Wireless Home Networking - Index of

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Part IV: Using a Wireless Network
The wireless-enablement of consumer goods is spreading faster than a wildfire.
As we write, products are coming out daily. If you’re interested in seeing
what else has popped up since we wrote this book check out our book
update site (www.digitaldummies.com).
Making a Connection to Your Car
For many people, their cars are more than mechanisms to get them from
point A to point B. Some folks spend a considerable amount of time each day
commuting — we know people who spend one and a half hours in the car
each way in a commute. For others, like those with RVs, their vehicles
represent entire vacation homes.
If you think about the things you do in your car — listen to music, talk on the
phone, let your kids watch movies — they’re not all that different from things
you do around the house. Because your home’s wireless connection can
reach outside your walls and into your driveway or garage, your car can go
online with your home network and access data ranging from your address
book on your PC to your latest MP3s in your stereo. You can download them
to your car, thus simplifying your life and making the car truly a second
home. (No more calls home asking “Honey, can you look on my computer for
the number for . . . ?”)
Your car’s path to wireless enlightenment
Although you may think that wireless is a new topic for your car, your car has
been wirelessly enabled for years. Your car stereo gets wireless AM/FM signals
from afar and, with the advent of satellite radio, now even farther than
ever. (See the nearby sidebar, “Satellite radio versus digital radio.”) Wireless
phone options — cellular and Bluetooth-based technologies — are quickly filtering
into the car. (We discuss Bluetooth and cars more in Chapter 15.) And
then there’s the new wave of electronic toll systems that predominantly use
short-range wireless technology to extract from your bank account that quarter
(or dollar) every time you cross a toll bridge. Wireless is all over your car,
but not centralized on any sort of wireless backbone like it is for your home.
Your car is also becoming more outfitted for computing and entertainment
devices and functionality as manufacturers add, as standard and optional
features, such items as CD and DVD playback systems, global positioning
systems (GPSes), and even computers to operate your car.
All this spells opportunity for wireless. Bluetooth and 802.11 technologies are
infiltrating the car and providing you with the opportunity to create the same
wireless backbone as in your home — a universal wireless network that any
device or function can access to talk to other parts of the car, such as your
stereo, and to points outside the car. In fact, your wireless home network