Help...networking of the home...wired & wireless??

[GinG]

Hi All,

Currently looking into a house which I think we will very much be moving into.

The house is in need of modernisation which means electrical work is needed.

At 1st I wanted to get network cables routed around the house n various locations etc etc. I have an electrician coming out to price up that & also running HDMI points in certain areas.

I have never ever looked into Wireless Networking, being a bit of an old skool pc gamer I have always frowned upon it.

I have since come across the likes of these:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-055-EX&groupid=46&catid=1600&subcat=

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-143-NG&groupid=46&catid=1595&subcat=1608

My plan for the house is to have a HTPC in the living room (playing blu-rays & possible downloaded content, possible streaming from the storage PC), gaming PC in the study, internet radio in the kitchen & possibly another HTPC/light gaming machine in the conservatory. Ideally I would also like to have a storage unit either in the loft or possible spare cupboard.

As you can see a potential of a few objects needing to be networked up.

I think that by going the wireless route I would save a fair bit of cash & also make things 100% easier and less restricted, however on the other side of me still thinking of the packet loss of when wireless 1st came about.

So please ladies & gents of OcUK, please help me choose & spec me some kit.

Thanks

Graham

 

[wij]

IMO if you're up to doing a bit of work wired isnt that costly:

1. Decide on a central point to run all cables back to.
2. Run multiple lines into every room (I did 2 or 4).
3. Buy a little data rack, and a patch panel and terminate it all nicely.
4. Do it yourself if you can as it's really not that hard and can be done quite quickly and unless it is a specialist I generally wouldn't trust most sparkies to install data cables - just speaking from repeated bad experiences.

In my house everything goes back to under the stairs where I have a little rack with a couple of switches and a router in it. Also got a couple of little servers in there as it's well ventilated.

For wireless I've got a Cisco 1240AG and an apple airport extreme, get pretty much full signal everywhere on the 5Ghz kit but just about everything is wired so it's only used for the laptop in the living room etc.

 

[GinG]

Thanks for yout input.

I haven't really had chance to assess the area myself, it is a guy who does cash in hand work who we have used to fit a network point in my bedroom at the parents house, he did a really tidy job hence why I am getting him to look at the house.

The one issue is the conservatory, I guess going wireless into there wouldn't be too much of an issue, it is the gaming pc and living room where I want the best connection to be made.

Just wanted to know if there is any major drawbacks to go all wireless I guess?

 

[wij]

It's potentially going to be less stable, there is always the chance of packet loss and at the end of the day if you want to shunt really big files around over your network GigE wired is about as good as you're going to need/get at home for a while yet.

I also have a number of IP phones around my house so they're just plugged in and get power down the Ethernet cables too.

 

[slowrunner]

I'd say radio/laptops on wireless, everything else wired for stability when transfering data, or for anything that's not going to be moved around all the time.