What is really the best wireless or wired network connections?
Both types of connections have their own particular advantages and disadvantages, but if given the choice why would 99.9% of techies prefer a wired connection?
Wireless vs Wired
The advantages of wireless connections over wired include,
- No wires – which means less mess.
- Flexible working – You can connect to your home network from anywhere within range of your wireless router or connection point.
- The advantages of a wired connection over wireless include,
Resiliency – wireless network connections can be a little flaky due to interference from baby monitors, other wireless networks and poor signal strength, this may not mean a complete loss of connection, but could still mean a weak or reduced signal that means a very slow data speed.
Wired network connections are generally faster; the latest wireless connection type 802.11n has a maximum connection speed of 300mbps, but the latest wired type of connection is 1gbps which means its more than 3 times as fast, plus it is cheaper.
In either case you will need hardware which supports these faster speeds, wireless 802.11n technology or gigabit Ethernet for wired types.
Wired network connections have less security risks, there are no data packets travelling through the air, unlike wireless connections/networks which can be seen from outside your house. (ideally wireless networks should be hidden and secured with WPA2 security.
Wireless or Wired Network Connections Conclusion
Using wireless just for Internet browsing, email, chatting is fine as the wireless connection will generally be faster than your internet connection, but if you need to copy files, especially larger files it will be noticeably slower than a wired/Ethernet connection.
If given the choice I would always use a wired connection over a wireless type, a prime example of one reason for this is the webcam we use as a baby monitor, it has both wired and wireless connection types, frequently the wireless connection will drop on it for no reason, perhaps once or twice per evening, but the wired connection has never dropped.
The same goes for media streaming and copying to my Play Station and media player which takes a while under wireless and is noticeably less reliable, change it to wired, and we have not had never had an issue.
Don’t get me wrong wireless is a fantastic piece of technology, it’s great to be able to use the Internet from anywhere in your house, but at the end of the day it’s simply not as fast or durable as a wired/Ethernet type, and if you need the fastest and most durable connection possible there is no alternative.