I think if you need speed -> wired Lan
If you need portability -> wireless Lan

Now that's very obvious

If prefer wired lan. It uses less energy, is more responsive and more secure than wireless lan.
Wireless lan can be secure too, but then you even have to sacrifice even more speed and responsiveness .

Wired Lan usually has a greater speed and stability although it got some disadvantages too like a wire is required.More over You can use both wired and non together To get the maximum portability. The biggest Dis advantage to Wireless is that it can be hacked very easily and then other people would get free net on your expense. . The biggest thing is Wired and the cost of wire team up together to get the total cost of wireless for the first month. Later onwards Usage of Wored is cheaper then Wireless.

with a wired connection you can get a high speed, depends on your Ethernet card. But if you are using a wireless network your internet speed will be not higher than 3-4 mB/s, depends on your wireless router. I have a Linksys by Cisco WRT52G2 wireless router and never had a speed higher than 3 mB/s. Maybe if I will trying OpenWRT firmware, which is based on linux, you can have a high speed, stability, security and signal. I use my regular pc on wireless, but a pc which running, for example, uTorrent is cabled (wired).

Wired is faster..
Wired LAN Vs. Wireless LAN

I'm running on a 30mb/5mb internet connection right now.

 
On wireless speedtest.Net records me at 10mb, while wired reads up to 28mb.

Latency is much better with wired too, reading 50ms ping on wireless, and 10ms ping on wires.

If you're on a desktop that you don't plan on moving around a whole lot and it's within a reasonable distance..  You can get a 100ft cat5 cable for under $10 on ebay. Most computers new or old will have a place for you to plug your cable in, and should work without any problems or missing drivers etc..

 If you're on a laptop and you like to move around, you probably already have a wireless adapter built in.. If not, you can pick one up on ebay.. Again under $10.
 If you don't like the thought of running cable around your house, and performance is not a concern for you, wireless can be a simple way to build a home network.

 Here's a short list of pros and cons..

Wired

Pros..

Cons..

• Cables can be a hassle.. Cluttery and cumbersome.
• If you've got 4 plugs on your router, you can connect 4 wired computers, that's it.

 

Wireless

 Pros..

• Freedom from cables.
• Unlimited numbers of devices can be connected at once.
  

Cons..

• Requires a small amount of tech know-how to set up and maintain.
• You're broadcasting your internet to your neighbors who can access it if not secured (doesn't always stop them).
• Slower speeds, (slower when you've got walls and distance between you and the router)

 

I think if you have wired for um xbox of someting that's going to need to download/upload lots of information use wired or if your using a laptop/computer thats only downstairs use wireless.

the more information you need use wired.

This post has been edited by tingtom: Dec 13 2009, 04:22 PM

Yeah for online gaming I'll usually plug my laptop the wired LAN and play there to get the desired speeds. When I don't game and am just using the computer to go on websites like trap17, astahost, facebook, ect then I will just use my wireless internet because it would be kind of pointless to plug it in as the speeds wouldnt be too bad.

i believe that wireless lan is much better now in terms of secruity because there is wpa encryption which is newer than wep and secures your connection better and does not have weps weaknesses. that means you can be secure on the internet and you can feel safe that your neighbours arent leaching your internet. although if you forget to secure your internet alot of people will use it and if you have a download limit it could cost you big time.

I don't agree at all. With wireless connection you need that wpa encryption because anybody can listen your PC.
With wired connection it's almost impossible to receive the signal on the wire.
Moreover, if you feel really paranoid, instead of using copper cables, you can use optical fiber cables, where the signal is only made of light and exists only between the switch and the PC.

Well, having a mobile phone with the capability of using wireless Internet, which is really great, sometimes when I walk the dog, I see a lot of wireless connections coming from different sides I guess, lets say usually 1 out of 10 is without any password, because people just buys something, doesn't understand anything and use the default..

Also, I know some defaults for the most popular providers of putting this wireless routers at home, codes like 12345678 or 11111111 and 88888888 usually work as it's the default on some ISP, and the people who are said to change their password usually doesn't change them. What is more funny, that usually wireless Internet comes together with high definition digital TV, and the women only is watching TV and doesn't even use the offered wireless Internet, even though the price is the same with it or without it, so people just take everything what is offered by the provider, sometimes it's cool

I have a wireless connection and if someday some guys will come from those stupid anti piracy something which just waste money and doesn't do any real job, I can tell that I don't know anything, my wireless Internet was hacked, the IP doesn't proof anything? Even though, why could they come..