[LUNI] Wireless ethernet vs cat5

[Keith T. Garner]

On Wed, Mar 06, 2002 at 07:54:15, Richard Reina said:
> I'm moving a LAN (6 pcs 5 running RH and 1 running Windows 2000) to my 
> new office.  I'm wondering whether using wireless ehthernet adapters 
> will save me time and hassle verses running cat5 cables throughout the 
> ceiling.  I've never used or installed a wireless adapter, so I wanted 
> to get an opinion from those who might have some experience with 
> wireless on linux.

I use it almost daily.  :)

> Will it save me time?  

It'll save you wiring time certianly, but it does open you up to some
security issues as have been detailed on the list in other places.

> How hard is it to install an configure?

Pretty trivial, actually.

> Are there any drawbacks, performance or otherwise?

802.11b runs at 11Mb/s, which is roughly 1MB/s.  However, you'll likely
see it top out at 600KB/s, if you're lucky.  Most inexpensive cards and
hubs/switches you can buy this days are 100Mb/s, so you've got an order
of magnitude difference in performance.

For most of what I end up doing with my laptop when its on my wireless
network this isn't an issue.  (i.e. I'm not streaming uncompressed
video or something)  And when surfing the net I'm limited more by
my 386Kb/s SDSL line, so that's an order of magnitude slower then my
wireless ethernet.

And of course, the security thing which has been beaten to death.

> What would you do if you were me?

Depends on how you're going to be using the machines on the network
mostly.  I mostly use wireless to allow me and my wife to walk around
the house with our laptops.  Our full machines are attached to a wired
network, if only for in-house high speed gaming purposes.  (Although we
haven't played UT or Q3 in awhile.)

If you don't mind being stuck down in 11Mb/s land, you should be fine.
For most people and most applications, this isn't an issue.

Keith

-- 
   Keith T. Garner                                        kgarner at kgarner.com
   The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so
 certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.  --Bertrand Russell