components | |
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| Wiring a Video Network | |
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| Connecting Your Video Network | |
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| Filling your walls: Running the cables | |
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| Tying it together: Making connections at the distribution panel | |
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| Hooking up: Making connections in the TV rooms | |
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| Summing Up | |
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| Special Needs of Satellite Systems | |
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| Running a one-way satellite network | |
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| Creating a hybrid satellite/video network | |
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| Making satellite connections | |
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| And in This Corner, CAT-5e/6 | |
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| Cut the Cord: Wireless Alternatives for Video Distribution | |
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| Use What You Already Have: Phone Line Alternatives for Video Distribution | |
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| Bringing You Music | |
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| Zoning Out: Single-Zone versus Multizone Systems | |
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| Audio Connections (in the Short and Long Run) | |
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| Line level (for the short haul) | |
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| Speaker level (for the long haul) | |
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| Cables and Components | |
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| Control systems | |
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| Mating your amplifiers and speakers | |
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| Speaker cable | |
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| Audio connectors | |
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| Speaker outlets | |
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| In-wall speakers | |
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| Running Audio Here, There, and Everywhere | |
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| Making the Big Choice | |
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| Reaching for a Star | |
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| Single-Zone Simplicity | |
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| Installing a single-zone, single-amplifier system | |
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| Implementing a single-zone, multi-amplifier system | |
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| Mega-Multizoning | |
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| Other Ways to Send Audio | |
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| CATching up with CAT-5e/6 systems | |
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| Wireless systems | |
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| Now We're Communicating! | |
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| Planning a Phone System | |
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| Selecting Equipment for Your Phone Network | |
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| Plug and play the old-fashioned way | |
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| Cordless phones | |
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| Fancy phone systems | |
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| Fax machines | |
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| Answering machines | |
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| External ringers/lights | |
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| TDD devices | |
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| Choosing a Fixed Phone Service | |
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| POTS | |
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| Connecting in new ways | |
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| Voice over IP | |
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| Cutting the Cord: Going Mobile | |
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| Making the Phone Connection | |
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| What to Run Where | |
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| Building the architecture | |
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| Plugging into a KSU | |
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| Using KSU-less phone systems | |
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| Connecting Alternatively | |
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| Taking the wireless route | |
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| Adding a jack on the cheap, without wires | |
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| Livin' Off the Fat of the LAN | |
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| A Cornucopia of Computers | |
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| Considering Computers of All Kinds | |
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| Choosing traditional PCs | |
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| Looking at laptops, desktops, and more | |
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| Serving up files with a home server | |
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| PDAs, PDQ: Interfacing with Handheld Computers | |
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| Monitors | |
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| Keyboards | |
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| Eeek, There's a Mouse on My Desk | |
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| Plugging in Printers and Such | |
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| Beyond the PC - Next-Generation Computers | |
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| Game consoles on the Net! | |
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| Web-enabled TV - is it for me? | |
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| All Roads Lead to the Net | |
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| A World of IP Devices | |
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| Analog Modems | |
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| DSL | |
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| Lighting the Way with Fiber | |
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| Cable Modems | |
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| Beaming Internet in from Satellites | |
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| Connecting Wirelessly | |
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| Power Companies | |
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| Designing a Data LAN | |
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| Flipping the Wired or Wireless Coin | |
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| Running Cables Here, There, and Everywhere | |
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| Bedrooms | |
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| Living room | |
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| Home office | |
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| Home theater or media center | |
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| Kitchen | |
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| Other places | |
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| Migrating Your Computer Flock to the Net | |
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| Understanding home-network routers | |
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| Using your PC to route packets | |
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| Choosing the Parts for a Wired Data LAN | |
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| Building CAT-5e/6 LANs | |
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| Cables and Connectors | |
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| The network components | |
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| NICs galore | |
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| Software to put it all together | |
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| Visualizing How a Data LAN Works | |
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| Working with your Internet connection | |
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| Integrating with no-new-wires networks | |
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| Alternatives to a Wired Data LAN | |
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| Cut the Cord! | |
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| Understanding the standards | |
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| Is it time for N? | |
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| Back to base(ics) | |
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| In the NIC of time | |
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| Battening down the hatches | |
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| Putting together a wireless LAN | |
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| Extending a wireless LAN with WDS | |
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| But wait - there's more to wireless networks | |
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| Making the Most of Your Phone Lines | |
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| Powering Your Network | |
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| Mixing and Matching | |
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| Keeping the Bad Guys at Bay - Security | |
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| Home Security Boot Camp | |
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| Deciding That You Need a Security System | |
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| Security Basics | |
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| Getting control of your security panel | |
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| Don't panic - use your keypad! | |
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| You fill up my sensors | |
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| Sirens | |
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| Monitoring | |
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| Gathering Your 007 Security Equipment | |
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| Video surveillance | |
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| Audio surveillance | |
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| Finding and Installing the Right Security System | |
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| Hardwired systems | |
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| Wireless systems | |
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| Getting someone to do the job | |
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| Wiring a Security System | |
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| How to Prewire | |
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| Running a security loop | |
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| Wiring choices | |
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| Wiring for wireless | |
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| All Zoned Out | |
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| Super supervision | |
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| Wireless supervision | |
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| Connecting to Other Systems | |
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| Phone line interfaces | |
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| Alternative phone line interfaces | |
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| Home-control interfaces | |
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| Audio interfaces | |
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| Broadband interfaces | |
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| Putting It All Together - Home Automation and Control | |
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| Home Automation Extravaganza | |
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| Where an Automated Home Begins - and Ends | |
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| Understanding the Protocols | |
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| Understanding the Components | |
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| Modules | |
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| Switches | |
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| Controllers | |
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| Lights, AC (Powerline), Action | |
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| Control Networks for Entertainment Systems | |
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| Using RF remotes | |
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| Using a wired IR repeater system | |
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| Making Home Automation a Reality | |
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| X10 Marks the Spot | |
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| Building bridges | |
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| Keep those nosy (or noisy) neighbors off your powerline | |
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| Boost that signal | |
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| Surge protectors kill powerline signals | |
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| Wire those switches right | |
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| Controlling Your Home-Automation Systems | |
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| Keeping it simple | |
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| Adding a computer for more control | |
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| Making your home interactive | |
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| Getting IR Around the House | |
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| Making your coaxial cable work overtime | |
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| Being dedicated | |
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| Part VII | |
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| Ten Common Pitfalls When Building Your Smart Home | |
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| Missing the Basics of Automation | |
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| Not Reading the Manual | |
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| Thinking That AC and Low Voltage Are Friends | |
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| Using the Weakest Link | |
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| That PPPPPP Thing | |
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| Thinking That Wiring Is a Dirty Word | |
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| Falling into the Proprietary Pitfall | |
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| Tumbling into the All-in-One Trap | |
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| Forgetting to Add Conduit | |
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| Not Bothering to Use Labels | |
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| Top Ten Toys of the Future | |
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| Robotic Servants | |
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| Networking the Family Sedan | |
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| Losing Weight on the Internet | |
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| Figuring Out Which CD to Play | |
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| Serving Up Video on Your Screen | |
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| Giving a Concert | |
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| Gazing on a Starry, Starry Night | |
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| 3D Home Theater | |
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| Putting the "Motion" in Motion Pictures | |
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| Playing with LEGO, the 21st Century Way | |
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| Index | |