I'm going Quad - but which one...??!!

[aidanjt]

Ruling out CAT6 cabling what other options are there? My property has a lot of metal studs and solid walls so even with N WiFi I barely manage a 80-100Mbps connection and the rooms aren't that far apart. Hoemplugs have proven to be far more stable.

It's called a chisel. It worked 6000 years ago, they still work today.

[Bugbait]

No, the local area power grid, the signal would be completely mangled by the time it reaches the national grid. Analog meters provide *no* signal filtration what so ever. Even many 'digital' meters don't either. Power grids were only designed to carry one thing, power, and that only needs rudimentary surge filtration via fuses and much improved circuit breakers. Also, HomePlug BPL is specifically designed for 'last mile' transmission of the radio signal for internet use. In fact, I've yet to read a technical document asserting that meter's in any way effect PLC.

I'm open to the idea that Homeplug/Powerline technology is not secure but I'd have to see the evidence the contradicts what has already been written on the Net. Can you supply a reference to one of these technical documents please?

Who said anything about ripping it apart?... If anything, a proper ethernet infrastructure would add value to any property, and should be already present in rental property to save you having to do it.

Believe it or not, not everyone wants an Ethernet infrastructure but in general I would agree that it would add more than subtract value, assuming it was done tastefully. How many rental properties have you seen in the average (low to middle income) bracket that come prewired with CAT5/6? Nice to have? For people who want it, sure. Popular and common? I would say not. Only one of my friends has a prewired flat or property and that’s because he spent £60k+ renovating it. Once you rip down all the walls it’s foolish not to wire it in!

[Bugbait]

It's called a chisel. It worked 6000 years ago, they still work today.

I don't see how that is cheaper than a few Homeplugs or a WiFi set up. Cutting into, then resealing a solid wall is time consuming to say the least. Run it under the floor? Time consuming again. I guess it depends what you use the network for. In my study I use Gigabit switches for everything. The only other place I need regular access is the reception and the Wii and HTPC run fine via a Homeplug. I stream from the NAS in the study to the HTPC regular without drop outs or interruptions. Sure, a CAT5/6 solution would provide superior bandwidth but it wouldn't improve the daily function of the units in any way.

The OP sounds like he's renting to me. Maybe his landlord is more understanding .

EDIT: Keeping this in context as advise for the OP, unless you can provide evidence that Homeplugs are insecure due to their signals extending beyond the meter box then I'll stand by my recommendation. No offense to the OP but he doesn't sound like someone who has money to burn, based purely on the fact that he hasn't changed his PC in 7 years! Sorry, not meaning to be rude or derogatory.

The way I see it, I’m an IT professional and build enthusiast machines for fun. I have multiple PC’s and laptops and yet haven’t felt the need to run CAT5/6 cabling all over my property. Maybe you do, aidanjt but I don’t think it’s suitable for mooreslaw in the context of this thread. We’re all trying to be helpful little lemmings after all aren’t we?

[GSte]

I have homeplugs mate and they are absolutely fine..... never had any issues whatsoever, and this house has the original wiring from when it was built 30-40 years ago. Download speeds are the same on my machine here as they were on the upstairs machine pre-homeplugs, which is right next to the phone socket. As I say no issues at all. Apart from my ISP .

[Vimeous]

Side note:

If you put a single nail in the wall of rented accomodation without permission you are liable to pay for a contractor to remove the nail, fill/replaster the wall and repaint/paper it.

NEVER give you landlord an excuse not to repay your deposit. They WILL sting you for it and occasionally take an arm and leg as downpayment.

That said if you're very careful you can successfully use cable tacks around skirting boards and over doorways (use white cable). In this case CAT5 is much easier to install than CAT6 as it's significantly more flexible!

[mooreslaw]

No offense to the OP but he doesn't sound like someone who has money to burn, based purely on the fact that he hasn't changed his PC in 7 years! Sorry, not meaning to be rude or derogatory.

Haha, no offence taken mate. I've been in education for most of those 7 years so most of my money went on educating...(read: beer and kebabs)

My wireless setup at the mo isn't ideal but gets me by. My main concern was whether or not the 3rd party 3Com software I use to support my USB wireless adapter would work with Vista when I get my new build going, hence the reason I was wondering whether to go for a mobo with wifi built-in or homeplugs...

I'm not gonna risk any legal action from my landlord so cabling up my house is out of the question...!

So for my next question, has anyone had trouble with USB wifi adapters with Vista (32 or 64 as still undecided)??

[GSte]

Go for the homeplugs mate, trust me, I had wifi before these and it was an absolute ballache, never again. Seems fine for laptops, but with desktops it's just a pain in the arse for some unknown reason..... could be this house I suppose, but the walls are none too solid, the rooms are fairly small, and we tried all different routers, network cards, positioning, signal boosters, better aerials and it made no difference... yet the laptops could get a good signal down the bottom of the garden!

[Bugbait]

I agree with GSte and experienced similar issues with WiFi. Almost every neighbour has WiFi (with shoddy WEP encryption no less) so there's interference issues compounded by the solid walls and metal studs (stupid new builds). The Homeplugs have been better in every way.

I haven't tried USB WiFi with Vista but I had a lot of troubles with the Netgear PCI WiFi when I temporarily relocated my desktop to the reception. This was due to the rubbish Netgear drivers for Vista though. Vista's native driver (Broadcom) was actually faultless, although the connection speed fluctuated greatly.

[Vimeous]

Happily using wifi here between my router and bridge.
Have used PCI wifi cards in the past without issue.

Getting your channel right is crucial and if you're using b or g you'll be using ch 1, 6 or 11. As long as the one you use is different to your nearest neighbours everything should be fine.
If you want to use wireless and avoid interference from other networks, microwaves and other 2.4GHz devices, then you could opt for 802.11a.
Many devices support it although your current router may not.
Advantages? 12 non-interfereing channels to choose from and it's still a 54Mbps connection.
Disadvatages? Shorter range because it's at a higher frequency and therefore suffers worse interruption from walls etc.

Have you ever considered a wireless repeater to extend the range and strength of your wireless network?

Homeplugs are great but they still mean cables so for many wifi is still the way to go.

[GSte]

Tried all that stuff here personally and none of it helped.... the signal struggled even going through 2 plasterboard walls to a machine that was about 12 feet from the router..... seemd totally pants to me, but like I say it worked fine with laptops....

[Bugbait]

Maybe laptops have better antennas? Our compact Sony TX750 gets a 4-5 bar signal anywhere inside. The aging HP NW8000 laptop performs similarly.

EDIT: On the flip side, my wife's work laptop (IBM something) struggles with the USB WiFi. It can't use its own native WiFi since it doesn't support WPA2-PSK and I refuse to turn the security down to accommodate.

[mooreslaw]

Amazon.co.uk: Twin Pack 85Mb Homeplug Ethernet Adapter: Electronics & Photo

Reckon I'll probably go with a pair of these as their not too expensive. Always got wireless to fall back on if I'm not happy.

[mooreslaw]

Just bought me a Q6600 for £129 on Scan - Today Only! Bloody bargain!