Firewire vs 100TX

[Rav]

Seeing how Firewire is 400mbps and a standard network is 100mbps, I thought I would ask. Came to mind because I was thinking of centralizing my data on a server, and I will be doing some video capture and editing (on different machines). But the question of performance over my network became a concern. How well would networking with Firewire work? I still plan on using my normal network for internet, and communication to the rest of my network, but for transfering files between my 4 'main' machines, I thought a link like that would be better. Is it possible to use standard windows networking over Firewire? How would I make sure data is transfered over that link and not the network? Is hard drive speed a bottle neck even at 100mbps speed? If anyone has some links or tips on the subject I would appreciate it! Thanks!

-Rav

[tsintse]

Firewire works great for network media on more modern systems that have good support for it. The only drawback I have really found is that few network devices come with the ports and the cables are fairly expensive when compared to Cat5e.

[pik4chu]

I personally have tried filesharing over Cat5/6, Serial, USB1.1, USB 2.0 (not firewire yet) but in every case Cat5/6 was far superior in speeds to anything else (with or without direct cable connections) like, 10 fold. But who knows /maybe/ firewire fixed that.....but I doubt it

[touser]

Firewire would definately be faster as i have tried it between my desktop and laptop and it was very fast. But networking several computers with it would be very expensive if you where going farther then a few feet. Have you considered a Gigabit network? It is faster then firewire but i do not know about the cost.