MaximumPC 2008 04

And the Winner Is...

WIRED NETWORK

Netgear GS116 16-port Gigabit Switch

$165, http://www.netgear.com

A

lthough wired and wireless networks split the wins in these tests,

the contests in which the wired networkwired networkwired network prevailed carry much prevailed carry much

more weight. In our tests, the wireless network wasn’t capable of

streaming HD video with surround sound to our media room, and that’s

just not acceptable. We wouldn’t want to rely on a wireless network’s

glacial file-transfer speed, either.

Although a wired network is the clear winner here, you’d be nuts to

deploy one as your only LAN solution. Think about it: Your network is

going to need a router in order to share your Internet connection any-

way, so you might as well make it a wireless model.

Building out a wired network takes a lot of elbow grease, but it’s

certainly not a costly proposition if you do the work yourself. And an

802.11n Draft 2.0 router with a gigabit switch is only marginally more

expensive than lesser hardware (the dual-band model reviewed here is

the exception to the rule). You’ll never regret the commitment to having

both types of networks at your disposal.

http://www.maximumpc.com | APR 08 | MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC 15

BROWSING THE WEB

Connecting to the Internet is the one scenario in which

the speed of your local network really doesn’t matter. The typical DSL

connection will provide bandwidth of less than 6Mb/s; cable modem

connections are usually faster, but not enough to outstrip the perfor-

mance of even an 802.11g Wi-Fi router.

Since you won’t gain anything by using a wired connection to

browse the web, you might as well enjoy the freedom a wireless con-

nection has to offer. Just be sure to use the best wireless security that

your equipment supports (we recommend WPA or better).

WINNER: WIRELESS NETWORK

round^4

TRANSFERRING FILES Wireless networks have
evolved to the point where an 802.11n Draft 2.0 net-
work can be faster than hardwired 10/100 Ethernet—at
least on some nodes. The speed on a wireless network
will inevitably deteriorate as the distance and number
of obstacles (walls, appliances, and so on) between the
host and client multiply. As you can see from our bench-
mark chart, these factors have no meaningful impact on
a wired network.
But no wireless technology on the market today
can compete with the bandwidth that’s available on a
hardwired gigabit Ethernet network. Cat5e cable, the
minimum required to build a gigabit network, requires
no more labor to install than Cat5 cable. And the differ-
ence in cost between 10/100Mb routers and switches
and gigabit gear is insignificant.
WINNER: WIRED NETWORK

round 3

GIGABIT

WIRED

Best scores are bolded. See http://tinyurl.com/yo8qa4 for detailed test criteria.

TCP THROUGHPUT: SHORT DISTANCE (Mb/s) 357 127

LARGE FILE TRANSFER: SHORT DISTANCE (SEC) 84 238

SMALL FILE TRANSFER: SHORT DISTANCE (SEC) 30 85

TCP THROUGHPUT: LONG DISTANCE (Mb/s) 362 28

LARGE FILE TRANSFER: LONG DISTANCE (SEC) 82 928

SMALL FILE TRANSFER: LONG DISTANCE (SEC) 28 253

BENCHMARKS

802.11N

WIRELESS