Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Latest on Community-wide data systems

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Perry_rg <peregryn2356 [at] yahoo.com> is the author of the message below. It
was posted by Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
after deleting much quoted material which in part made it too big to be
posted without review.  Cohousing-L has a maximum message siqe (without
review of 8K bytes. I eliminating bottom quoting while I was at it.

Please delete all unneeded quoted material from your posts.  Thanks.
Fred

-------------------- FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------

Alexander Robin A <alexande.robi [at] uwlax.edu> wrote: 
> I think this is an excellent suggestion. It is critical to plan and 
> build it in during the construction phase.
<snip>

Unfortunately, it seems that now some builders think that with the advent
of wireless networking, it is no longer necessary to put Ethernet network
cabling into new construction.  I happen to personally think this is a
mistake.  Cat5e or Cat6 network cabling would allow network speeds
significantly higher (gigabit Ethernet) than wireless is likely to be
capable of in the near future.  While this sort of speed may not be
necessary for simple browsing of the Internet, it is needed for things
like streaming video files from a home's media server computer to a video
playback device.  Another advantage is that wired Ethernet is
significantly less susceptible to interference and signal loss, especially
compared with wireless.  Wired is also more secure than wireless.
 
It is possible to retrofit network cabling into existing construction, but
it can be very labor intensive to do so.  If a home has a crawl space or a
basement, then first floors can probably be wired without too many
problems.  But second floors are more of a problem.  If there is a cable
path to the attic space, then it might be possible to drop cabling from
the attic down inside the walls to wall jacks on the second floor.  
Still, it is probably best to get someone with experience to help with the
wiring, particularly when it may require drilling through sill plates or
joists.
 
Perry Godwin
Thelema Networks
(& Genesee Gardens Cohousing)