[Discuss] Future-proofing a house for networking -- what to run?

[derek at ihtfp.com (Derek Atkins)]

Rich,

On Tue, September 12, 2017 11:42 am, Richard Pieri wrote:
> On 9/12/2017 10:52 AM, Derek Atkins wrote:
>> I am sorry, but I completely disagree.  Even with modern Wifi, I can get
>> much better throughput using physical wires if for no other reason than
>> each link can be switched and therefore isn't "shared".  With Wifi,
>> every device is sharing the medium.  I.e., I can get 20-30Gbps aggregate
>> across my 1Gbps physical network, versus maybe 1.2Gbps across my 1200AC
>> Wifi.  And let's not even start with interference from my neighbors!
>
> All true, but you're not making an argument about future-proofing.
> You're boasting about how fast your network is.

No, I'm pointing out that wires are better than Wifi by showing actual
capabilities.  If you had a wired network then you'd have that capability
too.  It's just a fact that wired networks are more capable than wireless.

> Wires aren't forever. They fail. They're supplanted by new standards.
> They're not even available on the most common devices today. Running
> wires is not future-proofing. It's future-obsolescence.

Wired ethernet over twisted pair has not significantly changed in 25
years.  The capabilities of the technology has changed (10, 100, 1G) but
the underlying physical wires haven't (generally).  Sure, there's the
update from Cat3 to Cat5 to Cat5e to Cat6, but Cat5e is still a
20-year-old tech.  Had you installed Cat5e 20 years ago you'd still be in
fine shape today.

My new thinkpad, just acquired a couple months ago, still has an RJ45
jack.  Sure, the two Macs in the house don't come with that, although we
have the lightning adapter for my wife.  All our "smart" TVs have RJ45. 
Desktop and Server hardware has RJ45.

Will they still have RJ45 in another 10-20 years?  I certainly don't see
it going away from many of the devices, although it's possible that fewer
laptops will come with ethernet.

But with Cat6 throughout I can always add additional APs wherever I might
need them.  :)

> Rich P.

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant