Born to Be Wired

You're not really connected until you have a Win2K server in your car

Editor's Note: Can you play Space Empires from your garden shed? Does your house check the National Weather Service every morning and adjust the sprinkler system accordingly? Send a 300-word description of your super-cool connected home to [email protected]. If we use your submission, you'll receive a Connected Home Magazine T-shirt.

Winamp interface and Alpine Electronics DVD player

Want to be king or queen of connected cool? Start with a 2000 Infiniti I30, then add a Windows 2000 server and an infrared (IR) network. Technology entrepreneur Anthony Citrano's high-tech dream on wheels has a multimedia Win2K Professional PC in the trunk, a DeLorme GPS antenna, and wireless Internet access, which Citrano uses for navigation, email, Web browsing, and more. By using Evation.com's Irman IR receiver and a wireless remote control device, Citrano can manage music and perform OS functions on the road.

Mobile Internet access comes from a wireless link through an omni-directional mobile antenna. At home, Citrano uses two Proxim Symphony wireless LAN cards for car-to-home connectivity. When the car is in the driveway and the server is powered up, it appears as just another computer on his home LAN.

Citrano says other drivers can't keep their eyes off his car. At night, when Nullsoft's Winamp is playing MP3s and running its funky visualizations, drivers tend to slow down next to him and stare into his car, wondering what's going on in there. Luckily, the car's 275-horsepower engine helps him get away with little difficulty.