As recently as 2010, my home network had a family computer and one access point for smart phones and work laptops .
Now, my home LAN has ~80 devices. Are they necessary? No. But, it was a lot of fun. These are just some of the projects I worked on related to my home network.
Clear & Rescan the Device List AT&T Gateway
Setup Linksys Router as a Wi-Fi AP
Install Network Monitor (NEMS) on Rasppbery Pi
Use AT&T's SmartHome Network Manager
Install nmap on MacBook
Build a Home Rack
Add a Status Page to each Raspberry Pi
Build a Raspberry Pi Wi-Fi Bridge
How to run Speedtest to get consistent, repeatable results
I love Wi-Fi and so should everyone else
Comparison of Zigbee, z-wave and Wi-Fi (draft)
Potential Future Projects:
Process to determine current WeMo APIs being used