LAN network for home automation?

[Sacedog]

Complementing an ethernet-backbone with a powerline network just for low-complexity items such as lighting sounds good... but not having it as your main source of HA. And at the end controlling this throught the computer would be the end goal.

Check out one of the many home control software products:

www.charmedquark.com (my favorite, and what I use)
www.homeseer.com
www.cinemarsolutions.com
www.cocoontech.com/wiki/Premise (free)

There are many others, too...these are just a few of the more popular ones, and ones that are discussed here frequently. These give you the ability to tie it all together, so that you can have one interface to control everything.

With CQC (Charmed Quark Controller), I control my security (door/window, smoke, heat, CO2, water, Gas), relays (garage doors, fireplaces, water valves, fountains), lighting, whole house audio (including music selection of MP3s on my network, local radio stations, and Pandora radio), and TVs. I will soon be controlling my pool equipment, and whole house video as well. I can control any of these things from any computer in the house, any one of the three touchscreens, or my iPhone.