Master socket or wireless?

[watforddude]

Moved out now and Internet is on the way and I have a socket in my room but I've been advised to use the master socket, am I better off going wireless from the master socket down stairs or going wired from my room?

[aidanjt]

Wireless adds latency and reliability issues. As long as you're not adding 30 metres of copper between the master socket and your room, running a cable up is the better bet by far.

[watforddude]

I wouldn't be running it up from downstairs il be running it from the socket in my room, I assume you mean that?

[Flash477]

I wouldn't be running it up from downstairs il be running it from the socket in my room, I assume you mean that?

He does - the one in your room should be coming off the master socket anyway (assuming it is still connected that is).

[watforddude]

I hope so, I'm just worrying about it ruining my speeds :-(

[peterb]

I guess you are worried about any impact by the unknown state of the wiring between the master socket and the extension in your room?

The answer is "it depends". If the wiring is in good condition (and relatively new) I would put the router onto the extension (do you own/rent the whole house, or just a room/flat in the house.

If you can test/replace the wiring (with CAT5.CAT5e) then that would remove any prolems.

I not, try wireless, you may be surprised, but generally I would go for wired over wireless in day.

I run my router off an extension which is wired with normal four core old style telephone cable (not even twisted) without any problems at all, but I am relatively close to the exchange (about 1Km) so line attenuation isn't really a problem for me)

You could plug the router into both and see what the line stats are/throughput is with the two configurations.

[watforddude]

I rent the property so I have the benefit of trying both sockets. When you say replace with CAT5 do you mean through the whole house (expensive?) obviously the best thing would be to just try both and see what I get, I'm more worried about ping for gaming than DL speeds.

[pooley]

If it was me and your concerned about your ping, I'd first use the extension and see if it's acceptable.
If not I'd run CAT5/e from the downstairs master socket to your pc 'not the whole house', this is what I'm doing atm.
I bought 15m of CAT5/e from ebay for a fiver..

[peterb]

I meant use cat5 for the telephone extension as fixed wiring (but I wouldn't buy cheap cable of unknown quality off E bay).

If you are a serious gamer, and reaaly concerned about latency, it seems pointless compromising the whole set up for the sake of saving a few pounds on cable. The same goes for the ADSL filter too. Don't compromise on quality/spec.

[oldboy47]

As PeterB said, a wired connection will be faster and more resilient than a wireless link. You can either run your router directly off the master socket with a cable/CAT5 link to your PC or, connect your router to the secondary telephone socket. This choice may be impacted by the quality of the internal telephone wiring which you could also consider bypassing with CAT5 cable. One advantage of having the router near the PC is the ability to monitor operation albeit that it is only sparkly little lights

[merdat]

Unless your extn wiring looks in poor condition or 'antique' just go with it as changing to cat 5 is not going to make a great deal of difference and certainly not if an inferior quality is purchased from e-bay.

[Blitzen]

Wireless adds latency and reliability issues. As long as you're not adding 30 metres of copper between the master socket and your room, running a cable up is the better bet by far.

Do you think?
Doesn't always appear to be the case judging by the speed in my sig.