Wiring a computer network?

[Corpse Cruncher]

I am due to have my home rewired. Now somebody suggested that this would be ideal time to install a wired computer network.

What would I need to purchase/have this wired system; and are there any advantages over having a wire free system?

 

[a_unique_person]

Wireless is cheaper, and now approaching the status of being relatively stable. Wired would be faster, if you install Gigabit rated cabling.

 

[Zep]

The standard blue Cat-5 wiring at 100Mb/S is still much faster than wireless, if speed is important to you. It also can't be hacked. However it's a time and a cost to install and rewire, and limits where you can attach stuff - that's where wireless is much better. Then again, you can have both!

 

[richardm]

I've just recently switched from a wired network to a wireless one. It isn't as fast as the old one when I'm transferring large files between machines, but frankly I don't do that very often. When I do, the performance isn't so bad that I'm away slashing my wrists. For sending print jobs it's just fine, and for accessing the broadband connection it's obviously more than adequate. These are what I mostly use the network for, so no problem.

In the past I'd have said Yes, get those wires in while you can. But today I think I'd probably pass.

 

[Molinaro]

I would go wired, gigabit all the way. How often do you move around your computer? I realy don't see the point in wireless. It only has downsides, with no realistic benefits.

 

[moog]

Wireless is far more convenient but is also slower and much less secure.

 

[Hellbound]

I use a combination. We have desktops that are wired, and I do most of my "sensitive" stuff on my desktop (finances, taxes, that sort of thing). I don't want that on a wireless connection.

I do have a wireless router (connected to a screened subnet so it doesn't access my desktop traffic) for the laptops, so if I need to move around the house I use those.

It really doesn't take much to wire your house (depending on how much you want wired). I wired up our office room (connections from a server closet into the room) myself, took about an afternoon (maybe 3 hours total), which included building my cable, installing jacks, and connecting everything. Total cost was about $75 maybe, and that was for four lines (a four-jack connection in the closet and two two-jacks in the office).

The wired connections are easier for things that don't move much, such as network printers, servers, or desktops. They're faster and don't leak signal 200 meters in every direction. Also more secure (128 bit WEP encryption on wireless, for example, can be broken in about 15 seconds with a 1GHz laptop).

I'd take issue with the idea that wireless is cheaper, though. That really depends. Total cost, I'd say wired is cheaper overall. Wireless you're looking at $50 per computer for a wireless access card, plus the cost of a wireless modem. Almost evey computer sold today already has networking built-in for wires, so you only need to pay for the wiring ($75 for four systems, in my case, plus $100 for the router/modem).

Of course, if you already have wireless cards in your system, or already have a wireless router or access point, then wireless is probably cheaper. It really depends on where you are now.

 

[kevin]

Will you be running other wires such as catv or satellite cables? If so then adding network cable makes good sense and would be relatively cheap (you're already paying for the labor to run the other cables and a couple of extra wires doesn't usually boost cost too much).

Wired can offer significantly higher speeds, especially if you want to move to gigabit connections. Wired offers some extra security from your neighbors over wireless, but no extra security from attacks via the internet or other computers on your own network. And if you're on a cable tv network then there is no extra security for your internet traffic. Hacking a cable modem to show your neighbor's traffic is pretty easy.

Running cable for gigabit is a bit more intensive than 100mbps cabling. For gigabity the entire cable system (including terminations) have to be cat 5. get cat 5 cable is easy, having it terminated properly is a bit more. Also the entire run from switch to end point needs to be less than 100 meters.

http://www.foundrynet.com/services/faqs/GigCopper.html

If you don't have an existing cable system setup, and aren't already planning on running other cables, then wireless may be more appealing. You may end up cutting lots of holes in walls and floors to get from here to there....

 

[strathmeyer]

The standard blue Cat-5 wiring at 100Mb/S is still much faster than wireless, if speed is important to you. It also can't be hacked. However it's a time and a cost to install and rewire, and limits where you can attach stuff - that's where wireless is much better. Then again, you can have both!

My home wireless network runs at 54Mb/s, so Cat-5 isn't much faster. Besides, this is already much faster than disc transfer.

 

[Hellbound]

My home wireless network runs at 54Mbps, so Cat-5 isn't much faster. Besides, this is already much faster than disc transfer.

Um...no, it isn't. It's not quite 1/28th of modern drive speeds.

SATA drives (which are pretty much the standard these days) runs about 60 to 70 MBps sustained (peak up to 300MBps http://www.wdc.com/en/library/sata/2879-001144.pdf). Notice thats MBps, not Mbps. Mgeabytes, not Megabits. Multiply the drive transfer speeds by 8 for equivalent Megabit values.

Not to mention that your actual data transfer speeds for networking are somewhat less than your transmission speed. To give an example, SATA interface speeds are 1.5Gbps. That is not the data transfer rate. Likewise, the 54Mbps is the transmission rate, total, including control signals, wrappers, etc, etc (1.5Gbps/54Mbps is about 1/29). Actual data transmission is probably half that (rough guess, but should be close to the mark), so your looking at disc transfer being about 65MBps/27Mbps=13 1/3rd times as fast as wireless. Of course, this is true for 100Mbps wire, as well.

Other than the technical nitpicks, though, wireless should be fast enough for most user needs, unless you're transfering hundred megabyte files routinely.

 

[kevin]

My home wireless network runs at 54Mb/s, so Cat-5 isn't much faster. Besides, this is already much faster than disc transfer.

Cat-5 isn't a speed, it's a wire plant certification and you can run both 100Mbps and 1000Mbps on it.

On my Mac using 802.11g (54 Mb/s) with WPA2 encryption and FTP from my intrenal linux server I get 2.9 MB/s transfers.

From my internal linux server (plugged in at gigabit) to my external linux server (plugged in at 100Mbps and through a router) I get 4MB/s with FTP

From my windows box, plugged in at a gigabit, from my internal server, also at a gigabit, I get 7MB/s.

All numbers are in megabytes/second. This isn't exactly an apples-to-apples test. the router between my internal/external servers is probably a significant impediment to absolute raw speed. Windows is known for choking out on it's TCP/IP stack.

Generally a wireless or wired connection will be significantly faster than your internet connection speed, so if all you do is internet traffic then it doesn't really matter.

 

[Kenny 10 Bellys]

I have both wired and wireless in my home, and it's my full time job too. I have to agree with the others, it depends what you plan on doing with your network whether or not it's worth the hassle to wire up a home with CAT-V or CAT-VI.

If you regularly transfer vast files between your PCs (many gigabytes in size) then you need wired, if not then dont bother going to all the hassle. If you transfer or stream the odd movie then wireless will handle it, and broadband internet traffic is no hassle for wireless at all and you'll never appoach the limits of it's bandwidth capabilities.

As for all the talk of gigabit speed, enhanced cat-5 cable (CATVe) will handle gigabit traffic up to about 30 metres of cable, then after that it's just your luck what speed you get. Of course you'll need the latest network cards to get that sort of speed anyway, currently most just do the old-fashioned 10/100 Mbps and leave 1000Mbps to specialist stuff. Remember most network speeds are special theoretical numbers and bare little relation to what you get. In practice most networks will give about 60% efficiency at best, so your average 54G wireless connection will probably only actually transfer at a top speed of about 32Mbps.

If you go CAT-VI remember it's quite bulky and not fun to install, and you'll find that most electrical contractors cant run comms cables to save themselves anyway. Often they run it far too close to power cables, dont care if they have to joint it, put far too many bends in it and use poor quality patch-panels and connections. I've lost count of the number of times I've been called to diagnose a problem and found the wiring was installed by electricians and not comms contractors, and the problem lay with how they'd run it. You also get people who install all CAT-VI cable and connections, then plug into it with poor quality CATV patch-leads and wonder what the problem is.

It boils down to this. For home use, go wireless as it's cheap and works well enough. People go on about security and so forth but for the vast majority of people it's not even a consideration. Basic security will keep people from using your connection for free, and everything else can be hacked given enough time and expertise anyway.

PCs close enough to the router should be wired in for cheapness and speed, all else run wireless using £12 ($20) wireless adaptors freely available anywhere that sells computer stuff. It works well enough for the home environment and you are not tied to one area next to a socket.

 

[Rat]

I would say it would be worth it for the cost. It will be redundant in an unknown amount of time in the future, but for the time being, I'd prefer at least the option of a wired connection. If you get the cabling installed (and it shouldn't be expensive), you can still have wireless later. If you don't, you can't have wired later without trailing cables round the house (this is the option I went for, but then I'm renting).

As for what you'll need, it all depends what's being done for you. In an average size house, you're not going to have huge runs of cable, so a reel of cat-5e or cat-6 cable, plus a punch-down tool thingy and as many face plates as you think you need. If this is all done for you, then you just need a length of cable plus an NIC for each connected device.


I like the idea of wireless, but I've yet to see a set-up that I would consider better than flaky in anything other than the most ideal situations. I'm sure others have experienced otherwise (I'm sure some have even just 'plugged in and gone', as it were), but a wired connection always works and is always easy to set up.

Cheers,
Rat.

 

[jimlintott]

I'm with Rat and the others who like to be wired.

Cat5e is pretty easy to work with and can actually be used for a lot more than just computer networks. I've helped install distributed sound systems that used Cat5e for all the wiring to volume controls. You can get audio and video baluns that can enable you to use Cat5 for long video or audio runs. It's cheap too. Pull lots.

 

[Corpse Cruncher]

I'm going to have holes all over the place during the re-wire so a few more won't matter. All the old wiring is being taken out and switches etc being moved, so a lot of mess and dust and men under my feet.

Is the connection for the wired network something I can do or is it a specialist area?

 

[kevin]

I'm going to have holes all over the place during the re-wire so a few more won't matter. All the old wiring is being taken out and switches etc being moved, so a lot of mess and dust and men under my feet.

Is the connection for the wired network something I can do or is it a specialist area?

Then I agree with the wired group -- run wires. In fact you might consider throwing a fiber cable in the bundle as well. Might need it in 5-10 years.

You can terminate the cable yourself, if you're pretty detail oriented. The tools are pretty cheap. You can also get outlet boxes that can have network wiring terminated on them without tools. Make sure you find a good wire color to pin guide and make sure you follow it. The twisted pairs have to be used properly in the terminations to avoid noise.

 

[Bfef]

Also, don't forget that a cat-5 Ethernet network can be switched, ie. full bandwidth to all users.

That 54Mbit wireless has to be shared between everyone.

 

[Zep]

I'm going to have holes all over the place during the re-wire so a few more won't matter. All the old wiring is being taken out and switches etc being moved, so a lot of mess and dust and men under my feet.

Is the connection for the wired network something I can do or is it a specialist area?

Yep, run wires to anywhere you think you will need to attach stuff. One in each room is probably a good idea. Connections are easy enough - they have to be! Just have a standard wall socket near the power outlet, and you're sweet.

The only issue is where the cables will run too. It's usual to run to a central point of a start network, where you put the central router or hub or switch of some sort.* Therefore that point will be the "computer room", and you may need something a bit more special in the way of connections for all the network cables coming out of the wall at one point there. Commercially, we use patch-panels, but that would be a bit OTT for home. See what ideas others might offer on that!





*Not the only pattern you can make, of course.

 

[Rat]

Doing it yourself is not complicated. As long as you know what goes where, there's not much to it. It is a hell of a fiddly job, though. Just the sort of thing I hate, but I suspect there's a knack to it. Do it yourself (with guidance) if you are the patient sort. At least that way, you know where all the cables are going, and where to start looking if anything goes wrong.

Cheers,
Rat.

 

[Corpse Cruncher]

Thanks for the advice.

Sounds complicated but what is the worst that could happen, I switch on a kettle and my e-mail arrives in the fridge?

I am not that way minded, I can label things, so all wires will be labelled accordingly. At least the crew doing the wiring are labelling the house wires so I can observe and follow suit. That is my plan anyway, somehow seeing the mess will drive me out the door, before I commit mass murder.

I see no problem with ruining the wires the connection at the end terrifies me as I am not computer savvy. I expect a diagram comes with what I need so I can at least make paper aeroplanes out of it or wire myself up nicely.