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Comment on Ethernet: The Basics

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I wish I had seen this earlier. In the days of WiFi, do we use Ethernet?

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I use Ethernet everywhere I can and only use wifi if I need to. When you have dozens of devices on a network, reducing the WiFi congestion as much as possible helps all devices. I also use it as a backhaul between mesh wifi access points, so even in an all wifi setup, there is still a good use for direct wiring.

Yes.

I work from home so I'm connected 8-10hrs a day. Ethernet has always been more reliable and faster. It's one less complication and in urban areas a significant one.

I have lots of devices on WiFi but my main computers (work and gaming :) are wired

If you have the cabling to dedicated locations where computing happens. Be that desk or desktop or tv or such it makes lot of sense. Bandwidth is superior, reliability is superior. And it leaves the air to all other devices. Which in certain locations can be quite a lot.

Both of them together is often best of the both worlds. Connect desktops, NAS and other such devices you do not move with ethernet and then use WiFi for devices being moved around.

Unless your WiFi is a mesh, then it's a bridge to Ethernet, so almost always, yes.

Yes, of course. The reason is simple - latency. WiFi simply can't compete.

The other reason is bandwidth. WiFi can't compete here either: if you have an office full of computers, running separate CAT5e/CAT6 cables to each computer will result in FAR higher bandwidth than if those computers are all sharing the same WiFi.

Connecting to your home router is a lot easier with Ethernet, although you can use WiFi.

I only want mobile items on WiFi. Anything that stays in one place I have wired up. Running my own Cat6 cables throughout my house, very easy to make your own cables. Also means my mesh router has a wired connection to the first router.

Wi-Fi is Ethernet, just with a different physical layer (Layer 1). Layer 2 is slightly different but still contains all of the Ethernet hallmarks (such as MAC addresses, ARP, etc).

Fiber is also almost always Ethernet these days, as well.

Attending OFC years ago, the most important conference on optical communications, I heard a sentence that I often repeat:

"Wireless means less than a wire".

Definitely, whenever I can, I choose Ethernet instead of Wifi.

My thoughts exactly. I could have used this article when I was researching to wire my whole house for CAT5 25 years ago. I moved house last month and put in a mesh network. It felt far too easy!

To quote my father :

Get as much shit off the WiFi as you can
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