Computer Networking

[Unregistered]

I will be networking 3 computers at home and would like some suggestions on how to do it. there are wireless network or i can run cat 5re cables to each workstation. running the wire is not a problem but just wondering which is the best. do i run them to a central point in the house then what?

[Jacksnap]

Easiest method is go wireless. You'll need a wireless router. Your ISP connection terminates at their modem; then a short piece of cat5 cable goes to the wireless router mounted near the modem. Mount the router on the wall as high as you can and in as central place of the structure as possible. You will need a recp close to the install point for the ISP's modem and your router. For each computer you have some choices as to hardware needed to make the wireless connect back to your wireless router. Choices are; USB unit that plugs into computers USB port.
PCI wireless card with antenna that plugs into motherboard.
The USB unit is best if you are a long way from the router. The PCI card with intergal antenna works good within reasonable diatance.
I suggest that you purchase all items from same manufacturer. I prefer Belkin www.belkin.com .
Belkin products have (at last check) lifetime warranty and come with in-depth instructions and easy to install software. Out of the box, your wireless network is available to anyone in the area that can receive your signal; ie: Car driving by your house with laptop, next door neighbor, etc.
To prevent this read about setting security with your instructions. In the past wired cat 5 was great but wireless is just as fast and at some point you want to move a computer, for whatever reason, and it is a snap with wireless. Figure about $250. to $300 for everything you need for 3 computers. Also, if any of the computers are laptops you can use the USB or a wireless PCMCIA card.
Good luck!
Jack

[suemarkp]

I'll go with the opposite answer. Wireless is better than it used to be, and faster than it used to be, but wired is faster, cheaper, and more reliable. If all you do is surf the web, then you won't notice faster speeds with wired. But it you transfer files between computers, have networked disk drives, or even network printers, the wired network will be faster (100 mb/s easy). Significantly faster if you go with gigabit LAN NIC's and a gigabit switch. Wireless speeds go down as signal strength decreases, so you only get the full speed under ideal conditions. Wireless has the advantage of working anywhere in the house (well, usually most locations), so if you rove with laptops, you may like that better.

For wired, you need to run cables to a central location. The minimum would be one cat-5 to each room with a computer. At the central point, you put an ethernet switch and connect each cable to it. If you have multiple computers in a room, you either need a small switch there too with short cables to each computer, or run multiple cat-5 cables back to your central switch (one for each computer or networked device).

You can also take a hybrid approach, as many wireless access points include a small 4-port or larger switch. This lets you use both solutions.

[Jacksnap]

I agree on all points that Mark brought up. I have both wired and wireless network in my house. We have 4 laptops and 2 towers, Rarely do we transfer files between machines, but as Mark said if you are only surfing the net, you won't notice any difference. The cable company is our ISP and provides consistant 2000 to 2800 speeds, and that is measured at any location in our 2240 sf 1 level home.
Mark mentioned that 'access points' also come with wired connects, so you can go both ways at the same time. There is a difference between an access point and a router. The ISP's modem will terminate on a router. An access point is usually reserved for signal boosting for connections too far removed from the router signal. A router provides a very important item that an access point does not, that being a 'hard' firewall. The router's firewall can make you totally invisible on the net, blocking any attempts by hackers to gain access to your system. This blocking feature is usually found in both wired and wireless routers.
So with all this technology and $ 25 million bounty on each, why can't we find Osama Bin Laden and Muqtada al-Sadr ?? :confused:

[mdshunk]

So with all this technology and $ 25 million bounty on each, why can't we find Osama Bin Laden and Muqtada al-Sadr ?? :confused:
Because they're trawling around the mountains on donkeys and living in caves. They havn't logged onto the net or used a cell phone in a very long time. ;)

[Jacksnap]

md, you make a good point. Technology has advanced so much, that we are back to where we started. OBL has to use technology for our techology to detect his technology. Just like a plane going down in a remote area; if the emergecy beacon does not work, we may not find it in a reasonable amount of time.
OK, back to my 'cave'.... LOL

[Setite]

As an IT professional, I don't agree that wired is cheaper especially when it comes to cabling a complete house. If your computers are all in the same room, true that Suemarkp. However, when you start to divide the computers out amongst other rooms now you are talking about purchasing bulk cable, patch panels, a network rack, termination tools, jacks, etc (BTW, I found a great price on CAT 6 (about $55 for a 500ft box bulk box at http://www.cableclub.com/product_info.php?products_id=1690).

I personally finished wiring my house with CAT6 and terminated it in the basement to a 48 port ICC CAT6 patch panel. The project ran me around $600 after installing over 1000 ft of cable, and 25 ports of connectivity to allow for future expansion and mobility. The goal was to easily relocate a drop of Ethernet to any room in the house by simply un-plugging and re-plugging the drop into a patch panel (just like they would do at a business). Mission complete... wallet empty. :)

Now, my solution was extreme and I would agree that if you are all in the same room (or dealing with a smaller project)... why not go cable because it may be cheaper especially if you already have the NIC cards installed?

I personally like the reliability & speed of wire; however my wife likes the portability of wireless for her laptop. With that said, I would like point out the biggest draw back to date with wireless is security, however if you can secure your wireless equipment with a Wireless Encrypted Password (WEP) I would highly recommend it.

I know of people that opened up their laptops at various locations and were able to connect to other people's home networks without having to enter a password. In other words their networks were wide open. The second biggest draw back to wireless is the signal strength has to be there for you to get the best speeds. Sometimes placing a book in front of a wireless NIC will allow that signal to drop dramatically. However, wireless is portable, cost effective (when dealing with larger projects), and a better application for mobile users in general.

[suemarkp]

Since more and more computers (especially laptops) are coming with wireless LAN cards already installed, I think you are right on the cost point. If you don't have a wireless card in your computer (but have a wired NIC), the cost to add a cable in the wall with a nice jack is about the same as a wireless LAN card (assuming the labor is free to install that cable!).

You don't have to use a patch panel, as you could just dangle a bunch of RJ45 terminated cables in a central place and plug them into your router or switch.

Certainly, if you go with racks, a nice panel, a punch down block or two, and a bunch of cat5 jumpers, its going to cost a lot more but be a lot nicer. I still haven't setup my wireless LAN yet (still using wires). I hope I don't have to fiddle with router placement or try different antennas to get sufficient performance.

[Setite]

The wireless is a breeze to setup especially with WinXP SP2, and if you get a good wireless router (I like Linksys for home use) you will find it will cover a great distance. I live in a quad-level home, and after placing the wireless router I can pretty much connect from anywhere. Of course I didn't enclose the wireless router inside a metal box (I guess metal and other building materials will cause the wireless signal to fade).

In addition can actually connect to 2 different wireless routers from my house, both broadcast their default SSID, and both are non-secure. If I ever find out who these neighbors are I'll have to give them a brief run down of wireless security (use WPA over 128 bit WEP if available, rename your wireless network (SSID), scale down DHCP to hand out only the amount of addresses you need, limit the router to use only MAC addresses you know of, turn off SSID broadcasting, implement a VPN/IPsec for packet level encryption, etc).

If you're doing a mix mode network (like what I have), you should perhaps think about created a zoned wireless network using the DMZ feature of your router.