In message <
[email protected]> jaster
Except for the wire into the house it doesn't make much sense to waste
money on a wired network if if you're wiring for cable tv.
The labour to pull two or three cables is virtually the same as to pull
one, so you may as well wire for ethernet, phone and coax at the same
time if you're going to wire at all.
Obviously the cost of retrofitting a house is higher with wired then
wireless due to labour charges if you can't do the work yourself, but
read on and lets compare the difference.
For the price
of wiring the house you can get a wireless network, even if the the wired
NIC is free.
If you're paying too much, then maybe. We spent approximately
$1.50/jack for the ethernet+coax jacks, vs the $1/jack for just coax.
I bought a 1000' of cat5e for ~$70, it has held up through two houses so
far, plus I've made more then $100 by selling cables from that same box,
so in my case, the actual ethernet cable was free (including the jacks,
plus the network cables and ends to connect the PCs)
However, if you're buying from a contractor, you'll probably expect to
pay $50 for the materials for a reasonable sized house.
Today's wireless is faster than wired,
You just lost all credibility here. Name one gigabit capable wireless
solution which costs less then a wired solution.
Heck, do it for 100Mb/s and I'll give you credit here.
Wiring my house (40+ year old house) cost us:
$10 $2.50*3 ethernet jacks
$50 cables (see math above, it was actually free)
$30 router
$20 labour (I had a cable guy do the work while he was installing cable,
including having him wire the ethernet jacks)
$0 $0*4 network cards (Each and every machine in my house at the time we
did the wiring has ethernet on the motherboard -- This was not a
purchasing decision on any of the machines, so it truly is a freebie)
more flexible
placement than wired and about the same price as wired.
The flexible placement is a bonus. However, you also have to compare
with the annoyance when several people nearby run 802.11b/g networks,
plus crappy cordless phones, and microwaves all interfering. If nothing
else it will knock down your speed.
You'll also find that some houses don't make wireless easy -- I have a
bedroom that simply doesn't receive 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz signals very well.
I have a reasonably decent 5.8GHz cordless phone, it works over a block
outside my house (including a straight line from the base station
through my bedroom outside), but it barely works in my bedroom and drops
calls constantly. From that same bedroom you can't get any 802.11b/g
signal at all (at the maximum legal power levels) from my office, a
centrally located access point gets a stable 5Mb/s from my bedroom, and
a 55Mb/s connection anywhere else in the house. In all cases, closing
the door is required to get poor signal, opening the door is mostly
sufficient to get a reasonable signal.
You also have to consider the investment of time learning to secure your
wireless network, or dealing with the downtime after someone abuses it
and your ISP pulls the plug.
If you add a
media center or laptop to the network you wouldn't need to worry about
location because of the wiring. You could also stick you modem, router,
printer, scan, copiers (attached to a server) to shelves in the basement
out of way.
I sure like having my printer on a self in the basement rather then
having it in my office where I use it. Good plan! And scanner too,
even better, especially since most SOHO-class scanners can't be used
over a network unless you remote control the server.
Oh, and how many of your friends and neighbours do you think have a
server in their basement? -- I have four, but I'd bet you that's a
grand total of four on my entire block.
You can already throw the modem + router in the basement out of the way,
and run either ethernet or wireless from there, so that's a moot point.
However, a wireless router in the basement may not have the range in a
2-3 story house (A lot of multiplexes around here are a basement, two
full stories plus a study/office/small-bedroom on the third level), so
going wireless may actually limit your ability to place the router in an
appropriate location.
Don't get me wrong, I'm wired in every room plus I have two wireless APs
(one for that bedroom, the other for the rest of the house, and you can
roam between them without losing a packet) and I generally like wireless
solutions, my laptop hasn't even been plugged in since the day I last
installed Windows (and then only for the speed -- gigabit ethernet sure
makes restoring ~10GB if data a lot more fun), but wireless isn't
cheaper or more reliable for fixed location PCs, it's simply more
convenient.
