wired or wireless network in my house?

[sparkyphil1]

Hi I am moving to a new house soon and want to eliminate the loss of signal/buffering and future proof it for smooth clear broadband use age , so I need to know which is best wired or wireless as I can decorate after but don't want to decorate and get everything done and find that I am having to run cables at a later date, also there is no fibre optic near me and won't be for the near future ,and how and what is best, advice please thanks very much Phil

 

[Stuuk1]

In my opinion, throw some cat5 screened or cat 6 around.

If you don't use it, at least its in. You will use it...!

 

[shanky887614]

Go cat 6. With conduit down all the walls to the points into the ceiling void. That will future proof it for a long time ( wireless is still $h¡t)

 

[High Tower]

Ethernet over power sockets are expensive but work well and save cabling

If you are going to cable then one Ethernet to each position, if you need more you can always install a network switch such as the tv location.

Wireless is ok for laptops and phones but not for sky smart tv's or play stations

 

[sparkyphil1]

Go cat 6. With conduit down all the walls to the points into the ceiling void. That will future proof it for a long time ( wireless is still $h¡t)

Just a thought do you know if it is best to run two to each point or one? For example position with a smart TV, x box, etc or can you get splitters for it or is it one cable per item? Thanks

 

[shanky887614]

Just a thought do you know if it is best to run two to each point or one? For example position with a smart TV, x box, etc or can you get splitters for it or is it one cable per item? Thanks

Have a look into gigabyte switches there cheap as chips and you can run multiple things off one cable at each point if need be (I would do two cables at each point and get a switch as you need one)

The downside to a switch is you will be limited to 1gb/s on each cable to switch

(You can get 10gb switches but more expensive)

 

[cdrive]

I would run more then you need so always have two ports on a socket, it takes the same space as one.
run cat 5e its cheaper then cat 6 and it runs at 1GB.

 

[JohnPhilips67]

Well I'm on Fibre for my internet and I'm using powerline adapters (cost about 25 quid from Asda) and they are awesome! I get basically my full download limit without having to buy an expensive router or run ethernet cables down the stairs (My PC is upstairs). So yeah, maybe a cheap fix but definitely works.

 

[Paulgwat]

Hi Phil,

I have a 1990’s built modern 4bed wendy house – so no thickwalls etc, I have previously struggled with Wireless so went for a mixture ofwired and wireless. Below is a rough run down of my network to give you someideas – when planning whether to go wireless versus wired look at everythingyou connect together over the network, it is best not just to look in terms ofaccessing the internet. Also if you go down the route of structured cabling thesame cable can become a data point or a telephone socket!

As an example all my movies are stored on a server to playaround the house, also computers back up to server regularly - over wireless eithertask can struggle with copper it just works.

Wireless spectrum is also getting more and more crowdedespecially if the house is on a modern high density estate.

Going around the house quickly I have the following structuredcabling installed and stuff connected:-

Lounge – 4x Cat5e plus POE powered mini Switch - Sky Box, Apple TV, AV Amp, TV, Bluray, Sonos,Phone Cable for Sky
Study – 10x Cat5e – PC, TV, Xbox, Wii (Wifi), Ubiquiti UnifiAP LR, Docking station for laptops
Master Bedroom – 2x Cat5e each side of bed (one used forphone), 2 Cat5e behind Tv
Loft - 6x Cat5e – Sonosfor Ensuite, You View Box,
Garden Office – 2x Cat5e, 8 port POE Switch, Sonos, UbiquitiUnifi AP, Telephone
Garage - 24 port POEswitch, Leviton Patch Panel system, Cbus Wiser, Cytech Comfort

One room I haven’t cabled yet is the Kitchen, purely as weare waiting until that is redone in the future as it’s fairly recent.

The above gives a great compromise between speed over thecopper connections and good enough Wifi coverage across the house and garden tomean we have the best of both worlds – I don’t use my ISP’s Wireless box at allas it is pretty crap in terms of coverage.

Plan to put in more cables than you think you will ever need– you will always find a new toy/gadget to use them – Mini switches are greatif you run out of cables but add to the electric bill – I have gone for power overEthernet for pretty much everything I can as it cuts down the wall wart count.

I hope the above provides some food for thought

Cheers

Paul