[Help Index]

Weather/Web Alerting :

The main benefit from this feature is in weather alerting.  If adverse weather warnings have been issued, you can be alerted of this.  This feature relies on information gathered from the Web, therefore it is not to be considered reliable, however it is useful knowing the alerts if you have no 'reliable' means like a weather radio in which to receive them (or your weather radio doesn't email your cell phone which means its useless at home if your on the road). 

If you live in the United States, then Weather Alerts originating from the National Weather Service (NWS), and disseminated in an X10Dispatcher-friendly format from Weatherroom.com, can be enabled by simply entering your ZIP code.  If a weather alert occurs, you can be sent an MSN Message, emailed, and you can hear audible warning (at home), and a weather alert will display (at home) informing you of the alert.  These alerts are also summarized via the Web Server, but for that you must know to look!

Custom Web Alerting is a feature not for the meek.  It is intended for advanced computer users or users that see enough value in it to struggle with it.  It was intended for situations relevant to alerts (such as weather) when weatherroom.com just doesn't work for you (perhaps you live outside the US).  All it does is let you configure web pages to search for text in and alert you if it finds those words.  So if you have a web page that has the words 'Hazzardous Weather Conditions' whenever there is a weather alert issued, you can be alerted.  You could also set up alerts to alert you of when a new dvd comes out (assuming you have a web page showing new releases only and you enter your dvd title), but you might find that too much work to learn just for that purpose.