Multiple Home PCs Create Need for Home Networks

Home Networks Will Help Families Share Internet Access, Printers and Information

(BUSINESSWIRE FEATURE) - Nov. 12, 1998 - Like cars, telephones and television sets before it, one home PC is not always enough to meet the needs of the average American family.

With the Internet clearly overhauling how people communicate, shop and access information, more families are bringing second and third PCs into their homes. Today, the number of U.S. households with multiple PCs reaches almost 18 million**, and this is expected to grow to 28 million in the year 2003. Research sponsored by Intel Corporation shows that 86 percent of multiple PC households have Internet access and are on the 'Net' an average of 14 hours each week.***

These same homes typically have between two and four PC users. The primary users are adults who spend between nine and 19 hours a week involved in work applications, surfing online and home finance. The other users are kids who spend about six hours a week at the PC for educational and entertainment purposes.***

Critically, most of this PC use occurs between dinner and bedtime, a new national pastime that forces many families into a nightly tug of war over printers and the coveted Internet connection.

Home Networking is the Solution
In a situation where a child's access to NASA's* Web site is just as important as a parent's ability to make a timely online investment, how can a family share and share alike? The answer for families may be found in the same solution businesses have long used to link computers together - the network.

A home network will help give parents and their children more flexibility and function from their PCs and computing accessories by linking those PCs together over ordinary phonelines. Immediate benefits would include:

• Printer Sharing - PCs in any room could access the best printer located anywhere in the house. Families could print to the color printer in the den from the PC that's in the master bedroom downstairs.
• Simultaneous Internet Access - every home with a telephone line and a PC could access the Internet at the same time through a single Internet account, one modem and one phone line. This means dad could surf the Web for sports scores at the same time the kids are doing homework research online.
• File Sharing - everyone could share files from any PC in the home. No more floppy disk swaps.
• Multiplayer Gaming - family members could participate in games designed for two or more players from two or more PCs in the house at the same time. This would certainly add a new dimension to Friday night's Monopoly* game.

Intel Research Measures Consumer Readiness for Home Networking
According to a recent survey*** by Intel, more than 70 percent of mutliple-PC households said they would find a home networking product appealing. Twenty-eight percent of respondents cited simultaneous Internet access and 27 percent noted printer sharing as the most attractive advantages of a home networking product. Fifteen percent cited file sharing and eight percent highlighted multiplayer games as the primary home networking benefits.

Intel also found that the average multiple PC home in the United States has four to five phone jacks and that these jacks are located in the rooms where PCs are often used.

These rooms include bedrooms, family room/den and the kitchen. Eighty-six percent of primary PCs and 78 percent of secondary PCs are in rooms with a telephone jack. The proliferation of telephone jacks throughout multiple PC homes in the United States makes phoneline home networking a viable solution for consumers - and it would allow PCs to be located in the rooms where families want to use them.***

But perhaps consumer interest in the concept of home networking can best be understood directly from consumers themselves. Intel recently asked visitors to its home networking Web site (www.intel.com/home/network) to submit short essays describing how they would use a home network. Within days, more than 3,000 consumers stated their cases.

"My two kids and I delve into science, interpersonal communication, general Internet skills, and of course, some of the latest high-end 3-D-based games using our computer," said Kevin Plant. "Currently, I need to interact with each child one at a time. Networking would allow me to give both children my attention, learning and/or playing at the same time, without a need to budget computer time."

"We are a family of computer users," said Greg Stovall. "When my four children (ages 7, 5, 3, and 2) are not on the computer, I hop on, which makes for very short nights for me! We have a couple of computers, but only one phone line and one printer. It would be great if we could share all the resources without competing for the central computer. However, in between fixing the cars and cleaning crayon marks off the walls, I've never had the time to run Ethernet to all the rooms. But, every room in the house has a phone jack."

Home Networking Products on the Horizon
With more consumers recognizing that they need to link their PCs together, manufacturers are coming to the drawing board to develop solutions. In September, Intel announced the Intel® 21145 Phoneline/Ethernet LAN Controller, which will allow PC manufacturers to create consumer PCs that are home network-ready right out of the box. Early next year, several manufacturers are expected to introduce consumer home networking products that use a house or apartment's existing telephone wires to link PCs together.

With the phonelines already in your house, home networking will help solve the nightly battle over Internet access, eliminate the "sneakernet" method of running disks upstairs to print to the perfect printer, and make computer gaming a family experience. And just like the extra televisions, phones and cars in so many U.S. homes, the multiple PCs in your home will get plenty of mileage as well. Networking could bring more excitement to how families use their PCs.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.