Gigabit ... Gigawhy?

For the past year I've been relying on wireless G to power my home network. At first I started with the famously popular Linksys WRTG54 router. The early versions of this router are known for reliability and hackability. Sadly, I didn't get one of the early versions. My love affair with this router lasted for about a day because that's as long as the little guy would run without dropping the network. That's when I moved to the Netgear WPN824 Rangemax wireless router. Not only does the Netgear have a beautiful Apple aesthetic, but it's been fairly reliable at keeping the home network up and running.

Wireless offered me something I hadn't experienced before: freedom. I was no longer tethered to a specific location in a specific room, I was free to roam where I wanted with my laptop. I was free to place my computers and electronics anywhere I wanted. A truly liberating experience. I was in geek bliss ...

Until reality set in.

I've always been leery of using wireless because of security concerns. "But what about WEP encryption," you ask. The methodology behind WEP is fundamentally flawed. WEP's encryption key is essentially transmitted between the two networked computers in the clear. This means that anyone listening in on your wireless traffic can pick up your encryption key and use it to decrypt all of your network traffic. All it takes is a google search for "wireless packet sniffer" and you'll find hundreds of informative links.

"What about MAC address filtering," you ask. Well, much like WEP, your MAC address is transmitted in the clear with all of your network traffic. Once again, a little packet sniffing and someone can fake your MAC address and get onto your network. And don't even bring up the idea of limiting by IP address. It has the same problem as WEP and MAC address filtering.

All of these "security" features are only good enough to keep your neighbor from accidentally connecting to your network. But if your neighbor's 16 year old son is bored and wants to see what you're up to, there's nothing to stop him.

That's where WPA encryption comes into the picture. WPA is completely secure by today's standards. However, to have the most secure network possible, you need to use a completely random 64 character pass-phrase. Do you know how much fun it is to enter a 64 character pass-phrase into the Xbox 360 interface with a gamepad? Good times. Add to that the somewhat flaky nature of wireless networks. Transmission speeds fluctuate dramatically depending on interference from cordless phones, microwaves, and neighbors wireless networks. And let's not forget that at top wireless G speeds, it still isn't as fast as a wired connection.

Which leads me to gigabit ethernet. Why gigabit ethernet? Well, in my case I want to sling media around my house (not literally). As readers of Toyman.tv know, I have an AppleTV hooked up in my living room. Transferring movies to the AppleTV over my wireless G network is painfully slow. I've also been unable to use my network attached storage to house all my media files. Trying to sync iTunes to a NAS device over wireless causes the program to hang. I want a network that can provide for my current and future needs. That's gigabit.

This week I had an electrician start stringing category 6 cable around my house to setup a gigabit network. To say that I'm anxious to get this thing up and running would be an understatement.