For instance, Wi-Fi has dominated the home for years. But the expected surge in high-bandwidth streaming media, such as high-definition TV, will mean the future home network will also need wired networking, many believe.

"We believe the networked home will be a hybrid with wired and wireless," says Trevor Bratton, a spokesperson at networking vendor Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems Inc.

Similarly, network-based storage and servers, long staples in corporations, will be needed to store and manage media in the home, if the vision of industry heavyweights like Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Cisco prove true. They stress, however, that there will be at least one key difference between home and work: These media-focused devices won't require technical knowledge to use.

Still, the home network of the future shown and discussed on the floor of CES recently will be strikingly familiar to IT managers.

Wireless still key