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Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

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Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#101

Post by MrZander »

paxys wrote: post #49
MrZander wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems very high to me. A family of four each has 5 devices connected at the same time?

Smartphone, laptop, tablet, watch - that's 4 already. And this isn't just counting personal devices. Include TV, streaming stick, game console, printers, bulbs, plugs, speakers, doorbell, security cameras, thermostat and you'll hit that number pretty quick.

There are 16 devices on my WiFi right now and I would've though I was above average. I have a bunch of weird stuff like 3 Raspberry Pis that most households would not have, but I don't have most of the stuff you listed.

I guess I am less "connected" than the average American. Can't say I feel like I am missing out, though.

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#102

Post by wtallis »

kjkjadksj wrote: post #22
jeffbee wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to transfer the contents of your old mac to your new mac, your best options in order of speed are 1) thunderbolt, 2) wifi, and 3) ethernet. You do not, in any sense, get "the best speeds" from ethernet. The market penetration of greater-than-1gb wired networks in consumer devices is practically nothing.

Yes thunderbolt is best but look at costs. Apple is selling a 4ft cable for $130. I have a ton of random cat 5e and cat 6 and they go for a couple dollars. Now lets talk about my actual “old mac” and “new mac” Mid 2012 mbp and my m3 pro. The 2012 only can do 802.11n so not gigabit speeds. It does have a gigabit ethernet however. Even if I was going m3 pro to m3 pro, I’m only getting full wifi 6e speeds if I actually…

A 4ft USB 4 cable is $30. That's more bandwidth per dollar than an Ethernet cable. Thunderbolt cables aren't cost prohibitive any more (though the devices at either end are still very expensive).

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#103

Post by BadBadJellyBean »

molszanski wrote: post #94
BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish I could put Ethernet everywhere but I live in a German apartment in a German house and here walls are massive and made out of brick and concrete. Routing cables through this without it being a massive eyesore is pretty hard.

Try Powerline. This €40 device will turn your electrical sockets into an 100-500 mbps Ethernet cable. Simple and efficient. Just check if sockets you want to connect are on the same circuit breaker. If yes, chances are really high it would work very well. I’ve connected a switch and a second access point with mine. Also I think they work best if there fewer of them on the same circuit. But not sure. Check first.

I tried that but the performance was worse than wifi.

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#104

Post by rtpg »

eikenberry wrote: post #35
typpilol wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality is that most people only have a single cord coming into the house So they would have to do quite a bit of work to run cable. Also people living in apartments that cant just start drilling through walls. I'd say most ppl use wifi because they have too, not pure convenience

Ethernet cables can be as long as 100meters, long enough to snake around most any apartment. Add on a few rugs to cover over where they'd be tripping hazards and you're all set.

the one sort of asterisk I'd put there is that ethernet cable damage is a real risk. Lots of stories of people just replacing cables they have used for a while and seeing improvements.

But if you can pull it off (or even better, move your router closest to the most annoying thing and work from there!), excellent

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#105

Post by arcanemachiner »

stacktraceyo wrote: post #95
typpilol wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality is that most people only have a single cord coming into the house So they would have to do quite a bit of work to run cable. Also people living in apartments that cant just start drilling through walls. I'd say most ppl use wifi because they have too, not pure convenience

I wish I could have multiple modems coming into the house using the same provided cable. Why’s that not possible? When I was younger I went and bought a new modem so I could play halo on my Xbox in another room than where my parents had the original modem. Found out then I’d need to pay for each modem.

If you're not sure what a router is, you should probably look that up, because it sounds like you want another router.

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#106

Post by ellisv »

wlesieutre wrote: post #28
typpilol wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality is that most people only have a single cord coming into the house So they would have to do quite a bit of work to run cable. Also people living in apartments that cant just start drilling through walls. I'd say most ppl use wifi because they have too, not pure convenience

MoCA adapters are an option if you’re already wired for coax

MoCA is how I get Ethernet upstairs. Works great.

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#107

Post by MaKey »

BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #103
molszanski wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try Powerline. This €40 device will turn your electrical sockets into an 100-500 mbps Ethernet cable. Simple and efficient. Just check if sockets you want to connect are on the same circuit breaker. If yes, chances are really high it would work very well. I’ve connected a switch and a second access point with mine. Also I think they work best if there fewer of them on the same circuit. But not sure. Check first.

I tried that but the performance was worse than wifi.

G.hn powerline devices are better than the ancient HomePlug AV2 ones. Which devices did you try?

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#108

Post by kiwijamo »

dpark wrote: post #59
jeffbee wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is not any meaningful sense in which 2.5gb ethernet is "standard". There are no TVs with 2.5gb ethernet ports. Or even 1gb ports. Yet they all have WiFi 5 or better.

In practical terms, WiFi 5 is slower than 1gb Ethernet. It is bizarre that they are putting 100mbps Ethernet ports on TVs though.

No video streams out there uses over 100mbits so makes sense.

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#109

Post by jojomodding »

baby_souffle wrote: post #62
marssaxman wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The house I live in was built with ethernet, but of the fourteen outlets the builders saw fit to include, not one is located where we can make use of it. The two devices in our house which use a wired connection are both plugged directly into the switch in our utility closet. (We do have one internet-connected device which permanently lives about an inch away from one of the ethernet sockets, but it is, ironically, a…

> The house I live in was built with ethernet, but of the fourteen outlets the builders saw fit to include, not one is located where we can make use of it. I had a similar situation a few years back. It was a rental so I didn't have access to the attic let alone permission to do my own drops. It'll depend a _lot_ on your exact setup, but we had reasonably good results with some ethernet-over-power adapters.

We have them at home as well and they really suck. They lose connection every 20ish minutes at best, and take about 5 to reconnect. Makes Zoom meetings impossible, among other things.

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#110

Post by vitaflo »

ipython wrote: post #52
PaulHoule wrote: post #2

I did some experimentation with UniFi hubs and came to the conclusion that if you can give each device its own WiFi channel that would be ideal -- contention is that bad and often an uncontended channel with otherwise poor characteristics will beat a contended channel that otherwise looks good. The other bit of advice that is buried in there that no-one wants to hear for residences is the best way to speed up your Wi…

> the best way to speed up your Wi-Fi is to not use it. So true! Other tips I’ve found useful: Separate 2.4ghz network for only IoT devices. They tend to have terrible WiFi chipsets and use older WiFi standards. Slower speed = more airtime used for the same amount of data. This way the “slow” IoT devices don’t interfere with your faster devices which… Faster devices such as laptops and phones belong on 5ghz only netw…

Solid idea and something I should work towards. We have Ethernet drops in every room but you’re right about IoT devices. Now I have some more planning to do.
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