Bob Vila should be rewiring This Old House for broadband Internet connections while he's putting in that extra bathroom. If it was up to PC users who spend a lot of time in cyberspace, Net access would be in the bathroom.

So goes another self-serving survey of Web users, this time sampling the wants of cyberspace denizens who often surf the Net from home.

OK, maybe it's not so self-serving if, while selling more computers, Round Rock, TX-based Dell Computer Corp.'s survey clues home builders how to build tomorrow's home today.

Still, you can't help but think perhaps a little too much time is being spent on the Net, in the bathroom, or both.

Among 1,001 PC users who access the Internet at least once a week, one in five, 20 percent of them said they want Net access from every room in the house -- including the bathroom., according to Dell's TechKnow Generation 2000 survey.

A saner 38 percent said the living room was the most popular room for access, followed by the master bedroom, 31 percent.

Most of those surveyed, 48 percent, also said high-speed Internet access was the most essential feature in their home, 44 percent said an extra bedroom was most important, 42 percent choose walk-in closets and 17 percent said a Jacuzzi tub.

Wait a second.

First, Net access in the can?

Then, walk-in closets instead of a Jacuzzi?

Who are these people?

In 1997, Dell first identified this growing number of techno-savvy families as the "TechKnow Generation 2000". Let's call them Gen Y2KTKers.

Sixty-seven percent of Gen Y2KTK households include at least two adults who regularly access the Net, 32 percent include at least one child under 18 who accesses the Net regularly. As a group, TechKnow families log onto the Internet an average of 11 times a week.

They also probably eat sugar-coated silicon wafers for breakfast -- which could explain the time in the bathroom. As for the walk-in closets...

But seriously folks, Gen Y2KTKers do consume bandwidth, just not enough.

The survey also said on-line families want to dole out some of their household chores to their PC. Approximately half or more of those surveyed want their PCs and the Internet to help with the laundry (50 percent), with watering the landscaping (50 percent), with providing home security (67 percent), and with ordering groceries (47 percent).

Who has time to bust suds or shop for spuds if so much time is spent Web hacking in the bathroom?

Don't dare chide Y2KTKers about getting a life because 87 percent of them say the Internet has expanded their knowledge of the world outside their neighborhoods and cities, 86 percent say Net access helps their kids learn more at home and 67 percent think the Internet has helped them enhance relationships with family and friends.

OK. Get a real life.

Published: September 2, 1999

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