Digital Home Thoughts: Frustrations with Home Networking

"The reality is that setting up a home network to make all that happen is still a more daunting task than most home improvement projects. And it may be even harder getting one to work reliably when every family member is on his or her own computer or smartphone, simultaneously streaming, posting and surfing."

Having used computers for quite some time, I have had the opportunity to see how consumer networks have evolved. I can recall times when wireless networks did not exist and consumers were stuck with 10BASE-T and 10BASE-2 networks. (I only saw Token Ring networks in the most geekiest of homes.) Now we start to find gigabit networks becoming much more common, but wireless definitely dominates. The problem with wireless is security over convenience. Wireless routers first started out defaulting to no security, presumably for ease of use. Now, many come with some trick or another to ensure that your network is your own. Living in an apartment building now, this is not enough. I can pick up about three dozen wireless networks (most of them protected, thankfully) all competing for the same RF spectrum. Needless to say, performance on my wireless network is disappointing. Is there a solution? Wired is one, either through traditional cables, which is what I have done, or through alternatives such as HomePlug Powerline. Powerline is tempting as you do not have to lay cable all over your house. For wireless, the 5Ghz spectrum is still relatively unused so I may be switching my laptops over but that will only work for so long. Does anyone have a foolproof solution that will work, securely, and in densely populated areas?