Ethernet cabling a thing of the past? 802.11n is here!

[Mark42]

Although I had been toying with the idea of running new network cables in my house, I am definitely not going to because the newest wireless technology 802.11n runs at 300Mbps, that is 200Mbps faster than the hard wired ethernet systems running at 100Mbps (traditional cat5e cable).

In addition to being faster, it has a much larger footprint than the existing 802.11G (at 54Mbps) that most of us have for wireless connections like laptops, iTouch, etc. Plus it will also send/receive in areas that would be a "dead spot" in your house with 802.11G.

Well, it looks like I'll just wait a while until 802.11n becomes the standard and when prices are down, I'll put wireless network cards in all the PC's and be up to speed without pulling cables.

 

[i386]

Re: Ethernet cabling a thing of the past? 802.11n is here!

I think as long as wireless security is a concern there will always be a need for cabled networks. But for most homes, as wireless LAN speeds increase, pulling cable becomes less attractive. I have CAT5 drops in key areas of my house as well as a wireless network. I doubt I'll be pulling much more cable either.

 

[beerfilter]

Re: Ethernet cabling a thing of the past? 802.11n is here!

Not really .
Google cat 6 or gigabit ethernet .
It will do just fine without having to replace your existing cat 5e cables .

I get similar questions every day , regarding connection speeds .
If all you are doing is sharing an internet connection among multiple computers , you are probably not going to see any speed increase , even with a broadband connection .
How many people actually have an ISP that provides connection speeds in excess of even 10Mbps ?

However , if you are swapping large files , among those computers , hosting lan parties , etc... , then , you would definately see an increase in performance .
This is also true if you have a multimedia server that shares video/audio files among computers on your lan .

For most home networks , however , it is just an unnecesarry expense , unless you just want the latest , fastest , gee - whiz -bang devices for your personal amusement , like many of us do .

Just keep in mind that you may seriously PO your nieghbors if you have a lot of them running thier own b/g networks , as the n uses almost the entire band for that greater speed , instead of a single channel (1 -6 for b , 1 - 11 for g ) .

 

[wgoodhoofd]

Re: Ethernet cabling a thing of the past? 802.11n is here!

While the speed of N appears to be 300MBps, the actual realworld throughput is often <100MBps. This is still sufficient for nearly all household applications, though.

I am upgrading my G router to an N router shortly, and am excited to get the new range out of it.

 

[waterinthefuel]

Re: Ethernet cabling a thing of the past? 802.11n is here!

I can't recall the location, but I read and actually saw a video of some software that could hack into a secure wireless network. Not sure how it worked but they showed it. It wasn't super fast, but it worked. I will never go wireless as long as it can be hacked that easily.

 

[KaGee]

Re: Ethernet cabling a thing of the past? 802.11n is here!

All of the above will be yesterday's news with FTTD... Fiber To The Desk.
The cost of copper has accelerated the move as well as bandwidth demands.
Cable and phone companies here in Ohio are already in the process of running fiber to the termination points behind the house. It's only a matter of time until it's run to the home.

 

[muskyone]

Re: Ethernet cabling a thing of the past? 802.11n is here!

yes the video over ip that there starting to use need cat5 to get to the back of the tv and kagee i was asking about that with the corning rep and it might happen but not for a vary long time with light you need a reciver and a laser vary pricey right now

 

[SgtMaj]

Re: Ethernet cabling a thing of the past? 802.11n is here!

In order to be PCI compliant, companies must not have any wireless connection points to the network that houses their credit card services.

 

[Xcusme]

Re: Ethernet cabling a thing of the past? 802.11n is here!

I can't recall the location, but I read and actually saw a video of some software that could hack into a secure wireless network. Not sure how it worked but they showed it. It wasn't super fast, but it worked. I will never go wireless as long as it can be hacked that easily.

There are tons of sites that take you step by step through the process of cracking a WEP code , it's pretty trivial, I assure you. The cracking tools are freely available on the WEB, usually Linux based. With the right wireless chip set and software, it can be done in a few minutes (40 seconds really). That's for any flavor of WEP (64 or 128bit)....WPA-PSK is a horse of another color. There is a proof of concept on hacking WPA but it relies on having a passphrase of 8 (or less) characters and be a dictionary word. If someone were to hack a 63 random character WPA-PSK passphrase, it would hit the crypto community like bomb, you'd hear about it for sure.

 

[KaGee]

Re: Ethernet cabling a thing of the past? 802.11n is here!

yes the video over ip that there starting to use need cat5 to get to the back of the tv and kagee i was asking about that with the corning rep and it might happen but not for a vary long time with light you need a reciver and a laser vary pricey right now

I was at a training seminar last fall in Columbus. It's happening now. Time-Warner is doing it. AT&T is doing it. Time Warner people said they already had converter boxes with fiber termination. ISP, VOIP, CATV, Security all over one fiber cable with plenty of bandwidth to spare.

 

[muskyone]

Re: Ethernet cabling a thing of the past? 802.11n is here!

were doing fiber to the home it light stops at the back of the house bandwiths not a prob never will be its light i was saying to run it to your puter or tv or phone with out the nid in fact all i done for the last year or so is build fiber to the home ftth