My trusty Linksys WRT54G started dying yesterday. I think I've had it 3-4 years, so it's had a decent run.

I have some temporary wiring in place until I decide what I want to do, but I really think I want some wired Ethernet.

For one thing, my phone wiring is really bad, and I think that's affecting my DSL speed and reliability. Modern CAT5 wiring would solve that problem neatly. And if I ran a dedicated unfiltered line straight to the modem and filtered lines everywhere else, I could get by with just a single line filter, instead of a half dozen. That should improve reliability too.

And while I'm running CAT5, I might as well run two wires, so I'll have convenient network jacks in several places in the house. And if I'm running wire, I might as well run CAT5e and get gigabit capability. That should give me faster and more reliable networking, both locally and online.

The project would take about $100 worth of cable and jacks, I estimate. I already have plenty of jacks, so I'd just have to buy a spool of CAT5e. That, and find the time to run it.

I may keep wireless around for ultimate convenience (a combo DSL modem/router/access point costs about $70, which isn't much more than another WRT54G, and my modem is getting old too), but I like the idea of having my desktop PCs connected via gigabit. It'll make sharing drives more practical, and potentially much more secure if I get fancy with network segmenting and firewalling.

I think I'm going to be asking the network wizard at work a lot of questions... Good thing he sits right next to me.

And now mostly I need a free weekend to do all this.