Networking For My New Apartment..
DOOManiac
Worst. Critic. Ever. Join Date: 2002-04-17 Member: 462Members, NS1 Playtester
Worst. Critic. Ever. Join Date: 2002-04-17 Member: 462Members, NS1 Playtester
<div class="IPBDescription">Wireless? Or installing cables in walls?</div>I'm moving into my new apartment in under 2 months, and my friend and I are currently considering 2 options for networking the apartment.
What we've looked at so far is 1) wireless network 2) paying someone to professionally install network lines in my bedroom, his bedroom, and the living room.
There are pro's and cons of both:
Wireless network:
+ Convenient and easy to add more PC's to the network w/o drilling holes in the wall.
- MORE Expensive than getting network drops, we'd need to buy all new equipment.
- Not as fast as wired networks
- Probably will give us Cancer.
- BIG Security hazard, wardriving/hax0r neighbors main concern.
Professionally installed network drops:
+ Secure, no worry about wardriving.
+ LESS Expensive than Wireless, we already have 10/100 NICS and routers.
+ Won't give us cancer
- Inconvenient, no room to expand. What if we want TWO pc's in the living room?
- Small chance apartment owners may change their mind and freak out since they didn't realy understand what they agreed to let us do.
So what do you guys think? I'd love to go wireless except I don't wanna be hacked. I'm also not that big of a fan of Cancer from all the wireless radiowaves going back and forth into our skulls as we're transferring a gig or two of pron. Or the fact that somebody may sit in the parking lot outside and hack the gibson over our connection...
[edit]
Also as far as equipment goes, I like to buy crap that works. Not D-Link or Linksys. So yeah, a wireless 3Com internet sharing router + 2 3com nic's + at least 1 pcmcia NIC = getting expensive.
Also there's the possibility that my friend or I may get into online console gaming sometime in the next year or two.
[/edit]
What we've looked at so far is 1) wireless network 2) paying someone to professionally install network lines in my bedroom, his bedroom, and the living room.
There are pro's and cons of both:
Wireless network:
+ Convenient and easy to add more PC's to the network w/o drilling holes in the wall.
- MORE Expensive than getting network drops, we'd need to buy all new equipment.
- Not as fast as wired networks
- Probably will give us Cancer.
- BIG Security hazard, wardriving/hax0r neighbors main concern.
Professionally installed network drops:
+ Secure, no worry about wardriving.
+ LESS Expensive than Wireless, we already have 10/100 NICS and routers.
+ Won't give us cancer
- Inconvenient, no room to expand. What if we want TWO pc's in the living room?
- Small chance apartment owners may change their mind and freak out since they didn't realy understand what they agreed to let us do.
So what do you guys think? I'd love to go wireless except I don't wanna be hacked. I'm also not that big of a fan of Cancer from all the wireless radiowaves going back and forth into our skulls as we're transferring a gig or two of pron. Or the fact that somebody may sit in the parking lot outside and hack the gibson over our connection...
[edit]
Also as far as equipment goes, I like to buy crap that works. Not D-Link or Linksys. So yeah, a wireless 3Com internet sharing router + 2 3com nic's + at least 1 pcmcia NIC = getting expensive.
Also there's the possibility that my friend or I may get into online console gaming sometime in the next year or two.
[/edit]
Comments
(for the record, i havent lived)
Otherwise, you can just run cables on the floor...everyone loves the floor.
...It's so comfortable. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
as for security, aren't there tons of ways to secure wireless systems? turning off SSID broadcast, WEP keys and the like... turn off broadcast and no one even knows you're there; lock it with a key and even if they knew you were there they'd have to decrypt or whatever...
I like the convenience is all. one of our home computers is a laptop which uses the wireless, and the desktop is plugged straight into the router, so I get the best of both worlds.
you could take the lazy route and go wired but instead of installing jacks in the walls, just run a long wire to the other room =p
- Inconvenient, no room to expand. What if we want TWO pc's in the living room?
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ok...
my house is setup with a hub in the basement... and 3 lines coming from it. one to my sisters room one 3 floors up to mine and one to the living room.
now when i have friends round.. i wanna add more pc's... but as doom said how to you acheieve this? <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
simple..
buy a small 4 port hub... and get the line u have.. and obviously make sure u get the right hub.. but it will have a *uplink* button.. so plug your cable into port 4. and push in this uplink button and then u can jack in another 3 machines... onto that hub.. and its like splitting it more
---------------/--\----\
| | |
/|\
if that diagram makes sense lol
so that kills off one of your negatives for wired doom
Just a personal opinion - wireless ain't all it's cracked up to be. It's pretty spiffy, but really only beneficial in those cases where you've got a laptop, or when you're not able to run cables.
Besides, with a good wired network, you can have both - if someone wants wireless, get them to pick up their own wireless access point and plug it into your wired network.
Just my 2 cents.
Wireless is nifty, but still unreliable... (especialy if you plan on doing gamming over it).
it also saves you ALOT of $$.
Also, if you realy want to do wireless make sure you check how the walls in your house are made.
My dad's house has chicken wire in the walls (this was there to suport them when they where put up). Problem with this: it kills the signal. The entire point of buying a wireless router (to replace his normal one) was so that he could take his laptop out to the back yard.... He had to run an antenna out the window in the front of the house (where the router was) so that he could do this.....
So yah, My vote is wireful, you can generaly split a connection (as moqu said), sometimes the incoming signal has gone tofar/is to weak and thus you can't... but this is genearly not the case.
Also if all else fails (Adn they don't let you put in holes) just nab your staple gun and run cables along the bottoms of walls. After all, nothing says geek like a nice blue CAT5 trim around your house <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> (just try and do this without crossing doorways when ever possible, and if you have to, try running it under your rug)
Oh, and there is nothing stoping you from sticking in a wireless router at some point in your chain and having both (though I would suggest making most of it cat5, with a little section ussing wireless, so that you can sit on your couch and use your laptop <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->)
Oh, and if yalls don't have laptops, don't even think of ussing wireless (cmon, if nothing is going to be moved around regularly, it makes no sense).
Though, it could lead to the best bash.org quote ever:
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--><erno> hm. I've lost a machine.. literally _lost_. it responds to ping, it works completely, I just can't figure out where in my apartment it is.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
GAH!!!, it is no longer #1!!!! (every one go bump it over silly silly stabing people over the intraweb quote... <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->)
[edit]
Steve: What I was speaking of was actualy the fact that it is a fire hazard in most states to have cables running across door ways..
[/edit]
Summary: Wire.
EDIT: We did have to drill through the floor once because the broadband comes in from upstairs and the router is downstairs.
I'm taking some cat5 up there tommorrow and showing them exactly what it is I want to put in their walls, and I wanna get it in writing somehow that its okay to do it.
The apartment has 2 bedrooms + a living room, and I really don'g want cat5 going across the middle of the living room floor, that would look very very tacky.
Do you run just regular cat5 that you get from the store through the wall? Or do you have to get some like super shielded expensive variant?
Some of you seem to have experience w/ doing network drops, so is it hard or whatnow? how do you actually even do that, guiding a wire through the walls and whatnot? Its on the first floor and someone lives above us on the 2nd floor, so its not like we have attic access...
And I'm suprised nobody responded to the wireless = cancer comments :P
but a drill... lol
......
Ok, quick version of post Ialready wrote.....
If you apartment is already wired for Cable then you just hook up the modem and then the router to what ever coax you want.
Than just drill holes straight throug walls (running the cat5 under the carpet untill you get there)
If you have to wire the place for cable first......
You probably have to get the cable company to do that first <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
And if you need more help you can always higher a friend with use of pizza/beer <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> (or what ever your sustinance of choice is)
Do you run just regular cat5 that you get from the store through the wall? Or do you have to get some like super shielded expensive variant?
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Like I said you could just make the cable follow the wall or even better put it under the carpet.
Yep, just regular cat5 cable. Don't need anything fancy unless that static electricity thing of yours gets out of hand and you're suddenly able to melt plastic by yawning.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Some of you seem to have experience w/ doing network drops, so is it hard or whatnow? how do you actually even do that, guiding a wire through the walls and whatnot? Its on the first floor and someone lives above us on the 2nd floor, so its not like we have attic access...<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It's actually quite easy to do, but it all depends on where you want the jacks to be.
If your apartment has baseboards, you're in luck - there's usually a small gap between the bottom of the wall and the floor. You can run the cable there, replace those baseboards, and it'll look <i>gooood</i>. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
There might be some minor fishing in that case, but it'd usually just be from the jack hole (<i>heh!</i>) to the floor (maybe 15" or so). A simple weighted string or even a metal coathanger will work fine in that case.
Another thing - use closets to your advantage! I've done major network cabling for three already-built houses/apartments and one unbuilt house, and running the cables through the closets saves a lot of time, frustration, and cable. Apartments are usually designed so the closets are between the bedrooms and other major rooms, so make use of 'em!
Before running any cable, visualize the path it'll take. Keep in mind that the cable would almost always be tucked behind a baseboard.
Oh, and final bit of advice - buy more cable than you think you'll need. I did a job once where <i>they</i> measured the distances and provided that much cable, and I was short by a significant amount.
a little cancer never killed anyone... oh wait <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
if anything's gonna give you cancer, it's power lines or cell phones...
Seriously though, wires are a far more stable means of transmitting information. How often are you disconnected when you're on a cellphone? <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo--> D**n rights...
But cell phones do give you cancer, and we still have em everywhere. :P
McDonald's also gives you cancer, and we have those everywhere too. ;)
I'm beginning to wonder more and more if this will be possible to be a "do it yourself" project. I suck w/ tools and stuff though, so I dunno. My friend is getting a job w/ a DirectTV place as an installation person, so he may be learning all the nifty tricks of running wires soon, I may just have him do it. I mean there can't be much difference between running coax and running 10baseT...
But cell phones do give you cancer, and we still have em everywhere. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
McDonald's also gives you cancer, and we have those everywhere too. <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I'm beginning to wonder more and more if this will be possible to be a "do it yourself" project. I suck w/ tools and stuff though, so I dunno. My friend is getting a job w/ a DirectTV place as an installation person, so he may be learning all the nifty tricks of running wires soon, I may just have him do it. I mean there can't be much difference between running coax and running 10baseT... <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
It is so easy. You would probably cringe if you watched your friend do it. Setting up protocols and stuff like that is another matter though... (I don't touch it)
foil your house <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> Not only will it secure your wireless but keep the CIA brainscanners out.