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 With your computers connected through a
network, you could:
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Share a single printer between
computers
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Use a single Internet connection
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Share files such as images,
spreadsheets and documents
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Play games that allow multiple users
at different computers
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Send the output of a device like a DVD
player or Web cam to your other computer(s)
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And much more
With wireless,
you have the added benefit of mobility. Now if your house
consists of all desktops then there isn’t much need of a
wireless network besides the “impress your friends” aspect
of it. There is one other benefit that I fell must be noted.
It is wireless! No mess of extra cables and no drilling
holes in your ceiling only to have to have it replaced
because you screwed up. It’s a touchy subject for me.
Let’s compare
speeds shall we. Ethernet comes in 3 common speeds: 10Mb,
100 Mb and 1000 Mb (a gigabit). 10Mbit is kind of slow for
today’s standards, perhaps if you were using an old
corporate network this is where you may find this but being
the prices as they are today you can get a 100Mb card for
the same price as a 10Mb.
In fact,
nowadays most cards are 10/100Mb auto-sensing which simply
means the card will run at either speed depending on what
the rest of the network is running at, so if you want to run
a 100Mb network all your devices must be capable of 100Mb.
For most common purposes this will be fine although if you
have the money you could go up to a Gigabit, but I really
meant to say you need to have the money… we will just stick
with the 10/100 series cards.
In the other
hand we have wireless, here speeds get slower. There are 3
technologies in the works right now: 802.11 a, b,
and g. B runs at 11Mb, A at 52Mb and G at 54Mb. Read
on to learn more about Wireless and Wired connections.
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