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If you're networking an existing home or are renting your home, wireless has fabulous benefits:
- Portable: You can take your computing device anywhere in the house and be on the network. Even if you have a huge house, you can interconnect wireless access points to have a whole-home wireless network.
- Flexible: You're not limited to where a jack is on the wall; you can network anywhere.
- Cost effective: You can start wireless networking for a few hundred dollars. Your wiring contractor can't do much with that!
- Clean: You don't have to tear down walls or trip over wires.
What's more, there's really no difference in how you use your networked computer, whether it's connected to the network by a cable or by a wireless networking device. Whether you're sharing files, a printer, your entertainment system, or the Internet over the network, the procedures are the same on a wireless network as on a wired network. In fact, you can mix wired and wireless network equipment on the same network.
It's time for the fine print. The possible drawbacks of wireless networks fall into four categories:
- Data speed: Wireless networking equipment transmits data at slower speeds than wired networking equipment. Wired networks already work at gigabit speeds, but the fastest current wireless networking standards (in theoretical situations) top out at 248 Mbps. (The real-world top speed you can expect will be under 100 Mbps.) But, at least for now, this rate is plenty fast. Your Internet connection probably doesn't exceed 10 Mbps (unless you have fiber-optic lines running into your home), so your wireless connection should be more than fast enough.
- Radio signal range: Wireless signals fade when you move away from the source. Some homes, especially older homes, may be built from materials that tend to block the radio signals used by wireless networking equipment, which causes even faster signal degradation. If your home has plaster walls that contain a wire mesh, the wireless networking equipment's radio signal may not reach all points in your home. Most modern construction, however, uses drywall materials that reduce the radio signal only slightly.
- Radio signal interference: The most common type of wireless networking technology uses a radio frequency that's also used by other home devices, such as microwave ovens and portable telephones. Consequently, some wireless home network users experience network problems (the network slows down or the signal is dropped) caused by radio signal interference.
- Security: Your wireless signal doesn't stop at the outside wall of your home. A neighbor or a total stranger could access your network from an adjoining property or from the street unless you implement some type of security technology to prevent unauthorized access. The security technology that comes standard with the most popular wireless home networking equipment works well; however, it's not bulletproof, and it certainly doesn't work if you don't turn it on.
Wireless networks compare favorably to wired networks for most homeowners who didn't have network wiring installed when their houses were built. Even if you do have network wires in your walls, you probably want wireless just to provide the unfettered access it brings to laptops and handheld computers.
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