I have a mixed system, in general I prefer using a wired connection. It is faster and more realible than the wireless side, especially when moving large files. I also have alot of things networked. All my satelite boxes are networked and cat 5 is cheaper than wireless adapters.

Security is also a little more demanding in a wireless environment. In the future as more things become networked (thermostats, appliances, etc) I can't imagine they will have built in wireless capability.

Speed and security. Wired networks are just faster and more secure. In new construction CAT5 is pretty cheap to run.

What's said above.

I would say if you have the opportunity (i.e., walls open) to run cat 5 you should do it. Easier to configure (truly plug and play), much more secure, and no need to ensure that your devices have wireless capabilities. Plus better performance.

Oh, and if you do it, use cat 5e or cat 6 cable, which will give you better performance, at least down the road as standards increase/improve. (yes, I know there's an argument, but the wire is the cheapest part of wiring for cat5--most of it is labor).

I just converted a wired router with additional switch to wireless. I can't believe how much faster and reliable it is than the wired. Now there is one caveat. I went from a Linksys wired to an Apple Airport Extreme wireless (4 Macs and a printer in the house), and that's like going from a car with a manual tranny and no owner's manual to a Lexus with everything automatically done for you and no need for an owner's manual.
In terms of security I can and did place security on it that is equivalent to SSL.
Everything in the future will be wireless except the actual power, and that will change too.

I have a high speed 802.11g/h I think and is rated at 54mbytes inside my house so I use my legacy Ethernet only for machines that don't yet have a wireless card/function. My two notebooks that normally sit in one place use the wireless connection, and if I pick one up to join my wife in the living room, but want to keep on "blogging", I just carry the notebook along and sit anywhere I like, not anchor (Cat5 connection) to limit my mobility.

My router uses secure log on, to prevent roamers from logging on, but my signals are in the air...some security concern as I do not encrypt.

As for speed, I have a gigabit wired network. It is *way* faster than even the n-speed apple airport express attached to it, running only n-5ghz and no b/g devices. If your wired is slower than wireless it's because you are using old wired devices, so the better comparison would be a lexus to a 1981 toyota celica.

I don't need higher speed, if it were free, why not, but it is not. I don't need to transmit the detailed history of the universe or similar sized files, so 10 Mbps or higher is good for my needs. I'd have to check on another computer to see what my Ethernet runs at, my guess is 10 Mbps, but it may be 100 Mbps.

Unlikely you're getting more than 10Mbps from your service provider.

That said, if you ever start transmitting video over your system, even within the home, 10Mbps will seem insufficient. For example, if you have Tivo and like to transfer from one box to the other, speed makes the difference between making that feature useable or not.

It's a dilema easily solved. Put in lot's of conduit and only pull the wires you will need on day 1. It makes no sense to pull wire everywhere only to not use it. It is also risky right now to count on wireless to handle every communication need. When the walls are open, it is very easy & cheap to run wire - but even cheaper to put in tubes that run from rooms to a basement or attic. As you need wire - you pull what you need. If you don't need the wire, the tubes are not used. Home Depot and Lowe's carry conduit in bulk with boxes and other supplies.

Here is an example I ran into where wires work best. All phones on move in day are wireless, security system is hardwired into the phone system. Midnight during a huge thunder & ligtening storm which knocks out power (and the phone handsets - but not the phone service). Bolt of lightening scares a bird who flies at Mach speed into my garage window, tripping a glass break sensor, and setting off the house alarm. Alarm company calls house - get's no answer because the wonderful wireless phones are out. They dispatch the police. The alarm company then calls my cell phone - yes ! wireless works. But the phone is 100 feet away, so I miss the call. When I get to the phone I see it is the alarm company and realize that they think there is an intrusion so I call them back and have them call off the police. So now we keep one old phone (a wired one) plugged in at all times.

A long time ago I started using a small UPS on my cordless phone base unit. Nice to continue with phone service when the power goes out. Staples/Office Max/etc. sell small ones for about $40. Problem I see with prewire is that you'll rearrange your furniture occasionally and now the prewire's in the wrong place...crazy to wire every wall in every room. Wireless for me! Computers, printers, phones, etc....

>It's a dilema easily solved. Put in lot's of conduit....

+1!

That's exactly what I did--smurf tubing from a media distribution box to all of the main rooms. If the need should ever arise, I can pull fiber-optic cable to anywhere in the house as easily as Cat-5e/6 or coax.

Bigbird:

>Everything in the future will be wireless

Everything? No offense, but this sounds wildly optimistic, if not short-sighted. Don't get me wrong, I hate the tangle of wires. I've often said that everything should be wireless. But historically, data transmission requirements have increased even faster than Moore's law, and wired has always been at least an order of magnitude faster than wireless. There's no reason to expect these trends not to continue. The physics of radiated energy are vastly more controllable through a conductive corridor versus OTA transmission, plus you have the full bandwidth of the wire at your disposal versus limited wireless spectrum.

And fiber blows them both out of the water.

At some point in the not-too-distant future, I envision a whole-house high-speed digital communications backbone, supporing multiple simultaneous streams of everything from HD-TV, multi-channel audio, phone, internet, fire/flood/security, home automation, photo/video/file storage and sharing, you name it. Naturally there will be wireless interfaces to this backbone available for low-demand devices that would be too impractical or expensive to run cable for.

IMHO, a fully wireless system would struggle mightily to provide this without serious latency and throughput issues.

My $.02

Even if one assumed a future of all wireless A/V & data/voice products, I think interference and link closure issues will continue to be an issue especially as the bandwidth continues to increase. And of course the solution to that would be to create a network of repeater stations around the house that were connected by - yes - wire. So putting in conduit now will hedge your bets for whatever comes.

I like the concept of a totally integrated wireless system that can handle everything in a home but we are a long way from that. And of course even if that were available right now - we all probably have our favorite old equipment that works great and would not think of getting rid of it until it breaks (which might be never).

The most cost effective thing you can do when building a new home or doing a big remodel is to plan out the house assuming it would be a wired network and put in conduits for all A/V and data comm drops, and do run high quality speaker wire for whole house audio. The cost for conduit is so low that it's not even worth arguing - just put it in. Then you are covered for as long as you live in your home. The last thing you want is to be cutting into drywall and patching to pull cable. It costs a lot, makes a huge mess, and will never look as good as the original work.

As an internet tech support agent and one who does a lot of network type stuff at home, prewiring is a great resale asset, I plan to retrowire my house in an open sort of fashion so the wiring can be used for voice and data. Conduit's an interesting idea but is it really that easy to push wire through it or use a fish tape? How is the conduit usually terminated? Into a jbox and cover plate?

True, fibre optic or whatever is out there but cat 5e is cheap... gigabit is fast, if you have a need for it, and if you run wire from all your rooms to a central patching area you will be set up for internet now, and to connect gadgets down the track that haven't even been invented yet.

I am sure building codes are already specifying enhanced data wiring so you may as well be ahead of the game, and take for example cable tv wiring - look what a nasty job most cable installers do, if you can prewire you'll end up with something much nicer.

Conduit is normally terminated in a special type of junction box that has punch out rings that can accomodate a variety of tube diameters. At the end of the conduit tube, you use a snap on connector that grabs on to the ribs of the tube and the other end will snap into the box. I used plastic clamps every 2 to 3 feet to secure the conduit against wall studs so that no kinking is possible. In the basement I left about 2.5 feet of tubing sticking out from the joist cavity and trimmed back later. You need to make sure that there is enough excess tubing so the insulation company won't foam over the tube end (if they use that spray foam produt).

Conduit is very easy to pull cable through. For short lengths you can sometimes just shove the wires up the tube and into the box. For longer runs you need fish tape or a wire snake. Very simple.

I found that the Carlson orange conduit was hard to find at big box stores and was for some reason more expensive than the blue stuff also made by Carlson. I used blue conduit and blue ENT boxes - both sold at Home Depot and Lowe's. The only issue I found was that they tended to not carry large quantities - so I cleaned out about 3 stores in my local area. If you are planning to do this on a new home, buy your supplies early on and get more than you need. Return unused stuff. You don't want to run out of supplies when you are on the job site.

The blue conduit was designed for high voltage work but is routinely used for low voltage (often called smurf tube). The Orange stuff is lighter weight and easier to bend and was designed for low voltage. I agree its probably best to buy online unless your in a big metro area.

One of the things I like about conduit is it much easier when replacing wire in the attic. You don't have to trample/disturb the insulation and seal penetrations.

I agree you also can't predict your future wiring needs. If you told me 4 yrs ago I'd have 3 RG6 cables (2 for sat DVR and 1 for antenna), and 2 CAT5e (phone for caller id and internet access for VOD) to 5 TV locations I'd say your crazy. I've even added more cabling to certian locations (to connect FM antenna).

I found the blue stuff at big box was still cheaper than on-line orange conduit - both made by Carlson. I think buying local is better since you can overbuy and return. And if you need a few extra's - you can get them quickly.

The blue stuff is a thicker walled tube - that is why I could not understand why the orange was more expensive. I used 1 inch tubes and in some boxes, i ran 2 tubes into a double gang box to increase wire capacity.

be careful if you use the larger tubing since you will need to drill a big hole through the stud plate(s) and sub flooring. A 1 inch tube requires a 1 1/4 inch hole - and that is a big hole to drill. Since I had no power on site when I did this, I bought 6 batteries for my 3/8 inch cordless drill and would use them all up in a days worth of drilling and pulling conduit. If you go bigger - you will need a 1/2 drill and a hole saw. Think through the entire process before you decide on what conduit products to use.