Insteon	Zwave
Rating: 5 out of 5	Rating: 3 out of 5

The promise of home automation is enticing. Press a button, watch the curtains close, lights dim and your favorite movie play – What’s not to like?

Helping to bring this orchestra of technology to the forefront is the decreasing cost of devices offered by a variety of vendors. You can still spend upwards of $50,000 on an integrated home automation system, but those are advanced systems installed by those with more money than time. If you're like me however, with the opposite situation – then devices such as Insteon, Zigbee and Z-Wave should peak your interest.

If you're one of the many people considering home automation, but you aren't quite sure where to start or what the best technology is, this article is for you. It seems as though the majority of information about home automation is either extremely technical or focused on one specific product offering. There is no 'perfect' system in home automation, but that's the beauty of it too - the parts work together to achieve what you want your house to be like, not what someone else thinks it should be like. Read on for the top questions asked when starting out with home automation...

NetLinc / SmartLinc

Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary: While I’m not convinced that the newly released NetLinc is a replacement for the PowerLinc Modem and a good software package, it likely fills another role in that it provides incredibly easy access to view your house cameras on a wide range of devices including the iPod Touch, iPhone or any computer with internet access. The fact that it offers Insteon control and is relatively cheap is a bonus.

Smarthome just sent out an email talking about the release of the new NetLinc product, as well as an Insteon motion sensor and an outdoor 220v switch. I follow the home automation scene fairly carefully, and in the past lack of devices has been one of the few downfalls of Insteon so when several new products are released I’m curious to find out how they compare.

First, the NetLinc – This device is primarily designed as an interface between your home automation devices (lights, appliances, sprinklers etc) and any web-enabled device. Smarthome seems to think the most popular use for this will be using your iPhone or iPod Touch to control your appliances, since they now have several packages which include a free iPod Touch. While I think it’s great that the NetLinc supports mobile technologies, and the interface on the iPod/iPhone looks quite usable, I’m just not sure how much use most people will get out of this beyond the cool factor.

Insteon	Zigbee
Rating: 5 out of 5	Rating: 2 out of 5

There are a plethora of products out there that claim to be able to convert your home into the dream house you imagine it to be.  Auto-closing curtains, lighting that adapts to your mood, you know the drill.  For years, Zigbee has been working on refining its wireless, ‘self-organizing mesh network’ technologies outside of the scope of home automation, preferring to target the commercial groups and applications by providing kits for product developers rather than the end-user products themselves. 

Zigbee has always been more of a standard (802.15) than a brand name, which is why you won’t find much when searching for ‘Zigbee products’ and they’ve created an entire framework for development with the Zigbee Alliance, Zigbee PRO standard and Zigbee Home Automation application profile.  The idea is that by making life simpler for product developers we will see a variety of competing brands offering every product the consumer could imagine.  It’s taken about 9 years for the Zigbee concept to ratify itself into a standard, but now that it’s there, who is using it and how does it stack up?