Wireless vs. Wired

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Howard on June 19, 2008 at 1:51pm

I believe that a wired network is better for an office where people work from their desk all day long, and then add wireless to the common areas. If your company has group areas or think tanks and employees seem to be more mobile in the office then wireless may be better. I think this is a question that has a different answer depending on the company and the work environment. I have attached a report that Intel did for one of their locations, it may help you out.

Attachments:

• wireless-lan-as-the-primary-network.pdf, 358 KB

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Permalink Reply by Jay A. Moore on June 20, 2008 at 9:50am

You might also think about Voice-over-IP issues. If you are sticking with a traditional phone system then it doesn't matter which way you go with your network. If you upgrade your phone system any time soon then you will definitely want wired to integrate VoIP features with your computer network. Without CAT5 in place for VoIP you would have to install wireless bridges at each desk to connect a phone or run a softphone on your PC which typically eats up a lot of RAM and bandwidth. Wired will also give you more speed so if you are moving very large files all day long you can be more productive.

Most places that sell these types of products and services (big box stores not included) would be happy to work with you to design a solution. As Mr. Howard indicated, there are a lot of solutions available depending on your exact needs.

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Permalink Reply by Lorraine Ball on June 22, 2008 at 1:54pm

No data, just experience. We have both in the office, and found the wireless unreliable for ongoing business activites.

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Permalink Reply by Jay A. Moore on June 22, 2008 at 5:33pm

Lorraine,

There are a lot of issues that could explain why your particular wireless service is unreliable. What kind of hardware are you running? Do you have more than one AP or is one enough to provide good coverage? Is there outside interference? The list goes on.

Performance can be effected by interference from wireless networks in other nearby offices and changing the channel on your AP, or APs if you have more than one, could improve reliability. Placement of your AP could also be an issue if there is a lot of steel and concrete in the walls of your building. Quality and features of the equipment are also factors; a $60 SOHO (Linksys, D-Link, Netgear) wireless access point won't be as reliable as a wired network but, a $2,000+ Cisco or 3COM "unified" solution should be.

Having worked for a wireless Internet service for five years and spending the past two years selling network solutions (no longer in that field BTW so I'm not trying to sell you something), I know you can get reliability, but it may not be that important when it comes to your budget. Here is a case study from 3COM that addresses a lot of these questions. This solution probably cost in the ball park of $2,500 and for a lot of small business, wireless isn't that important.

Email me if you would like some more tips on trying to get more reliability out of your wireless network.

Attachments:

• 3com_505415-001.pdf, 960 KB

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Permalink Reply by Lorraine Ball on June 22, 2008 at 6:33pm

Jay,
Thanks for taking the time to comment, and share some things to think about; Since my partner is a handy man, running wires through the crawl space was cheap, and easy, so we went that route. The building is small, so we didn't have to have a working wireless.

Someday, when we grow into a larger space, i will drag out these notes, and consider my alternatives.

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