The Smarthome Live monitoring system is a holdover from a previous age of home security devices: Although it's a wonderfully expandable system, with controls to automate everything in your home, you have to work harder to get there than with other more up-to-date systems.

The first step in using Smarthome Live is signing up for an online account (which costs either $7.99 or $9.99 monthly), because the system won't work without a subscription, even for local video moni-toring. Once you've installed the software, you connect a box, the Video Gateway, to a USB port and hook up your video cameras to that. Because the camera isn't wireless, you have to run the thick black wire all over your house.

The kit comes with a heavy silver camera that looks like the Apple iSight but weighs several times more. The camera needs to be mounted on a wall or ceiling (it isn't made just to sit on a shelf) and comes with a 100-foot video cable. Smarthome makes wireless cameras that work with this system too, but only a wired one is included in the Starter Kit. It doesn't pan, tilt, zoom, or record audio.

Once you're viewing your system online, you can add up to four hardwired cameras and three wireless ones to your account. The video quality is fair—not as strong as that of the D-Link or the Panasonic cameras. You can get e-mail alerts when the camera perceives motion.

The kit also comes with a PowerLinc AC unit—an X10 home automation controller—and a LampLinc module that works with it. Use it to turn a lamp on and off while you're away. Smarthome sells additional X10 units that let you automate other things in your home as well.

Requirements are a 433-MHz processor (though 700 MHz is recommended), 128MB of RAM, and an always-on Inter-net connection.