Q: Cat5 v WiFi
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hypothetically... if you were building a new house, would you install cat5 in all the rooms, or would you just use WiFi ?
Wired every time. It doesn't prevent your using WiFi but is there just in case. Especially, as others have said, considering the relatively minimal cost at construction time rather than retro fitting. It can also depend on the materials being used in the construction[^].
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hypothetically... if you were building a new house, would you install cat5 in all the rooms, or would you just use WiFi ?
CAT5 for sure. IMHO, WiFi is a nice-to-have. /ravi
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everything is a goto, at some level.
Except an assignment statement. :) /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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hypothetically... if you were building a new house, would you install cat5 in all the rooms, or would you just use WiFi ?
I prefer Wi-Fi. You can use it everywhere you want.
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hypothetically... if you were building a new house, would you install cat5 in all the rooms, or would you just use WiFi ?
Others have specified cable vs wireless, with which I concur... except that I would recommend running conduit between some major sections of the house. CAT-5, CAT-6 or CAT-47 will not be 'current' standards forever, and if you plan on being in the house for a decade or more, you will wish you had a way to add the latest cable standard without tearing out walls.
-- Harvey
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I prefer Wi-Fi. You can use it everywhere you want.
Having the house wired doesn't mean you can't use WiFi concurrently...
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CAT5 for sure. IMHO, WiFi is a nice-to-have. /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
yep... plus WiFi routers aren't that expensive nowadays... so you can always add that...
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hypothetically... if you were building a new house, would you install cat5 in all the rooms, or would you just use WiFi ?
Definitely wired. I also have wireless. I wanted to make it secured, but my kid has a Nintendo DS that can use wireless, but won't use the latest security. If you have any devices that won't use security, or have guests to whom you don't want to have to give a password, you may find that wired is more convenient (provided it's in every room).
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yep... plus WiFi routers aren't that expensive nowadays... so you can always add that...
Very true. /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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yep... plus WiFi routers aren't that expensive nowadays... so you can always add that...
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Others have specified cable vs wireless, with which I concur... except that I would recommend running conduit between some major sections of the house. CAT-5, CAT-6 or CAT-47 will not be 'current' standards forever, and if you plan on being in the house for a decade or more, you will wish you had a way to add the latest cable standard without tearing out walls.
-- Harvey
As slowly as new wired platforms are deployed running conduit only makes sense if you're planning several decades into the future. Cat6 will give you 37m in a hostile cross talk environment for 10gb, which should be plenty for almost all residential installs (if not, 6a is rated for a full 100m) and cover you for at least a decade. Longer term I'd probably pull cat7, and gamble that 100GB ethernet will be made to work on it eventaully (simulations from a few years ago indicate it might need cat7a, which doesn't appear to be readily available). At the same time, unless you're doing wierd routing for some reason, I think conduit is probably overkill. Just run all of your cables vertically from the jack to the basement, and then horizontal in the basement to the router (popping up there if your networking gear is on the 1st floor). When I helped my dad rewire most of the electrical in the house doing strait vertical runs for new installs wasn't a problem, nor was replacement since the old wire could be used to pull the new one. Installing conduit in the walls OTOH would require significantly more effort, and based on my experiance probably isn't needed.
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It's not the worst thing in the world, as long as u have decent security settings. Heart of the problem is most applications aren't built for any type of application layer security, so once in the air, hackers only have one layer to get through to get to data. Plus people hardly ever take the time to choose safe settings.
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hypothetically... if you were building a new house, would you install cat5 in all the rooms, or would you just use WiFi ?
You can always add WiFi later. Cable? That gets tricky and messy if you haven't laid it out to begin with. And there's the obvious point: Wifi is still nowhere near as fast as Cat5/6. If you have a file server and deal with large files, wired will still make your life so much nicer for your tethered computers
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hypothetically... if you were building a new house, would you install cat5 in all the rooms, or would you just use WiFi ?
I would install, without hesitation, both Cat5e and multimode optical fiber. Copper connections have reached and surpassed their theoretical maximum throughput; that deserves kudos to the engineers who managed somehow to push past the theory, but their excellent luck won't last forever. The next level of interconnection will have to be optical, simply because the Nyquist Theorem has never been proven wrong. In order to propagate information at rates that are ever increasing, we'll have to make use of carrier frequencies which are far higher along the electromagnetic spectrum. We've run out of radio frequencies, so we have to move on to optical frequencies.
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hypothetically... if you were building a new house, would you install cat5 in all the rooms, or would you just use WiFi ?
Wifi, with maybe cable for one or two key points, like adsl and media centre.
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hypothetically... if you were building a new house, would you install cat5 in all the rooms, or would you just use WiFi ?
Cat5E or Cat6 every time. Wifi is ok, but it is hideously slow compared to a gigabit network. It's a bit of a drag having to connect, but most of my stuff is in fixed locations anyway: Media player, NAS, printer, PC's - only the occasional use stuff connects via wifi.
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I would install, without hesitation, both Cat5e and multimode optical fiber. Copper connections have reached and surpassed their theoretical maximum throughput; that deserves kudos to the engineers who managed somehow to push past the theory, but their excellent luck won't last forever. The next level of interconnection will have to be optical, simply because the Nyquist Theorem has never been proven wrong. In order to propagate information at rates that are ever increasing, we'll have to make use of carrier frequencies which are far higher along the electromagnetic spectrum. We've run out of radio frequencies, so we have to move on to optical frequencies.
Will Rogers never met me.
Roger Wright wrote:
Copper connections have reached and surpassed their theoretical maximum throughput; that deserves kudos to the engineers who managed somehow to push past the theory
No, it never surpassed any theoretical maximum, they just used a new method with a different theory behind it.
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hypothetically... if you were building a new house, would you install cat5 in all the rooms, or would you just use WiFi ?
I would atleast make sure I have all the necessary pipes in the walls to pull the cables through. That way you can upgrade anytime at will.
Light moves faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright, until you hear them speak. List of common misconceptions
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hypothetically... if you were building a new house, would you install cat5 in all the rooms, or would you just use WiFi ?
Cat5 isn't gigabit-certified, and Cat5e is "yesterday". I would run Cat6 (capable of 10gb ethernet). I don't do wireless if I can help it, but since it's wireless, you can always add it to your wired network. I would also run the network cable to every wall in the living room where your TV might sit. Once the house is built, it's will be impossible to run Cat6 to outside walls (insulation and cross-members prevent it), so planning ahead is the key.
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hypothetically... if you were building a new house, would you install cat5 in all the rooms, or would you just use WiFi ?
I'd put a wired network in; as others have said, it does no harm if you don't use it, it's cheap and it does give a better connection. However, I'd definitely have wireless as well and I'd mostly use that, because it's a lot more convenient than messing around with cables and the connection is better than the one from my router to my ISP (for any reasonable internet service) anyway.
