Wired or Wireless?

Question

I am moving into a new townhome & have a decision to make.  Wired or wireless?  I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 and will be connecting with cable.  I haven't purchased a router yet, not sure which way to go.  If I go wireless I will have more mobility & if I go wired, I may have wires running all through the house.  I hear that there are security problems with wireless?  Do you have any suggestions?

MRF4700 · Answer

Linksys or Netgear wireless routers are inexpensive enough to handle most home network needs. If you encrypt your network using WPA-PSK security encryption it is reliable enough with the added router firewall to keep out most hackers and internet intruders.

Wireless speeds are a little slower than wired but, the mobility of the laptop would be better depending on the size of your townhome.

Zapperlink · Answer

I would say go with a wireless linksys or netgear as well. The reason I outright say the wireless is because most people are mislead about wireless security. If improperly setup, yes it can pose a threat but most people with a little walkthrough online or advice from a person could easily setup a sturdy wireless network. Even if you decide later that a wireless choice is not for you, you only had to buy the one wireless router because that wireless router can be disabled on the wireless end and you can just use the wired ports.

rwm32 · Answer

@comet1853 wrote:

I am moving into a new townhome & have a decision to make. Wired or wireless?

I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 and will be connecting with cable. I haven't purchased a router yet, not sure which way to go. If I go wireless I will have more mobility & if I go wired, I may have wires running all through the house. I hear that there are security problems with wireless? Do you have any suggestions?

The third option is to go for a power line network. One such is the Netgear XE102 -- there are others, but the Netgear website and product data sheets have some useful explanations about how it all works.

NemesisDB · Answer

best option is always wired. it's faster, more reliable, and more secure. of course, it's also situation specific. it's inappropriate if you need to move around with a notebook a lot or if you don't want to spend the money and time to run wires.

General rule is that when you have a choice, use wired (say you're sitting at the same desk as your internet connection). Otherwise, use a wireless connection when you need it.

amggo · Answer

Do you have a link to a site that explains how to wire a home? Also, how much do you think it would cost to wire a 1900sf home?

NemesisDB · Answer

amggo, I don't have a site but I'm sure some of the doityourself forums out there on the net might be helpful.  a lot will likely depend on if their is conduit already present, if you have an attic or other crawlspace that you can drop wire down from, etc.   you would presumably run wires to all the rooms you wanted a connection in -- perhaps more to areas where you will need lots of connections or want more bandwidth (like to a TV room or the like).  You could also run wires to a spot on a wall where you'd like to attach or direct mount a wireless access point.  These wires would all terminate in a central point (usually a closet but basically an area where you going to have the guts of your home network -- a switch connecting all the wires together and likely an incoming internet connection).   I haven't looked into this in some time but if you're going to spend the time and money to wire the house I would wire it with cat6.  Cat5e will be sufficient for gigabit networking if you want to save some money though -- cat6 just future proofs you a bit.  Other things like fiber will probably raise the cost significantly but are definitely worth looking into before starting a project like this.   I generally think that wireless can work well for most people without existing wires but there are certainly exceptions.

comet1853 · Answer

Thank you for all of your help.  I do think I will go wireless and like you suggested, I can always go back to wired later. Now I just need to get my wireless card repaired.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Wired or Wireless?

Was this post helpful?