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 ?
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.
"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson
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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 totally agree with the rest, install at least Cat5e, Cat6 is even better. You might consider also running COAX while you are at it. I know it is old but it is still the way cable, satellite, and dish TV providers like to pump the video to your TVs. This is even the case with FIOS. Shortly after I moved into my house I ran two Cat5E and two coax to three walls in each of the three bedrooms and the living room. All the wires converge in a large box in the closet of one of the bedrooms where I have my router, phone break boards, etc. It is just as easy to run two wires as it is to run one so wire more than you think you need. I used one of the Cat5E wires for phone and the other for Ethernet. Because of this, when I had FIOS installed, they were able to use the wires that existed and didn't have to drill new holes through my house. I was also set up to do things like build a HTPC that recorded both off of the cable box as well as from over the air HD using the attic antenna. I was then able to broadcast the HTPC to all the rooms in the house using the now defunct CableCaster devices. I never would have been able to do that sort of thing without running as many wires as I did. I was also able to set up a personal PBX system in the closet that let us send a receive calls both over VOIP and the phone system from any phone in the house. Of course, I did this on an already existing house and it was a huge pain. But there are a few lessons that apply to new construction. - Buy a central box at least one size bigger then you think you will need. - Be very meticulous about labeling everything. Even label the outlets in the rooms (you can always put the label on the underside of the plate if you don't like the looks). - Use real cable labels. I had a standard labeler that I tried to use and many have since fallen off - Run power to the central box and make sure there is room for a power strip - Create a map and tape it to the inside cover of the central box. This is particularly true if you use a distribution board for the Ethernet and phone - Don't forget you don't have to use the Cat5e cables only for Ethernet or phone. I've seen people who have successfully run VGA and speakers off of Cat5. Once the wires are there a whole realm of possibilities open up.
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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 put Cat5e or Cat6 in. I have an old house and wireless doesn't work to well in it. Luckily it was pretty easy for me to run cable to most of the rooms. I also did it in a way that if I want I can pull the wire out and replace it if I need to with out having to resheet rook the wall. The only reason I am able to do that is because I already removed the sheet rock in most of the rooms. If you do that cabling is easy everything else is hard. Wouldn't recommend doing that unless you need to remodel your house any way. Which was the reason I did it. Plus having it wired adds value to house. For new construction I would recommend wiring the house only if you are doing it your self. Looked at having contractors doing it for me and it was very expensive. Also the contractors where I live knew less about running Cat cable than I did so I chose to do it myself.
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I totally agree with the rest, install at least Cat5e, Cat6 is even better. You might consider also running COAX while you are at it. I know it is old but it is still the way cable, satellite, and dish TV providers like to pump the video to your TVs. This is even the case with FIOS. Shortly after I moved into my house I ran two Cat5E and two coax to three walls in each of the three bedrooms and the living room. All the wires converge in a large box in the closet of one of the bedrooms where I have my router, phone break boards, etc. It is just as easy to run two wires as it is to run one so wire more than you think you need. I used one of the Cat5E wires for phone and the other for Ethernet. Because of this, when I had FIOS installed, they were able to use the wires that existed and didn't have to drill new holes through my house. I was also set up to do things like build a HTPC that recorded both off of the cable box as well as from over the air HD using the attic antenna. I was then able to broadcast the HTPC to all the rooms in the house using the now defunct CableCaster devices. I never would have been able to do that sort of thing without running as many wires as I did. I was also able to set up a personal PBX system in the closet that let us send a receive calls both over VOIP and the phone system from any phone in the house. Of course, I did this on an already existing house and it was a huge pain. But there are a few lessons that apply to new construction. - Buy a central box at least one size bigger then you think you will need. - Be very meticulous about labeling everything. Even label the outlets in the rooms (you can always put the label on the underside of the plate if you don't like the looks). - Use real cable labels. I had a standard labeler that I tried to use and many have since fallen off - Run power to the central box and make sure there is room for a power strip - Create a map and tape it to the inside cover of the central box. This is particularly true if you use a distribution board for the Ethernet and phone - Don't forget you don't have to use the Cat5e cables only for Ethernet or phone. I've seen people who have successfully run VGA and speakers off of Cat5. Once the wires are there a whole realm of possibilities open up.
good info. thanks.
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I would put Cat5e or Cat6 in. I have an old house and wireless doesn't work to well in it. Luckily it was pretty easy for me to run cable to most of the rooms. I also did it in a way that if I want I can pull the wire out and replace it if I need to with out having to resheet rook the wall. The only reason I am able to do that is because I already removed the sheet rock in most of the rooms. If you do that cabling is easy everything else is hard. Wouldn't recommend doing that unless you need to remodel your house any way. Which was the reason I did it. Plus having it wired adds value to house. For new construction I would recommend wiring the house only if you are doing it your self. Looked at having contractors doing it for me and it was very expensive. Also the contractors where I live knew less about running Cat cable than I did so I chose to do it myself.
sadly, i know nothing at all about running cables.
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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!
i use powerline networking in my current house. works great! but i do consider it a work-around for not having real connection (and not being able to keep WiFi connections stable).
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sadly, i know nothing at all about running cables.
It isn't that hard. I would suggest getting a book on networking specifically one that gets you ready for the Net+ certification. That is how I learned and it worked out really well for me. I would also recommend starting to make your own network cables before you start running wires through the wall. That will help you to understand how the cable works and give you a way to start over if you mess something up. I hope that helps out some.
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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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Except an assignment statement. :) /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
But surely an assignment statement just tells a value to go to a memory location! :)
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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.
"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson
How many non-new homes have conduits available that are not being used for mains cable? There are good reasons (other than NEC ones) not to run data and power cables together.
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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'm not against using Wifi, but if you have the opportunity to wire your house with structured cabling you should go for it. You may not know why you need a data-socket in your bathroom right now... but in 10-20 years you'll be glad when you have a virtual assist AI doctor capable to take a discreet look at your *you know what*, in the privacy of your own bathroom while it's connected directly to your civilian super-computer (which is quietly tucked away in the garage). :-\ It's not a question of why, it's a question of when. Also, once you have structured cabling installed (intelligently), you can easily replace it with a fiber-optic cables when the time is ripe. Just tie the new cables and your old Cat5e's in a knot and pull. Wireless will always be the weaker than cable, no matter how much faster or adequately secured it may be compared to cat5 in 5-10 years; that argument is irrelevant. Radio-waves have technical limitations that are harder to overcome than with physical connections and that limitation increases exponentially with distance. That's not an opinion, it's physics.
Giraffes are not real.
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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).
I went that way for a while then decided to secure my wireless and let the kids fend for themselves. I now see them playing DS on the stairs occasionally because that's where they get the best reception on the neighbour's WIFI. :-D
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend; inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx
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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, with Cat6. Security & bandwidth. I'd price single mode too to see if it can be competitive. Even if you never put ethernet on the cables, you may put some other signal. Don't forget to have some taps put in at key security camera mount points. PoE security cameras are getting ubiquitous.
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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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 ?
CAT 5 via D-Link's AC line adapters. I switched to that three months ago. Wireless in my house had to traverse three levels, and it was always fluctuating up and down in signal strength. CAT 5 solved that problem. CAT 5 dedicated cabling into all the rooms would be sensible if a good, hard look at the costs revealed no downside. Wireless is simple and cheap when it is located where it works well. Fit the solution to the problem.
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But surely an assignment statement just tells a value to go to a memory location! :)
Peter R. Fletcher wrote:
tells a value to go to a memory location!
I believe the technical term is "scoot". :) /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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I would install ample conduit and drops, regardless of what I end up putting into them. But, yes, wired every time vs. wireless where it's practical (i.e. not for my laptop that roams the house)
Wired all the way, not only is wifi much less secure, but it isn't anywhere near as reliable as wired. I stream all my movies from a share on my LAN and never a hiccup - it's a beautiful thing. I wish I had installed conduit. I wasn't aware of it when I finished my basement years ago. As it was I had to fight the electrician just to get him to install the cabling in the first place. He didn't see the need for it and I had to pull a "I'm paying for this and it's what I want". I even ended up capping my own cables.
Code responsibly: OWASP.org Mark's blog: www.developMENTALmadness.com Bill Cosby - "A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice."
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The maximum recommended length for cat5+gigabit is only 10 meters, you'd "need" 5 signal boosters just to get from one side of buckingham palace to the other. Or accept the potentially reduced performance.
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Wired all the way, not only is wifi much less secure, but it isn't anywhere near as reliable as wired. I stream all my movies from a share on my LAN and never a hiccup - it's a beautiful thing. I wish I had installed conduit. I wasn't aware of it when I finished my basement years ago. As it was I had to fight the electrician just to get him to install the cabling in the first place. He didn't see the need for it and I had to pull a "I'm paying for this and it's what I want". I even ended up capping my own cables.
Code responsibly: OWASP.org Mark's blog: www.developMENTALmadness.com Bill Cosby - "A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice."
Oh my god... are you guys all sitting in your rocking chairs shaking your canes at kids on your lawn? Security Pfft. The best security is ubiquity. Every house down the block is wireless. We're entirely wireless here. I stream video without a hiccup, too... I also take reasonable security precautions. The only real reason to go wired is bandwidth.
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How many non-new homes have conduits available that are not being used for mains cable? There are good reasons (other than NEC ones) not to run data and power cables together.
Peter R. Fletcher wrote:
There are good reasons (other than NEC ones) not to run data and power cables together.
Yes, I know, but as I said, there might not be another solution (without breaking walls) for the problems and the FTP cables could be a solution.
"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson
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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 ?