>The main reason that I use UTP over coax in my home network is
>accessibility. By that I mean, most people who have Ethernet cards in their
>computer have a UTP port, but not everyone has coax. I know this would be
>no issue if you were buying all of the machines yourself. Let me give you
>an example of a scenario were the comes into play. One of the main uses for
>my network is multiplayer games. I like to invite my friends to come over
>to play ( LAN parties ) things like Quake2 and starcraft. Many of the
>computers that they bring ( and my machine also ) have 10/100meg cards. I
>have yet to see a 10/100 card with a coax port. I would recommend using
>coax if I knew I was only going to ever want to use my own machines. If you
>have even a small felling that you would want to host a lan party I would
>use UTP.....
When I buy cards, I get combo cards. My home network is coax,
but I'll pick up a hub sometime. Locally, I have 2 machines
connected almost always, and sometimes 3 - of my own. Also,
quite often, some people bring a box over for multiplayer games,
or to surf the web in tandem and do research - so I often have at
least 1 to 2 machines here that are not mine that are left here
at any given point in time. Most people I know also have combo
cards. Anyone buying a single card, I tell to get a combo card
so that they can connect to any network easily - also because
mine is the one they'll most likely be connected to.
I have enough coax to handle 5 machines here, and if necessary,
I'd get more. Usually if someone is bringing a bunch of machines
over for a "lan party" as you describe (we call it a Quake-fest -
even if we're not playing Quake) someone allready *HAS* a hub,
and they bring it over. I've got tonnes of CAT5 cable, and We
usually end up with an 8 or 16 port brought over so there is no
problem. I've got enough coax for 5 machines, and I've got at
least 5 10base2 cards to go around if we needed to swap.
I'd love to get a hub, and likely will soon, but can't afford it
right now. Coax is cheap, works good for *me*. I've not had any
trouble with the coax yet. If someone CAN afford a hub for their
network, then I say get it, and don't bother with coax. I still
see coax as a very cheap home network solution though.
-- Mike A. Harris - Computer Consultant - Linux advocateLinux software galore: http://freshmeat.net
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