Wired vs Wireless? Fishing Cable? Hub or Switch?

[Punkrulz]

Hey guys,

I am going to be moving out of my current house and into my aunts house. I will be obtaining a server within the next few days that primarily is going to be used as a backup server... well, to be honest it's a computer that I'm turning into a server. Mainly it's going to be running 24 hours, we're going to have directories that only we can access [individual people with individual directories] for the security and storage, and I may even make it as an FTP server and such.

Now that I'm moving into my aunt's house, I'm researching the different ways I can accomodate this. She was suggesting wireless [she doesn't know anything about it, I know very little] because I wouldn't have to fish cable from one side of the house to the other. However all I know is that there is a microwave between the two ends of the cable, and I'm not sure what else would cause interfereance. I'm also a heavy gamer, and that's one thing I'm worried about is wireless not being up to par... what do you guys think? Should I fish the cable for the server and for the games, or is wireless up to speed?

Question #2) Fishing cable: Right now I'm leaning towards getting a company or someone to fish the cable from one side of the house to the other. How can I accomplish this, who can I call that would be able to do it? I don't know the first thing about who to call to take care of something like this.

Question #3) Hubs or Switches: Ok, if I am fishing the cable, the server is going to be located inside of my room along with my computer. The cable modem and router are on the other side of the house. Obviously in order to get access to both my computer and the server, I am going to have to make use out of a hub or a switch. Will either affect the performance of either device? Any great switches or such that you can recommend? I Just need like a tiny 4 port switch / hub or whatever to accomplish what I need...

Thanks!

 

[BuGaLoU]

I would suggest a wired network if you have the time. Fishing the wire is childs play. You can do it one of two ways. You could get a large fishing wieght and connect it to the cat5 and drop it down the wall. This is much easier with a friend to help. Also measure the distance form an perpendicular wall then find the top of that wall in the attic and measure the same distance from it to assure you are in the correct stud slot. Then drop the wire down and cut a hole in the wall for your junction box. Use a flash light to find it.

The other way is to get a electrician's fish tape and cut a hole in the wall and feed to up the wall to the attic. If you don't have one of these, I found a graphite poll for a tent works great too since it can bend and has sections. This method is a little harder if you have a floored in attic. Then just tape the cat5 to the poll/tape and pull it back through.

Wireless is an option, but if it is a house, and its going to be permannent I would go with the wired option. Its also alot of fun if you like manly projects like me.

Look at home depot for low voltage junction boxes for a pre existing wall and some face plates with keystone jacks. Most of the key stones jacks they sell do not require an impact tool and are color coded so the average joe can install them pretty easily.

Get a switch. The price comparison between SOHO switches hubs are so small now its dumb to even get a hub. The performance would only be very slightly better for a home network, but maybe more for you since you are doing a lot of file sharing.