Smart Homes For Dummies 3rd Edition by Danny Briere and Pat Hurley

Smart Homes For Dummies 3rd Edition by Danny Briere and Pat Hurley | PDF Free Download.

Author of Smart Homes For Dummies PDF

Danny Briere founded TeleChoice, Inc., a telecommunications consulting company, in 1985 and now serves as CEO of the company.

Widely known throughout the telecommunications and networking industry, Danny has written more than one thousand articles about telecommunications topics and has authored or edited ten books, including Internet Telephony For Dummies, Wireless Home Networking For Dummies (now in its second edition).

Wireless Hacks and Mods for Dummies, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 PC For Dummies, and Home Theater For Dummies.

He is frequently quoted by leading publications on telecommunications and technology topics and can often be seen on major TV networks, providing analysis on the latest communications news and breakthroughs.

Danny splits his time between Mansfield Center, Connecticut, and his island home on Great Diamond Island, Maine, with his wife and four children.

Pat Hurley is Director of Research with TeleChoice, Inc., and specializes in emerging telecommunications and digital home technologies, particularly in all the latest consumer electronics, access gear, and home technologies, including wireless LANs, DSL, cable modems, satellite services, and home-networking services.

Pat frequently consults with the leading telecommunications carriers, equipment vendors, consumer goods manufacturers, and other players in the telecommunications and consumer electronics industries.

Pat is the coauthor of Internet Telephony For Dummies, Smart Homes For Dummies, Wireless Home Networking For Dummies, Wireless Hacks and Mods for Dummies, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 PC For Dummies, and Home Theater For Dummies. He lives in San Diego, California, with his wife, a fiery red-headed toddler named Annabel, and two smelly dogs.

Smart Homes Contents

Part I: Future-Perfect Homes

• Chapter 1: Mi Casa, Cool Casa 
• Chapter 2: Zen and the Art of Whole-Home Networking
• Chapter 3: Cool Stuff Home Networks Can Do
• Chapter 4: Timelines and Budgets 

Part II: Making Your Home an Entertainment Cente

• Chapter 5: Breaking the Entertainment Bottleneck — Without Breaking the Bank
• Chapter 6: Getting Video Where You Want It 
• Chapter 7: Wiring a Video Network
• Chapter 8: Bringing You Music
• Chapter 9: Running Audio Here, There, and Everywhere 

Part III: Now We’re Communicating!

• Chapter 10: Planning a Phone System 
• Chapter 11:: Making the Phone Connection

Part IV: Livin’ Off the Fat of the LAN

• Chapter 12: A Cornucopia of Computers 
• Chapter 13: All Roads Lead to the Net
• Chapter 14: Designing a Data LAN
• Chapter 15: Choosing the Parts for a Wired Data LAN
• Chapter 16: Alternatives to a Wired Data LAN

Part V: Keeping the Bad Guys at Bay — Security

• Chapter 17: Home Security Boot Camp 
• Chapter 18: Wiring a Security System

Part VI: Putting It All Together — Home Automation and Control 

• Chapter 19: Home Automation Extravaganza
• Chapter 20: Making Home Automation a Reality

Part VII: The Part of Tens

• Chapter 21: Ten Common Pitfalls When Building Your Smart Home
• Chapter 22: Top Ten Toys of the Future

Introduction to Smart Homes For Dummies eBook

Welcome to Smart Homes For Dummies, 3rd Edition. This book is the first to specifically tell you how to futureproof your home to take advantage of the present and upcoming gee-whiz things that can make your home a 21st-century castle.

Very few things can prepare you for the massive changes that are taking place due to the innovations offered by an interconnected world.

The Internet and electronic commerce are changing the way we live, the way we work, and the way we play. (We hope there’s more of the last one!) We’re so used to going to stores and buying things. To calling toll-free numbers so we can ask questions and order products.

To go to school to learn. To going to the movies to watch the latest Harry Potter release. To going to the music store to buy top-of-the-charts CDs. Now it can all come to us. We can buy things through our TV sets.

We can ask questions and videoconference through our computers. We can attend classes through computer-based training. We can click our remote controls to get video-on-demand. We can download new CDs, live, over the Internet. It’s at our doorstep.

The question is, “Can you let it in?” Without a home network, all this might stay outside, or in the TV room, or trapped in that attic office of yours. A home network opens the world to your entire household, and now more than ever is the time to plan.

That’s what Smart Homes For Dummies, 3rd Edition, provides — a plan for your networked future. If you plan nothing and simply go with the flow, ordering new capabilities from your cable or telephone company when available, you’ll find that they’ll start deciding how your home network should be built and operated.

This is dangerous because they will not think about what’s best for your home — rather, they’ll install whatever gets their technicians in and out of your home the fastest.

These companies are also not looking at your big picture. In this book, we help you understand how your home can be compatible with what they want, and still keep your vision of a whole-home network too. Read on!