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I’m not a big fan of WiFi for stuff in a home or business that’s important and tends to stay in one place. By my standards, if an Ethernet wire can practically go to something, it should, even if the device is capable of connecting via WiFi. There are only a few exceptions, such as couch-laptop use. But Apple TVs, Xboxes, printers, desktop computers, and desk-bound laptops should be wired. This results in a much more reliable, secure, simple, and fast network than WiFi no matter how many antennae you attach or how far the letter after “802.11” progresses in the alphabet.

WiFi performs very poorly in our new apartment, barely sustaining file transfers without stalling, and only managing about 2-10 Mbps even in the best conditions. The Apple TV can’t stream HD shows in real time, and the 360’s instant-Netflix will be nearly useless.

But we have a bit of a layout problem for wired Ethernet. For the first time ever, our TV-area devices are very far away from our computers — too far, and across too many doorways, windows, and fancy walls, to reasonably run a wire.

But I’m going to do it anyway.

See this wire? That’s a coaxial cable that connects the same two areas of the apartment. Its insane run spans 18 wall segments, 3 windows, and 3 doors — and the doors and windows are 8 feet high with big antique crown molding that I shouldn’t touch. The wire has been painted to match the walls and meticulously stapled down along the run to be as inconspicuous as possible. The entire run is about 125 feet.

And I’m going to run mine right alongside it.

I ordered a white, 150-foot Cat6 cable from my favorite network-cable vendor, Kalron, and picked up a bunch of those little white clamp-staples from a hardware store. I’m hoping the landlord will be able to help me match the paint color so I can paint the wire to match the walls, just like the coax. (I’m also hoping they don’t hate this idea.)

Screw WiFi. I’m getting my fast, reliable Gigabit network back.