More and more electronic devices are being built for wireless networking. Does data cabling have a future or is the former industry standard doomed? Should you go wireless?
Wireless networking certainly has its benefits, with great flexibility and reduced physical space, however data cabling still has several advantages.
Traditional data cabling is far more secure. Gaining unauthorized access to a wireless network is far easier. If you are on wireless you have controls like password protection, but it is still quite vulnerable. Another big issue for wireless networks is interference from other radio sources. This is far less likely to happen with well installed cable networks.
Another of physical cabling’s greatest assets is its consistent connection. On the other hand wireless connections are very prone to timing out. If it happens during a data transfer a lot of work can be lost due to even a very brief break in the connection. It can also affect data transfer rates and can lead to unacceptable corruption of files. There are few things worse than waiting hours for a large file to transfer, only to find that you cant open it because your connection dipped out for a moment half way through. These issues will not occur when data cabling has been used.
You can expect higher speeds from a cabled network than a wireless network. More modern cables known as twisted pair data cabling will run to an incredibly fast 10 gig. Fiber optic cabling transmits light instead of regular data information, making it the best option for high speed data transfer and extended ranges.
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