Jeff covered it all.
My question is……… why wireless?
Its more expensive than hard wired connections n certainly slower.
If the family live in the one house and the computers are in a static location The hard wired ethernet would be (and in fact is) my choice.
rustedtight
I can take a stab at this, having wireless in my house (and several friends with it also).
First the speed. Most hard-wired NICs today run at 100 Mbps, though some older ones run at 10 Mbps. The 802.b wireless standard support speeds up to 11 Mbps. This is still MUCH faster than my DSL connection (which maxes out just over 1 Mbps and usually runs at around 700 Kbps). So for surfing the Internet, downloading files, etc., it’s still damn fast. Where I’ve noticed the difference is when I’ve transferred large blocks of files (like 100 MB!) from my wireless laptop to another wired computer. It takes longer.
As for the cost, yes, wireless NICs cost more than the wired type, but not much. CAT-5 network cable is fairly inexpensive, but running it can be a real chore. I have five computers in my home, and initially started running the wiring throughout. Pulling off baseboards and drilling holes through walls and floors. What a pain. A friend of mine added a wireless NIC to a PC on another floor of his house and voila!… he’s connected. No muss, no fuss. That’s worth something.
If you have a laptop, DEFINATELY go wireless. I swear to you that once you do, you won’t regret it. It is so nice to travel around the house or even out on the backyard patio while connected (albiet wirelessly) to the net.
The Bottom Line
I recommend getting a wireless router with 4-ports. Hard-wire the PCs that you can easily hard-wire, and get wireless connections for the difficult ones and any laptops. As for hardware, here’s what I’ve got and I highly recommend:
Jeff Hester aka “Mister BigBlueBall.com”