Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Mesh network viable alternative to wired network?

CleffyCleffy Member RarePosts: 6,413
I have a wired network, and a mouse just ate through my line. I was wondering if a mesh network can almost be as good as a wired network? Replacing the wire eaten through would be a pain. 

Comments

  • DrWigglyDrWiggly Member UncommonPosts: 26
    I'm using the google home one. With my comp directly plugged into one of the nodes. Been working great for a while now.
  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383
    Define “almost”

    Wireless depends on a lot more factors than just rodents.

    fixing the wire will almost certainly cost less than buying a nice mesh system - even if you higher an electrician to do it for you
  • CleffyCleffy Member RarePosts: 6,413
    Decided to give Cat8 a go. On Tom's the opinion was unanimous on hardwiring. 
    Ridelynn
  • maskedweaselmaskedweasel Member LegendaryPosts: 12,195
    Hardwire is better, sure, in terms of connection and performance, in most cases, but not all. It depends on your networked devices. If you have older equipment you could run into issues, but generally speaking, performance of wifi 6 is really good for general to high performance gaming usage. 



  • black9iceblack9ice Member UncommonPosts: 154
    Hardwire is better, sure, in terms of connection and performance, in most cases, but not all. It depends on your networked devices. If you have older equipment you could run into issues, but generally speaking, performance of wifi 6 is really good for general to high performance gaming usage. 

    I would never recommend any wireless connection for anything, ever...  "really good"  hahaha
    Asm0deus
  • maskedweaselmaskedweasel Member LegendaryPosts: 12,195
    black9ice said:
    Hardwire is better, sure, in terms of connection and performance, in most cases, but not all. It depends on your networked devices. If you have older equipment you could run into issues, but generally speaking, performance of wifi 6 is really good for general to high performance gaming usage. 

    I would never recommend any wireless connection for anything, ever...  "really good"  hahaha
    I would. I stream games on wifi at times, works great. 



  • VrikaVrika Member LegendaryPosts: 7,973
    edited March 2020
    black9ice said:
    Hardwire is better, sure, in terms of connection and performance, in most cases, but not all. It depends on your networked devices. If you have older equipment you could run into issues, but generally speaking, performance of wifi 6 is really good for general to high performance gaming usage. 

    I would never recommend any wireless connection for anything, ever...  "really good"  hahaha
    Good wireless connections are really good. I'd never recommend wireless when you can just as easily go for wired connection, but the difference between good wireless and a wired connection is small enough that it doesn't really matter.

    Imho the largest difference is that with wireless you need to pay attention to stuff like getting good router, signal strength, etc. if you want good connection, whereas with wired all connections are good.
    maskedweasel
     
  • black9iceblack9ice Member UncommonPosts: 154
    Vrika said:
    black9ice said:
    Hardwire is better, sure, in terms of connection and performance, in most cases, but not all. It depends on your networked devices. If you have older equipment you could run into issues, but generally speaking, performance of wifi 6 is really good for general to high performance gaming usage. 

    I would never recommend any wireless connection for anything, ever...  "really good"  hahaha
    Good wireless connections are really good. I'd never recommend wireless when you can just as easily go for wired connection, but the difference between good wireless and a wired connection is small enough that it doesn't really matter.

    Imho the largest difference is that with wireless you need to pay attention to stuff like getting good router, signal strength, etc. if you want good connection, whereas with wired all connections are good.

    Do not forgot the huge security risk as well.
    maskedweasel
  • maskedweaselmaskedweasel Member LegendaryPosts: 12,195
    black9ice said:
    Vrika said:
    black9ice said:
    Hardwire is better, sure, in terms of connection and performance, in most cases, but not all. It depends on your networked devices. If you have older equipment you could run into issues, but generally speaking, performance of wifi 6 is really good for general to high performance gaming usage. 

    I would never recommend any wireless connection for anything, ever...  "really good"  hahaha
    Good wireless connections are really good. I'd never recommend wireless when you can just as easily go for wired connection, but the difference between good wireless and a wired connection is small enough that it doesn't really matter.

    Imho the largest difference is that with wireless you need to pay attention to stuff like getting good router, signal strength, etc. if you want good connection, whereas with wired all connections are good.

    Do not forgot the huge security risk as well.
    You are way more at risk of your modem wifi being hacked than a wifi 6 wireless mesh system if setup, even with default settings.  

    Plus, many wireless mesh systems have wired connections available as part of a satellite wireless system.  

    Maybe 5 years ago you may have had a point, but wireless has come a long way.



  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,483
    Unless the existence of the wires themselves is a problem, wired is always better than wireless in pretty much every way you can think of.  It's only a question of how much better.

    On security, the risk of wireless isn't that you'll run into a sophisticated attacker who breaks in even if you do everything right.  The risk is that you'll misconfigure something that makes it easy for someone to access your network, especially if you don't know anything about setting up a router and are really only trying to get something that works at all.  With a wired network, an attacker needs physical access to the wires to do some things that could be done from a little more distance on a wireless one.
    maskedweaselNarug
  • Jamar870Jamar870 Member UncommonPosts: 573
    How big of a mesh would it have been? Would it cover 100s or 1000s of square meters?

  • CleffyCleffy Member RarePosts: 6,413
    Just ran some CAT8. I don't think its the best way to go. It has an enormous bandwidth potential compared to anything else, but no hardware supports that enormous bandwidth. The distance is much shorter than CAT7. The wire is also more expensive. It is a bit annoying to work with the braided shielding on the outside, but it does help protect the inner wires when stripping the outer shield.
Sign In or Register to comment.