Ethernet cable or wireless ?

[Fatboy_fat]

Hi all, I'm expecting a new BT wireless hub soon with about 6-8 mbps (hopefully ! ) after dumping aol. My kids are fine with wireless in there rooms, but would it be much slower for me to go wireless also, or just stick with the ethernet cable ? Any ideas on speed difference ? Thanks for any advice

 

[MikeDX]

If your main pc is next to where the router will be, theres no reason not to use a wire.

 

[Munson]

I would always use wired on a desktop PC so long as you can fairly easily get a cable to the router/modem.

However, I see no issues with wireless as long as it's secured. It'll never be AS secure as wired, but unless you live next door to a hacker then you've not got much to worry about. You can also filter MAC addresses for added security.

As for speed, there will be no difference at all. My main games PC is wired, and my laptop is wireless. Both machines are capable of maxing out my 10mb cable connection with ease.

 

[Lagerlout]

But be warned about BT - they said I could get 6.2 Meg...... doesn't get any higher than 2.2. And the BT hub is cheap and f**king horrible looking. lol. Gonna bin it and put my Netgear router back in - it's about half the size!

My lap top is on a wireless connection and records pertty similar speeds to my desktop in a bandwidth speed test.

 

[Daz]

For Broadband, unless you have a really poor Wireless signal, there will be no difference in speed between wireless and cabled.
Cable is ALWAYS more reliable.. but.. having said that, wireless is pretty solid given a good signal.

Saying that, security. Always a subject which gets people scared

One way, wireless is more secure than wired.. (no, really.). You need a key to connect, and if it's WPA it's quite good. Wired, anyone can walk up to your router and plug a laptop in.. and they're straight on. Ok, Ok.. probably not as probable as someone sat outside with a laptop, but then, WPA should be absolutely fine to stop the casual bandwidth theif. (and even then, the more determined!)

 

[Pete]

Cable all the way unless you have no choice but to go wireless, whatever anyone says it's not as fast and not as reliable. Everything electrical interfeers with wireless and it's a pain in the arse!

 

[Nebdingo]

yep... cable prefered!

 

[Fatboy_fat]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I'm just trying to avoid running another phone cable through the house ! I think I'll try it wireless first, if I get any bother, I guess I'll have to run the cable after all !
Cheers

 

[MikeDX]

I advise running CAT5 cable, not a phone extension if you plan on going wired!

 

[///AMG]

I would always use wired on a desktop PC so long as you can fairly easily get a cable to the router/modem.

However, I see no issues with wireless as long as it's secured. It'll never be AS secure as wired, but unless you live next door to a hacker then you've not got much to worry about. You can also filter MAC addresses for added security.

As for speed, there will be no difference at all. My main games PC is wired, and my laptop is wireless. Both machines are capable of maxing out my 10mb cable connection with ease.

MAC Addresses can be found from open broadcast and copied in seconds...MAC address filtering offers no security whatsoever

 

[Jo3y]

It depends what you'll be using it for as well, I have my xbox 360 connected to my PC through my wireless router and it didn't used to handle streaming movies very well. If you want it to be as reliable as a wired network I'd recommend the Netgear Range max stuff which actually runs slightly faster than a wired connection @ 108 mbps. The BT routers are as crappy as they come.

Like army182 says, mac filter offers no protection from someone that knows what they're doing, no harm in adding it but go with WPA as well.

 

[Rob Clark]

ye but your not going to run multiple wifi nodes multicating @ 108 tho.
Wired all the way (i ran cat5e sound the house when i redecorated) and if you are running wifi make sure its properly encrypted and mac authenticated - wpa and wep can be sniffed easily enough. poss use static ips and turn off dhcp too (nice obscure ips work well ! ie dont have 192.168.1.1 as router)

 

[Fatboy_fat]

ye but your not going to run multiple wifi nodes multicating @ 108 tho.
Wired all the way (i ran cat5e sound the house when i redecorated) and if you are running wifi make sure its properly encrypted and mac authenticated - wpa and wep can be sniffed easily enough. poss use static ips and turn off dhcp too (nice obscure ips work well ! ie dont have 192.168.1.1 as router)

thanks for the advice, but I'm an ageing bloke who didn't understand a word of what you just said !!

 

[Rick]

wireless..... it's a pain in the arse!

lol, exactly what I was gonna put. I bloody hate anything to do with wireless networking; more trouble than its worth.

 

[Rob Clark]

heh apols fatboy
Essentially, wired is better, but if you are using wireless have a read into encyption (the bit which asks you for a password when a wireless pc 1st connects to the wireless network) and preferrably use mac authentication (each network card has a universal serial number and you can get a router to only allow specified mac to use its service)

 

[Pete]

It depends what you'll be using it for as well, I have my xbox 360 connected to my PC through my wireless router and it didn't used to handle streaming movies very well. If you want it to be as reliable as a wired network I'd recommend the Netgear Range max stuff which actually runs slightly faster than a wired connection @ 108 mbps. The BT routers are as crappy as they come.

Like army182 says, mac filter offers no protection from someone that knows what they're doing, no harm in adding it but go with WPA as well.

Netgear equipment is cheap crap and I wouldn't touch it.

 

[Daz]

Netgear equipment is cheap crap and I wouldn't touch it.

In terms of consumer hardware, it's quite good.
I'd say they're one of the most popular "home based" network manufacturers..

It might not be the best, but it does work..

 

[Pete]

It might be popular doesn't mean it's actually any good though. Clio's are popular but they're not actually any good!

It doesn't work half the time, if you like having to restart equipment once a week then buy netgear. If you want a reliable connection don't chose netgear.