Considering buying 2.5 Gbps USB dongles for home PCs - would 1 Gbps router need changing?

[kingmustard]

Our ISP is BT Broadband and we use their BT Smart Hub (sometimes called the Home Hub 6), which was released in 2016.

 

I am considering buying 2x Plugable 2.5G USB-C and USB to Ethernet Adapter for the two PCs in the house, which are both connected via CAT5e cable to the above wireless router.

 

Presumably, the router will limit the speed to 1 Gbps.

 

What options do I have?

 

Is a wireless router replacement the only possibility to get this working?

[Electronics Wizardy]

You can get. 2.5gbe switch if you want faster ln speed. Or just do a direct connection between the 2 pcs. like this guy https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-2-5GBASE-T-Compatible-10-100-1000Mbps-TEG-S350/dp/B08XWK4HNT

 

Are you using one pc as a nas? It won't help for internet speed at all.

[kingmustard]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can get. 2.5gbe switch if you want faster ln speed. Or just do a direct connection between the 2 pcs. like this guy https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-2-5GBASE-T-Compatible-10-100-1000Mbps-TEG-S350/dp/B08XWK4HNT

 

Are you using one pc as a nas? It won't help for internet speed at all.

They're just two standard PCs, connected to the wireless router via. CAT 5e.

 

I want faster network speeds so I can transfer the files between them quicker.

 

Surely, even if I buy that 2.5 Gbps switch, I will still be limited by the weakest link in the chain i.e. the 1 Gbps wireless router? (I'll need to be connected to that in order to get the PCs onto the Internet).

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, kingmustard said:

 

Surely, even if I buy that 2.5 Gbps switch, I will still be limited by the weakest link in the chain i.e. the 1 Gbps wireless router? (I'll need to be connected to that in order to get the PCs onto the Internet).

Nope, the 2.5gbe switch let the 2 pcs copy at 2.5gbe speeds. The data will go the shortest path, and won't ever touch your router with a switch.

[kingmustard]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Nope, the 2.5gbe switch let the 2 pcs copy at 2.5gbe speeds. The data will go the shortest path, and won't ever touch your router with a switch.

Even the cheapest 2.5 Gbps switch is over £100. Factoring in the 2x Plugable 2.5G USB-C and USB to Ethernet Adapter, that's approaching £175.

 

In reality, that's too much money for me to justify 1 Gbps > 2.5 Gbps internal speeds between the two systems.

 

Thank you for helping me explore this, @Electronics Wizardy 

[LienusLateTips]

Just now, kingmustard said:

Even the cheapest 2.5 Gbps switch is over £100. Factoring in the 2x Plugable 2.5G USB-C and USB to Ethernet Adapter, that's approaching £175.

 

In reality, that's too much money for me to justify 1 Gbps > 2.5 Gbps speeds.

 

Thank you for helping me explore this, @Electronics Wizardy 

If you have wiring space for it, you can run a cable from the Gigabit ports on your computer to the router, and just run a direct ethernet connection between the two computers?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, kingmustard said:

Even the cheapest 2.5 Gbps switch is over £100. Factoring in the 2x Plugable 2.5G USB-C and USB to Ethernet Adapter, that's approaching £175.

 

In reality, that's too much money for me to justify 1 Gbps > 2.5 Gbps internal speeds between the two systems.

 

Thank you for helping me explore this, @Electronics Wizardy 

You can also just plug the 2 pcs with the 2.5gb switch together, no switch needed.

[airborne spoon]

why stop at 2.5g and adapters and crap, just do the full 10g fiber upgrade. That's what I just finished doing and it was only about $350 for a24 port switch, 2x 10g NIC's, 4x 10g transceivers, and fiber cable.

 

once you plug your router into the switch, file transfers from home computer 1 to home computer 2 just go straight through the switch and never hit the router so the router being 1g doesn't matter.

[Alex Atkin UK]

26 minutes ago, airborne spoon said:

why stop at 2.5g and adapters and crap, just do the full 10g fiber upgrade. That's what I just finished doing and it was only about $350 for a24 port switch, 2x 10g NIC's, 4x 10g transceivers, and fiber cable.

 

once you plug your router into the switch, file transfers from home computer 1 to home computer 2 just go straight through the switch and never hit the router so the router being 1g doesn't matter.

You're literally suggesting they spend 3-4 times as much as a couple of 2.5Gbit USB adapters.  Plus if you got a switch that cheap, its probably old with no warranty, loud and power hungry!

[airborne spoon]

26 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

You're literally suggesting they spend 3-4 times as much as a couple of 2.5Gbit USB adapters.  Plus if you got a switch that cheap, its probably old with no warranty, loud and power hungry!

brand new switch off amazon it draws a whopping 15w, oh no its gonna send my power bill through the roof   and MikroTik are good quality cheep products.

 

and yes a new setup is more expensive but 10g is coming to more homes as time goes on so why not just do it now. Besides its only less than $400, hell a lot of high end wireless routers cost more than that and only do 1g or 2.5g and that's just a router. I'm talking about all the crap to have an up and running 10g home network for a drop in the bucket. $400 is what i spend on snacks in like 2 weeks. if money needed to be saved I could've just gone without snacks for a bit. And the speed is totally worth it

[Alex Atkin UK]

18 hours ago, airborne spoon said:

brand new switch off amazon it draws a whopping 15w, oh no its gonna send my power bill through the roof   and MikroTik are good quality cheep products.

 

and yes a new setup is more expensive but 10g is coming to more homes as time goes on so why not just do it now. Besides its only less than $400, hell a lot of high end wireless routers cost more than that and only do 1g or 2.5g and that's just a router. I'm talking about all the crap to have an up and running 10g home network for a drop in the bucket. $400 is what i spend on snacks in like 2 weeks. if money needed to be saved I could've just gone without snacks for a bit. And the speed is totally worth it

You said  it was a 24 port switch and that you were only using 2x 10Gbit NICs.  You did not say the switch only takes 2x 10Gbit connections and in fact your own words implied to me otherwise.

Quote

why stop at 2.5g and adapters and crap, just do the full 10g fiber upgrade

 

What if later they want to add a WiFi 6e Access Point?  It may very well be better to have an 8 port 2.5Gbit switch than a 2 port 10Gbit, though I am dubious about unmanaged switches as I had issues with 1Gbit clients accessing my 10Gbit NAS without flow control enabled.

When I upgraded my switch only had two 10Gbit ports too and I quickly regretted it and ended up having to replace it.  I now have 2.5Gbit wired to my laptop when I use it plugged in, 5Gbit to a torrent box that doubles as a 1Gbit switch and 5Gbit to my old switch.  WiFi is in a 2.5Gbit port in preparation for when I can get a WiFi 6e AP.

 

I also I bridged the two on-board 1Gbit ports in my NAS with the 10Gbit NIC so I can use those ports for more clients that primarily are accessing the NAS but only have 1Gbit adapters.