Home network - best setup

dereko

Just moved into a new apartment. I'm looking to network up the apartment. The problem I have is that its not wired for network cables.

I have NTL coming in at the hallway with a wireless router connected. So laptop around the apartment works fine.

But.. I want to hook up my PC in the office/spare room and a Multimedia drive for the TV so I can share files etc between them all.

I know I could buy a wireless network card or USB stick for the PC to connect over wireless but won't I lose a lot of the speed that way?

Anyone anyone any ideas on how best to set all this up? Any general recommendations or things to watch out for? any devices you recommend or articles that help with creating the ultimate home network for movies, music and games etc. Renting so can't do anything drastic and don't want cables all over the place.

snappieT

Nothing is going to beat a wired network. Of course, wiring that up isn't an option when renting.

Your best bet is to stick with wireless, but make sure all of your equipment is 802.11n. The new(ish) "n" standard is much faster than traditional ("g") wifi, and shouldn't have any trouble streaming video. Every other use is pretty low-bandwidth anyway, so they'll work too, and a wifi network shouldn't add any more than 2ms to your latency, so your online gaming won't suffer either.

ethernet

Ethernet over powerline? Better speeds than wifi but no unsightly cables all over the shop. Think Netgear's range is Homeplug. Have a look at Devolo as well.

snappieT

ethernet wrote: »

Ethernet over powerline? Better speeds than wifi but no unsightly cables all over the shop. Think Netgear's range is Homeplug. Have a look at Devolo as well.

I think the speeds on those top off at 802.11g speeds, which is why they never really took off.

dereko

cheers guys, will make sure i use the right wireless devices.