Wi-Fi, why it may not be the best solution (Part 1)

Data connection – Wi-Fi and data cabling

In recent years Wi-Fi technology with-in the home has been getting better, implementation for home theatre systems and TVs are getting much better by opening up many more opportunities with-in the home network to access the internet. But improvements happen that quickly that it feel like as soon as we buy a piece of technology, it’s already out of date as soon as it’s plugged in, unfortunately to get an easy and quick connection to the internet, this is a necessary evil. With more and more devises around the home that can be connected to the internet, Wi-Fi can very easily get congested and bring everything to a stop, even if only a few people as using it.

 

Problems with Congested Wireless Network

As mentioned, congestion is easily created, two or three people streaming video on different TVs or computers or even playing games over the internet can slow other computers uses down or even stop them from accessing anything on the home network or assessing the internet entirely. The problem doesn’t sit with the Wi-Fi but more with its limitations and the amount of devise connected, what they are downloading at that time. We could for example have 100 computers connected to a wireless network and if all those computers were only browsing the internet, everything would be ok. But then get two or three of those computer downloading video off the internet, or a smart TV accessing a hard drive with video streaming HD content, then there goes all the Wi-Fi space for the other computers, Another reason to reduce the use of Wi-Fi is if your controlling your home theatre amplifier off your smart phone or tablet, the signal needs to bounce from your device to the Wi-Fi and then to the amplifier, even though it is easy to setup wireless, the time it takes for the signal to travel is a lot longer and less reliable than through cable as Wi-Fi can be interfered with and produce errors in the signal along the way, if errors are produced, the device needs to send the signal again to get through, this applies for anything that is wireless. A wireless device and a hardwired amplifier will respond much quicker and work more reliably than if both devices are wireless. An analogy we can use is if everybody is trying to walk through a doorway at one time, the doorway gets blocked.

NEXT – WI-FI (PART 2)

Written by Simon Spasinski, Jan 2015