Q: Cat5 v WiFi
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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
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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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.
Will Rogers never met me.
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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.
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 ?
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.
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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 ?
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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 ?
We had a burst pipe in the attic before xmas, and the wife pushed the insurance company to cover a full rewire. So while all the walls were opened up for new wiring, I paid a bit extra for cat5 in all the rooms, except the kitchen. Dunno if our wireless router was a bit crap or if the position in the house wasn't ideal, but it was always a PITA to get a connection from my laptop, so now I have cat5 to plug straight into the network and a Boxee for streaming HD to the telly. :-D
Pete
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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 ?
On Saturday, I backed up 2.5GB from my wife's laptop by WiFi (which I placed next to the router) - it took 4 or 5 hours. Then I backed up my desktop using ethernet - similar volume of data but only took 20mins. I haven't wired my house - I use HomePlugs (www.solwise.co.uk)that use the mains wires as the medium. I only have 85Mbps plugs and work in the diagonally opposite corner (in 3 dimensions) to my router on a different ring main; but the HomePlugs are more than adequate for Internet and accessing files / printers around the house. They handle VPN traffic as well. The plugs are portable (so you can use them wherever you have a mains socket), cheap (~£16 each [you need one for the router and one per active device]), and require no drilling, wiring, connection plates etc. There are faster models and ones with multiple ethernet ports per device; but for me these are as good as anything - faster than my work's network!
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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 ?
Like everyone else put wiring in Cat5. WiFi is nice; but, unless you seriously put WiFi units (multiple)... you will always find a place where you can't get a good signal. I also have problems because our neighborhood is riddled with WiFi ... I often find myself reconfiguring the channels now and then to help my end. But, with 15-20 other WiFi networks in my neighborhood things get crowded.
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I would use wiring, every time.
See if you can crack this: b749f6c269a746243debc6488046e33f
So far, no one seems to have cracked this!The unofficial awesome history of Code Project's Bob! "People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid."
I would use cat6. About crack this: b749f6c269a746243debc6488046e33f, it is easy... with BT5 and a good graphics card (GPU) ... and parallel processing ...
NKS
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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 went beyond hypothetically .. I did CAT 5 .. Pothetically :) And yes its a no brainer in my book, wired all the way.
The only thing unpredictable about me is just how predictable I'm going to be.
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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
Future-proofing - and that's how most software projects end up bloatware... ;P
'As programmers go, I'm fairly social. Which still means I'm a borderline sociopath by normal standards.' Jeff Atwood 'I'm French! Why do you think I've got this outrrrrageous accent?' Monty Python and the Holy Grail
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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 ?
Cats do not play with the cables if you have WiFi :laugh:
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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, never. Maybe Cat5e or Cat6. If it's a new home. If it's not, it's too much of a hassle to wire it all up, specially if the place has tight conduits available. I'd also consider using the FTP versions of both if the place has high EM noise which would mess with both wired and wifi options. The FTP are also good if you're wiring it alongside electrical cables.
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