Two of the technology industry_s bigger names took turns selling their vision of the networked home of the future.

The wired home needs software to help "smart" appliances and devices talk to each other and the Internet, and executives from Sun Microsystems and Microsoft Thursday tried to convince attendees here at the Consumer Electronics Show that their companies are the right ones for the job. Sun chief executive Scott McNealy and Microsoft vice president Craig Mundie laid out competing schemes for the networked home, a house filled with digital appliances and entertainment devices employing many different protocols and technologies. Both companies are offering software solutions to the problem of how disparate products from a wide range of manufacturers will effectively interoperate. Like many at the leading trade show, McNealy and Mundie painted a picture of typically non-networked devices-- stereos, refrigerators, televisions and home appliances-- empowered with the same kind of connectivity as the PC. Under McNealy_s vision, these devices will run on Palo Alto, Calif. -based Sun_s Java environment, while communicating via its Jini software. For Microsoft_s part, the devices would be best served by communicating directly, using its Universal Plug and Play technology. Both executives touted the strides each proprietary technology has made in the last year.