Wired Options

Wired Network Options

The obvious one is ethernet cable, with three main types in use today: cat5, cat5e, and cat6

Cat5 is the cheapest, and claims to support speeds up to around 100M – meh, speeds can vary depending on the quality

Cat5e is the newer version of Cat5, and most cables usually do manage to handle 100M speeds fairly well.

Cat6 is what I recommend to everyone to actually purchase, and will support gig-e or 1000M speeds, provided that your ethernet devices can do it, as well..

Obviously, if you are doing it on the cheap, then use whatever your devices ship with, if possible. If you do, however, need to purchase longer cabling, Cat6 is well worth the slight expense.

There are two major alternatives to standard ethernet..

MoCa – Media over CAble – basically you put a moca adapter near two COAX outlets in your home, and use your cable tv wiring as an alternative to running more wires through your walls.  They can be found fairly cheap these days, and are great for people for whom running new lines isn’t an option, I’m talking to you, renters..

Drawbacks to MoCA: security can become an issue, if someone near you figures out you have a moca network, they dont need to have a password to access your system.. This can be overcome by simply disconnecting those outlets from your cable system.

Satellite users, sorry, but the MoCA system uses the same frequencies that most satellite systems do, and so are not compatible..

And finally, speed.. 100M is the max for MoCA

“Powerline” – The Netgear Powerline series – instead of using coax, it uses your electrical system. They have several drawbacks, however, if your devices arent on the same breaker, it wont work, but they are cheaper than MoCA adaptors.