Smart Homes For Dummies For Dummies Home & Garden

Editorial Review
Do you long to listen to your favorite CD from anywhere in your house? To set up a wireless network so you can access the Internet in any room? To install an iron-clad security system? To fire up the coffee pot while you’re still asleep and wake up with automated lighting? Smart home technology can help you do just that!

Smart Homes For Dummies, Third Edition, shows you how easy it can be to create and live in a cutting-edge, fully connected home—without breaking your bank account. With this user-friendly guide, you’ll discover all the latest trends and gadgets in home networking, automation, and control that will help you make life more enjoyable and comfortable for your entire family. We help you plan for things such as flat-screen TVs, intercom systems, whole-home audio systems, gaming consoles, and satellite systems. We talk about your wiring (and wireless) options and introduce you to the latest technologies, such as VoIP and Bluetooth. You’ll see how to:

Build your home network on a budget
Turn your home into an entertainment center
Access the Internet from any room
Get VoIP on your phone network
Boost in-home wireless and cell phone signals
Connect your computer to your TV
Secure your home and property
Increase your home’s resale value
Avoid common networking pitfalls
And much, much more

Complete with a resource list for more information and neat toys of the future, Smart Homes For Dummies is your plain-English, twenty-first century guide to a fully wired home!
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Customer Reviews

Only for dummies

2005-09-29
Very little information of any real help here. No reviews of current equipment, or help in wiring. Very basic descriptions of home automation. Only for the truly dumb.

Smart Review

2004-03-29
I have read this book in its whole entirety. It is very well written, thorough, and sectionally organized. It covers a diverse range of interesting issues in relation to the title's subject. The approach to reading this book can be tackled from a stand-alone-chapter format, and/or in a chapter-linking format, and/or obviously as a whole book format.

Smart Homes for Dummies Second Edition

2004-03-16
If you would like to know more about electronics in the home this is the perfect book. Whether you are an expert or are looking in to having things installed in your home you can easily read and understand everything. Also the book is a great reference for companies and their products.

This was a terrific help...

2004-01-16
We just moved into a new home and were totally overwhelmed and confused when we tried to figure out what we needed to put in both cable modem for high speed internet access and DirecTV with TiVo. I found Smart Homes for Dummies and read it. It really helped me understand how to accomplish this. Also, as a result, I was able to ask our contractor "smart" questions to keep the costs within our budget and get what we needed for a "futureproof" system.

an overview.....

2003-11-21
....of many systems and choices, but NOT for the person who wants to know (as I did) how to actually wire things up. Use this as a guide to getting your mind into the topic and what it involves, not as a how-to.

There is one area that makes me nervous about how much of the book derived from having actually done what it recommends. About the DirecWay satellite system: I have used that system, and what's not stated in the book are its numerous glaring flaws. It is slow. It doesn't interface well with a wireless network. It is notorious (I found out after the fact) for having a problem accessing Hotmail. Customer support is almost useless; the email address and Web site that come with the installation are wrong, and the person who answers the phone very often doesn't know a satellite from a sabersaw. Any networking you do requiring an Ethernet port won't happen, because there is none. You can't download a file larger than 170 Mg in any four-hour period (and no, it's not in the product documentation because there's none of that either--all you get is a small online help file). And the speed is about the same as the 56K modem I once used over a phone line. Why isn't any of that discussed? It made me wonder how much of what the author(s) talked about actually came from a hands-on perspective.

Where's the beef 2008-06-12
A good introductory book for understanding the options but not enough examples of how to use the technology in real life.

An excellent orientation; a mediocre how-to 2007-11-04
This book was very useful in providing an organized and cross-referenced overview of all the systems and sub-systems and technologies that can be utilized in constructing a smart home. The best thing about it is that the authors manage to maintain good objectivity - it's not a glorified sales pitch for any particular manufacturer. The book is very useful for making decisions about what technologies to incorporate in your home. Audio and video may be a given, but the authors also address phone systems, home security, computer network (wireless and cabled), voice control systems, video cameras, lighting, and more.

The principal weakness is that the book doesn't really tell you how to create a smart home plan. It is weak on examples. If you're sitting down with a set of blueprints and this book, there are a lot of missing pieces to the puzzle (placement and types of outlets and switchplates, dedicated circuitry for the media room, in-wall or in-ceiling speaker placement for audio or surround sound setups, conduit layout, drawing and notating plans for the electrician, and so on).

It's very well written, with a personal and humorous touch from the authors and you can easily sit down and read it cover to cover in one day. But it's rich in information, so I'd suggest reading it with a highlighter handy for the things that grab your attention.

Good Guidance 2007-09-20
Lots of info for x10 systems but not leaning to any particular vendor. Very much like that they wrote from personal experience. I did wish they were a bit more clear in regards to whole house audio, but the section on impedance was adequate.

Food for thought. 2007-08-15
My husband and I are in the midst of a major remodel/expansion of our 1968 tract home so we have read pretty much every remodeling book we could find. This book offers a lot of information and food for thought on how to bring an outdated home into the technology age. Our budget is not unlimited and this book helped us decide which features were essential to add now and what could be added later (and how to add the foundation work while the walls were stripped to the studs for those future improvements to save us money in the long run). This book does not give reviews on specific products, that is not it's purpose. Technology is changing so fast, that any product reviews would have been obsolete by the time the book hit the shelves. I recommend you use this book to plan out the framework for your smart house and use magazines like THE PERFECT VISION, HOME THEATER, etc. to fill in the blanks. My husband subscribed to both magazines through Amazon (very inexpensively) for 2 years and did a lot of research on the Internet before making his preliminary choices. Since we aren't at the "fun stage" of our remodel yet, where we get to go buy all the equipment, those choices might still change because prices our dropping and items that were out of our price range 2 years ago are now more affordable. The bottom line is this book is the BEST for helping you plan your smart house because it is easy to understand by even those of us who are not tech savy (like me) and it shows you options that you may have never even thought of before. And believe me, in a remodel the time for thought, planning and innovation is before you put the drywall back up!

Good reading. 2007-02-19
I am very much into the X-10 gadgets and have been for several years. This book was intended for the average DUMMY homeowner interested in inexpensive home security and automation. Although I own other books on this particular subject, I found this one to be the most down to earth.