Lately, I have been adding devices to my home network enhancing its utility. If these devices add a common set of capabilities, then these devices could add value by taking advantage of always on broadband connectivity. The purpose of the note is to initiate a discussion along this line.
Two of the latest additions are from Netgear – a print server and networked hard drive enclosure (SC101). The print server is a simple device that allows any computer connected to the home network to use a printer connected to it. SC 101 accommodates two hard drives of any size and computers connected to the home network can use these drives. Actually, the drives could be partitioned so that a computer can be allowed to attach to only certain partitions. All in all it suffices to say that a sophisticated mirroring and sharing system can be setup imitating the services provided by FolderShare. But both the devices can be used by only the computers that are in the same home network. Though I have not tried it, I suspect that these devices will not support cascaded routers.
Now consider the case where these devices use the mechanism I had described in a previous post whereby they use the directory service and NAT/FW traversal capabilities offered by IP Communications providers. Then I will be able to use my home printer and hard drives from any place on the network. By adding a couple of simple capabilities we can make any home network devices to be “Networked devices”.
Posted by aswath at January 2, 2006 03:48 AM
Take my 5 year-old idea and run with it man - I didn't/don't have the resources to make a go of it ;)
http://techbygolfinguy.blogspot.com/2005/12/my-oldest-best-idea.html
Posted by: Golfinguy at January 3, 2006 04:10 PM