I just got a new proform treadmill and found it has an Ethernet (RJ45) connector on the back of the display panel. I was not too surprised, since I knew it had ifit.com connectivity. When I set this tread mill up, I WAS surprised to find out that ifit communicates to the treadmill though the sound card and an audio cable and not how i had expected.

For those that have not heard of ifit.com – it is a neat subscription based web site that will develop work out schedules. It appears to have a db of hundreds of exercise machine programs. Some of these programs are modeled after real hikes and flip though a slide show of pictures from that location. As the media player plugin plays the slides, it periodically chips a couple tones to adjusted the speed and inclination. I am not sure I find it valuable enough to continue beyond the 30 day trail, but I was impressed with how challenging it can be.

So my question is this: Has anyone seen a use for or a program to interface to the Ethernet connection on exercise equipment? If I was better with sniffer or something like that I would check to see what all the traffic is coming off the device. Just curious.