This approach reduces the cost and complexity of home attendant 31, allowing resource intensive operations such as configuration, user interface management, and data logging to be managed and performed by servers 71 at web-based host 70 (FIG. 6). [0048] It should be understood that home attendants 31-1, 31-2, 31-3, and 31-4 are merely examples and that various modification of home attendants are w