Topic: Wired and Wireless Networking
Discuss, compare, and contrast wired media (coaxial cable, twisted pair, fiber optic) with wireless media (802.11 a,b,g,n). Decide which is better and defend your position.
Thread 1
I could start off by saying I don’t like having to pick a specific media… as every media is good and bad in its own way. There are different prices, different hardware & software requirements, and different capabilities for each network media type. What media is chosen would absolutely depend on the budget, infrastructure, capability requirements, etc. The list is actually fairly long and can continue to expand the more you dig into it.
If wired media is being compared to wireless, there are quite a few differences but I will focus on 4 in particular for this post.
- Speeds – Wired media is capable of faster speeds than wireless media.
- Cost – Wireless media in enterprise solutions, can be less expensive than wired media. Again, this is situational. This could be reversed.
- Mobility – Wireless media allows hosts to be mobile and wired media does not.
- Security – Wired media is more secure than wireless media.
From my time working with and creating small LANs in the offices that I’ve worked in, I prefer wired media. Wired media requires more physical work than wireless, but overall its less technical work. If everything is wired, then I don’t have to configure a wireless router and set everything up security wise. With wired media you can get more for less money. With wireless routers you can spend hundreds of dollars on a router for an area and the signal cant penetrate the walls, so the signal is weaker in some spaces. With wired media, I can route everything through the wall and ceilings and get everyone a reliable connection.
Even for my home network, I prefer wired media. Its less likely to be interrupted. Even my Nighthawk gets interrupted every now and then, which momentarily drops my connection.
