http://live.pirillo.com/ – What’s the one thing Linksys, D-Link, and Netgear all have in commin? They all offer networking equipment, both wired and wireless. A user in the chat room wants to know what’s better: wired or wireless networks.

The answer: It really depends on what you’re going to be doing on your network.

For the average user, the only thing you really need to worry about is what systems are going to be on your network: will they be laptops, desktops, or a combination of the two?

If you use mostly laptops, then you would be better off with a totally wireless networking solution. With a wireless network you won’t be tethered by an Ethernet cable, and you’ll be able to use the Internet virtually anywhere in your home.

If you use mostly desktops, then you might want to consider having a wired network. A wired network offers a bit more security, since your packets will be restricted to the Ethernet cable, and you won’t have to worry about acquiring a good signal from your wireless router. Plus, Ethernet is fast (up to one gigabit per second) and getting faster (the latest standards drafts suggest speeds as high as 100 gigabits per second).

If you use both laptops and desktops, or if you want to introduce a wired network into a wireless one, you could always go with a hybrid network.

There are some security issues with using a wireless network, such as the potential for packet sniffing, so you’ll need to take the appropriate security measures to secure your wireless network, but if it’s properly secured you should not run into any problems.

What do you think is better: wired or wireless?

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