building new house - wireless vs cables

Hi,
We're in the midst of planning to build a new house. Was wondering whether people still cable up the house (ie to all the bedrooms etc), or is wireless sufficient. I guess it's just forward planning with the kids, sharing printers etc.

Can anyone provide any suggestions or directions as to where I can research this further?

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

Installing Ethernet cabling in an existing building is quite difficult, hence most people choose to use Wireless or Powerline networking. Both these technologies have a long list of issues including problems with interference, slow speeds, incompatible equipment and even questions about whether Wireless networks cause health problems. Wireless networking is very convenient though and I love being able to use my notebook or iPhone online anywhere in my house and even down the road.

If I had a choice though, I would have a "hybrid network" with my two desktops and home theatre linked via Gigabit Ethernet and portable devices connected over WiFi.

Gigabit ethernet is extremely fast, providing enough bandwidth for LAN gaming, video streaming and file transfers even with multiple clients connected.

Have you heard of Powerline networking? Basically, it lets you run ethernet over you're existing powerlines. So what you do is buy two adapters, plug them into the outlet, and then plug ethernet cords from the adapter into computer/router. Its awesome.

I currently have a wireless router, because wireless is definitely the way of the future, but some of my machines aren't wireless enabled so I use Powerline. Also, I have a server that connects to a media player which connects to my TV, and there is no better way to stream movies than ethernet (wireless isn't there yet), so powerline was my only option. Anyway, heres a link to an adapter that I use.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124096

This way you don't need to run cable throughout your house, you can just use powerline whenever you need it and wireless for everything else.

Powerline networking is an interesting concept, but has a lot of problems.
The latest generation of wireless enabled products and routers work as fast or faster than powerline networking.
Powerline networking is very susceptible to electrical noise which can corrupt data.
There are concerns about security given your broadcasting your network over the wires of a public utility.

Not saying it's not an option, just wanted to set out these points for consideration.

Depends on the size of your house having a wireless network is the better way other wise you'll need a server computer to link all those cables from the printers, computers, internet and plus wi-fi network should be great if you have a wi-fi phone, wi-fi printer etc etc. but then again why not have both wi-fi and cable.

Maybe old threads should die, but I'm also building a new house and thinking of the networking. Ok, so far you say that it's good to have at least some cabling for a secure, glitch-free, high-speed data backbone in the house.

Clipsal have a system called Starserve (link to 82 page explanation manual:
http://www.clipsal.com.au/trade/__data/page/81/W0000571.pdf )

It networks data, phone, free-to-air & cable tv and links the home security alarm to the phone-line. Is this a good system? Does it have competitors? Would there be more cost-effective strategies for cabled or cable/wireless systems?