Back in September I was on vacation with my wife and some friends in Tampa Bay.  We were traveling back to Denver on Sunday which was a little bit of a problem because I am an NFL (and fantasy football) junkie.  As we got to the airport early Sunday afternoon we found out we had an hour delay and the airport bar (where the games were on) was full.  Luckily I fired up my laptop, found free wireless at the airport (why doesn't every airport have free wireless?), and connected to my Media Server at home.  I was able to stream a live football game to my laptop in Tampa Bay from my home TV tuner on my computer in Denver.  I also used this technology to watch the Rockies day playoff games in the office where we don't have a TV.  How did I do it?  With a free technology called WebGuide.

Do you have a Windows XP Media Center, Vista Home Premium or Ultimate, or Windows Home Server and do you have any media on the machine or use the TV functionality?  You should take a look at WebGuide.  This is an add in that allows you to remotely view your media content (tv, video, music, or photos) from any web browser.  It works by installing a Cassini web server on your computer at home and creates a web site where the content is served up.  You will need to forward the appropriate ports on your router (I used some higher end ports to try and obfuscate the web site) to your media center.  You will also need to periodically check your public IP periodically (the configuration tool will tell you your IP address) if your ISP changes it periodically.  But it is well worth the hassle when you travel every once in a while.

A couple of other goodies to note:

• There is a Vista Sidebar gadget that will allow you to interact with your server - very helpful if you end up using the technology often.
• WebGuide actually works with Windows Mobile and has a specialized interface.  I have AT&T wireless and am not yet on the 3G networks so video streaming doesn't work at all, but audio does which is kind of handy at times.  I have a 3G phone coming in about a month so I will test once I get the appropriate bandwidth.