The place I will be renting for a couple of months has both WiFi and ethernet cabling, although were it comes out isn't all that convenient. I have an Apple Airport Express that I carry with me. Am I likely to get faster service using the regular WiFi, the AE for WiFi, or is it likely to make little difference?
Without knowing what's on the other end of the Ethernet cable, or on the other end of the wireless connection for that matter, it's hard to say which will be 'better'. The usual answer is that cabled is more reliable and potentially faster than wireless, but it seems likely that both will be limited by the unspecified speed of the Internet connection. Since you'll be there for a couple of months, you have plenty of time to experiment.
Ethernet is always faster and certainly more "secure." For your basic Internet (email, Googling) wireless is fine. If you want to do any serious video streaming, use the Ethernet. If you want to transfer files between computers locally, fergawdsake use the Ethernet.
The WiFi's are connected to the same head end (for lack of a better term) as the ethernet. I was wondering if having my own WiFi would mean less competition and thus be faster than using the communal WiFi.
There are still too many unknowns to answer that for sure, but it's possible, yes.
"less compitition" - you are probably all using the exact same WiFi freqs -
2.4GHZ so even if you are on different non-overlapping channels - hard to say - and if some are N wideband, or G, or B - it gets interesting -
Run some CAT5 down the hallway or whatever it takes to extend the ethernet to where it's needed. Wi-Fi should only be used when other options are not available. Since you'll only be there for 2 months, temporary wire runs are probably tolerable.
If the building is setup for Wi-Fi to all the rentals, it's likely that you'll see considerable competition and interference from other Wi-Fi users. A site survey with a spectrum analyzer or sniffer should offer some clues. Trying both and running ping for a few minutes should give you a clue from the variations in latency. If you're planning to run VoIP, I would definately go with wired ethernet to avoid jitter caused by lost packets.
However, if you must do wireless, the Airport Express is a good enough access point and/or travel router. The lack of an external antenna makes the range somewhat marginal. If you must compare the house wireless with the do it thyself variety, just cound the number of walls that each signal has to penetrate.
The Airport Express will also do either 2.4 or 5.7Ghz. If your computah can do 5.7GHz 802.11a, then this would be a good way to avoid interference from the other Wi-Fi users. However, if the establishment offers both 2.4 and 5.7Ghz wireless, forget that idea.
If the wired and wireless networks DHCP server return different IP address blocks, the router might be configured to give priority to ethernet packets over wireless via QoS. I've seen this is hotels where the office PC's are on the wired network and the owner wants them to have premium performance. Just a heads up.
First, security...
Wired could be more secure, if you know the network and where it goes and are in control of who connects into it. If it is a shared jack with someone else in control of the Ethernet, no, it is not secure. If you connect to the network be sure to have a firewall (and a good one) enabled on your PCs or buy a hardware unit.
Wireless if secured with WPA2 and a large mixed random character pass phrase, can be secure, but again if you are not in control of the network, forget about real security.
Speed. Test both at the url below.
Nobody cares about security until AFTER they have been hacked and have lost money, time, effort, privacy, etc. I guess I'm no exception. Last week, one my customers had an insider security breach. So, I'm now working on encrypting all the key files (using TrueCrypt).
That's a big if. I've done better hacking wired connections than wireless. Little if no wired traffic is encrypted. If I can connect to the backhaul port, or setup a port for monitoring, I get everything. A few filters, a capture file, and I walk away with the grand prize.
Wireless is not so easy. Encryption is finally becoming popular. Sniffing is amazingly difficult because you usually have to be able to hear both sides of the exchange. If all you want to do is grab logins, passwords, and session cookies, then one side is sufficient. But if you want to capture everything in its original context, both sides are necessary.
The someone else that's in control of the ethernet can capture all your traffic. In a hotel/rental situation, you have to trust the wireless network owner. Otherwise, you have to run all your traffic through a VPN service provider to make sure the wireless network owner doesn't capture your traffic.
"Can be secure" is correct.
Short and dumb pass phrases can be cracked by brute force.
Maybe. Most ISP's provide their own speed test servers. I would use the one that's closest to your internet connection.
Speed testing for fairly slow connections are easy enough. Fast connections, such as DOCSIS 3 cable connections at 15Mbits/sec and faster fiber connections are not so easy. These almost demand that you use the nearest speed test server. If you get unusually low numbers, try a closer server.
Measuring the download speed using the internet also doesn't do anything for benchmarking the local wireless and wired connections. For that, you need to setup a local speed test server and use programs such as IPerf, JPerf, NetStress, etc. Such tests will isolate performance problems to the wired or wireless network, or the various component devices, such as computers, router, switch, wiring, etc.
Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.