Touch your home from the web

Other than automating a coffee pot, or keeping an eye on pets, one of the most common desires of home automators is controlling their home over the Internet. But as you might imagine, it's not quite a "plug-and-play" operation.

That hasn't stopped people from trying to make it easy, of course, and it really is getting simpler every year. Today, Mac users have a couple of choices for feature-rich, network home control.

The first is Perceptive Automation's Indigo, which offers built-in web access to your home automation system. I haven't tried the latest version, but the architecture strikes me as very good, and it seems like others are really enjoying it .

Sand Hill's XTension also offers web-based access by using a helper application called X2Web . Since the author of X2Web, James Sentman, also contributes to XTension you can be sure it's well-supported.

Another option, for the more adventurous, is to use Misterhouse. It's inherently web-based—a browser is Misterhouse's main interface—but it's also cross-platform and thus not as Mac-like as many of us would prefer. If that doesn't frighten you, and since the program is free it's quite tempting, you'll get off on the right foot by reading my Get to know Misterhouse.

Of course, the iPhone and iPod touch have forever changed the way we use the web, particularly when away from home, so any remote home control solution has got to take these devices into account. Sentman says that people are working on iPhone-optimized layouts for his X2Web. The user forums for Indigo offer tips for that application, as well. Similar work could be done to make the Misterhouse pages more iPhone friendly, too.

Details are very sparse, but a manufacturer of high-end home control systems, Lagotek, has also apparently announced support for the iPhone. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any supporting information on their website.

If all this sounds like fun, you've got the tools at hand to get you started, and in the future there will likely be more. If you're already onboard, add a comment with tips and techniques you're using.