Wireless or Ethernet???

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  16 years ago

  by drumminoutloud

  Tom

  West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

  Joined 16 years ago
  I need to set up a small home network between what is currently 2 computers and will become three. Although I would have just gone for ethernet we will soon be getting a third computer which will go downstairs and so getting a wire down to this will be a pain! I have heard a lot of people rave about wireless netoworks but have little experience of either myself!!
  
  If you have any suggestions from your experience please help me choose!!
  
  thanks
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  16 years ago

  by Finn_G

  Finn Grimwood

  Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

  Joined 17 years ago

  It depends... our router is both wireless and ethernet, but i mainly use the wireless for stuff in my bedroom or upstairs somewhere soo...... Also... you rarely get the speed a wireless network says... you would literally have to have the computers next to each other to acive a perfect connection. The signal strength can also be affected by the walls/floors in your house and (i have heard) even devices like Microwaves! If you want a definate answer right now i would say Ethernet because although it takes more setting up (with all the wires) it will always get the signal throught to the other machine and be faster...

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  16 years ago

  by drumminoutloud

  Tom

  West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

  Joined 16 years ago

  i already asked you!!!!!!
  

  
  but thanks neway!!!!!

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  16 years ago

  by qwijibow

  Chris Stones

  England Nottingham, United Kingdom

  Joined 19 years ago

  im no expert on wireless, but seeing as it seems you are after an opinion.. (and i have one of them, lol) why not.
  
  unless you have a large number of computers, or you plan on wandering around with a laptop, i would use ethernet.
  if price is an issue, try and find some used cable. i bouth 30meters of CAT-5 network cable for only £5.
  you will need a crimper to attack the plastic plugs at the end, but if you can borrow one, thats no problem.
  
  but with network cable as cheep as it is (second hand) you dont even need to drill holes in the walls, you couls run it under the carpet.
  just make sure no length of cable is longer than 50 meters.
  
  plus... although CAT-5 network cable has 8 wires, only 4 of them are used in ethernet. you can wire them up so that one wire runs 2 different ethernet connections,
  which could be usefull if you ever have a 4th computer, 2 on eath floor, and only 1 switch.
  
  ALSO... testing a ethernet line is as easy as getting the miltimeter out and testing resisitance across each of the pins, If wireless ever doesnt work, finding the problem could be a real pain.
  
  but bearing all that in mind, although ive used wireless, ive never actually set it up.

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  16 years ago

  by drumminoutloud

  Tom

  West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

  Joined 16 years ago
  cheers,
  
  if anyone has installed/set up a wireless network please could you post your experiences here as this is one of my biggest concerns with wireless!
  Also does anyone know of problems with connecting win98 to winXP as one of the computers is running 98 and is really too old to upgrade as far as xp!
  
  
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