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Well, interference is another thing, too, I guess. It can't be a good thing if the cables are running right next to a wall through which the main power line to your apartment complex goes
Hehe... I was just saying that power lines cause interference... It doesn't really matter that much cuz it's twisted pair, so it has a bit of shielding. As long as you don't run it right next to a power line the whole way, on purpose, it shouldn't make a difference. There are many different things you can measure in a UTP wire. You can get your fill, and more, at http://www.anixter.com/techlib/d0500p01.htm There are probably many other places you can find info, as well.
Power lines are no problem - but it important to avoid sources of electromagnetic interference. One biggie is flourescent light fixtures. When you run RJ45 through a suspended ceiling you have to skirt around flourescentlight fixtures.
Ditto for anything with a large power transformer.
100 Mbit cards are 100 Mbit cards - there's really no difference as far as network performance. Same with cables as long as the cables are made properly - you MUST use proper pairs when you wire a cable (you can't make up your own color code as some people do - you'll dramatically degrade performance).
Computer performance is certainly an issue - if it's a slow computer it'll send/take the data slower. I can always tell when I'm copying files to my laptop - it's the slowest system on my network (P-233).
The big performance hit is the hub or switch. Bottom line a switch is more efficient. Hubs will give you packet collisions which wastes time (computer has to resend data). That doesn't happen with a switch.
Since switches are so cheap now (Linksys makes some cheap ones that work great in the $80 range) there's little excuse to buy a hub.
The main problem with speed is binding the cables, try not to bend them to tight. A good rule of thumb is a 2" turn or bend. Also on your router/switch space out the connections.
Actually, from your list, I would say that it's quite correct until you get up to 1gb NICs, because then the slowest part will be your hub, followed by the PCI bus (which can only handle 800 megabit/132Megabytes per sec.). I'm not 100% on those figures, but I do know that the pci bus can't do full bandwidth on 1gb NICs.
Now, I do believe that cables are another issue, because AFAIK you can't run 1gb NICs over regular RJ45 cabling. Anyone who KNOWS either way about this?
As for a hub vs switch, definitely go for a switch, they're much better. If you can't afford it, it's understandable, but they certainly are worth it if you can get them.
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Chris Shepherd
Quote:
The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
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Tech Discussion 
Overall Performance of a LAN 
There are probably many other places you can find info, as well. 
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