Consumer Reports - Home-network A network allows a single broadband account to be shared throughout the house. Unfortunately, this networking is not possible with dial-up Internet service - one of several reasons you might consider broadband.
What is available
Home networking is driven by improving the range, speed and cost of wireless networks. If you have a laptop that has wireless capabilities, a wireless network now allows you to surf the web at broadband speeds from most places in your house, yard, or apartment. The major brands of wireless routers include D-Link, Netgear, Linksys. Wired networking is far from being obsolete, however, because it still provides the most secure connections and reliable. Indeed, for many households, the best solution for sharing a broadband connection - or a printer, music files or digital photos - among several computers could be a network that includes both wired and wireless.
Ethernet, or wired. Wired networks are very secure in themselves, without special security measures necessary. They are reliable and generally free from interference. They offer fast data transfer - up to 94 megabits per second for the common type 10/100, enough for almost any application data.
IMPORTANT DETAILS
A disadvantage is that you can not easily move your computer at home. Routing cables through the house can be a problem or expensive. Price: $ 50 to $ 100 for a router and a cable to connect two computers rather new. In addition, there may be additional costs for routing cables in the house. Wi-Fi, 802.11g (wireless). There are no cables to connect or failed with a wireless network, and there are minimal installation costs. Mobility is the key - the supply of wireless network signals virtually anywhere in the house. You'll need to take additional measures in terms of security, without which your data is vulnerable to hackers. Thick walls can reduce the signal strength, which may vary in different areas of the house or even in a room. The Wi-Fi networks could interfere with cordless phones, baby monitors, and other wireless devices. These networks are only 25 per cent faster than Ethernet, but they are always very well for typical networking, such as Web surfing and e-mail. Price: $ 200 or less for a router and client cards to allow two computers to use the wireless network
HOW TO CHOOSE
Plan your network. You'll probably want to find the router near the source of your broadband service - usually a cable modem or DSL. The router and the modem is connected via Ethernet cable. But the links between the router and network computers can be either wired or wireless.
Choose a wireless router. This is the official term for models that support Ethernet and Wi-Fi Even if you do not need wireless capability now, its acquisition cost much more (maybe $ 10 or N) compared to a wireframe, and could spare you have to replace the router if you want to add a wireless device in the future.
Stick to the 802.11g wireless standard. Wi-Fi is evolving with new standards to increase the scope and speed of diffusion, thereby increasing network capacity to handle new types of information. The name of the standard is generally listed on the packaging of the router, as a suffix letter the technical term for Wi-Fi, which is 802.11. Currently, the most common standard is known as 802.11g. We believe this is the best choice for most people.
802.11g networks we tested all had enough speed to wide coverage throughout most homes. Data, we measured speeds below the speed of standard 802.11g. But all the routers have been much faster than the speed of a typical broadband Internet connection. Posted on February 14, 2010.
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