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WIFI card vs. (long) ethernet cable

Rien102
By Rien102
in Networking
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Posted

I just moved into a new condo with internet included.  Only problem is that my system is entirely build with the use of an ethernet cable.  I got one but it is over 60 feet of running along at the bottom of walls just to reach my tower.  I never liked WIFI over ethernet cable but I never had to run a 60+ft cable to my switch...

 

On the other side of the coin, the WIFI of the access is a 5G network...  So, I don't know what to do.

 

Should I stick with the running internet cable or should I put a  powerfull 5G WIFI card in my brand new tower?  My motherbard is a MSI B660 (https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/FsfnTW/msi-pro-b660-a-ddr4-atx-lga1700-motherboard-pro-b660-a-ddr4)

Tks in advance!

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Posted

60feet is nothing... wifi will be slower how much i dont no depends on your router and connection. j2c has a really good wifi.

I have dyslexia plz be kind to me. dont like my post dont read it or respond thx

also i edit post alot because you no why...

Thrasher_565 hub links build logs

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5v device to 12v mb header

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Posted

5G doesn't handle obstacles as well as 2.4G so what's the LOS like?

Cable is pretty much always going to be better but WIFI is very convienient.

If you're interested in a product please download and read the manual first.

Don't forget to tag or quote in your reply if you want me to know you've answered or have another question.

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Posted

I'd run the ethernet as long as it's at least Gigabit from PC to switch/router.

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if you have WiFi6 or 802.11AX then you probably won't notice the difference in internet speed, because your ISP will be the bottleneck. 

find out what your wired speed is, then test the WiFi speed. figure out how much you really need it. unless you're playing multiplayer games that require low latency, you're probably better off with wifi. 


I should mention i have an 802.11ax router and PC and i get local transfer speeds of 700-900 Mbps, and my ISP only delivers 600Mbps on a good day, which is rare. so in this case, WiFi is not a bottleneck for me. 

We can't Benchmark like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to shove more GPUs in your computer. Like the time I needed to NV-Link, because I needed a higher HeavenBench score, so I did an SLI, which is what they called NV-Link back in the day. So, I decided to put two GPUs in my computer, which was the style at the time. Now, to add another GPU to your computer, costs a new PSU. Now in those days PSUs said OCZ on them, "Gimme 750W OCZs for an SLI" you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had two GPUs in my rig, which was the style at the time! They didn't have RGB PSUs at the time, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big green ones. 

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How busy is the environment? If this is a condo in a hi rise or something like that, there’s a real issue with interference and ping spikes when you’re dealing with wifi. Wifi 6 is less bad but you still cannot beat the reliability of a wire. 

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21 hours ago, keskparane said:

5G doesn't handle obstacles as well as 2.4G so what's the LOS like?

Cable is pretty much always going to be better but WIFI is very convienient.

Not even "pretty much", wired is absolutely guaranteed to be better in 100% of situations, its what the network protocols we use were designed for after all.  So unless you've done something silly and ran it parallel to a power cable or its faulty, its always the best option, just not necessarily the practical one (eg phones).

Router:  Intel N100 (pfSense) WiFi6: Zyxel NWA210AX (1.7Gbit peak at 160Mhz)
WiFi5: Ubiquiti NanoHD OpenWRT (~500Mbit at 80Mhz) Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, MS510TXPP, GS110EMX
ISPs: Zen Full Fibre 900 (~930Mbit down, 115Mbit up) + Three 5G (~800Mbit down, 115Mbit up)
Upgrading Laptop/Desktop CNVIo WiFi 5 cards to PCIe WiFi6e/7

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13 hours ago, Rien102 said:

tks to @thrasher_565, @keskparane, @si1enze, @VioDuskar and @seanondemand for your comments and insights....I ran speed tests with the two options.  The wire, "as anticipated", is a bit faster in the "off-hours".  I guess my original reflex will remain the option I'll use.

 

Tks again to you all!

Yeah 60ft is nothing, wired is designed to go 328ft before needing a powered switch to plug it into and then another 328ft from that, which you can do as many times as you need to extend the length.  Though in the real world nobody is likely to do this as there are better alternatives that do not create bottlenecks or so many potential points of failure.

If you just want a stupidly long link from one point to another, you then have multi-mode fibre that can do 1300ft or single-mode fibre that can do 131,233ft. 😉

Router:  Intel N100 (pfSense) WiFi6: Zyxel NWA210AX (1.7Gbit peak at 160Mhz)
WiFi5: Ubiquiti NanoHD OpenWRT (~500Mbit at 80Mhz) Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, MS510TXPP, GS110EMX
ISPs: Zen Full Fibre 900 (~930Mbit down, 115Mbit up) + Three 5G (~800Mbit down, 115Mbit up)
Upgrading Laptop/Desktop CNVIo WiFi 5 cards to PCIe WiFi6e/7

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On 3/4/2023 at 12:03 PM, Alex Atkin UK said:

Not even "pretty much", wired is absolutely guaranteed to be better in 100% of situations, its what the network protocols we use were designed for after all.  So unless you've done something silly and ran it parallel to a power cable or its faulty, its always the best option, just not necessarily the practical one (eg phones).

So youd rather run it outside over concrete driveway instead of using wifi?

 

If you're interested in a product please download and read the manual first.

Don't forget to tag or quote in your reply if you want me to know you've answered or have another question.

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3 hours ago, keskparane said:

So youd rather run it outside over concrete driveway instead of using wifi?

Kinda obvious I was talking about performance and reliability wasn't it?  Which is why I said its not necessarily the practical option.

Router:  Intel N100 (pfSense) WiFi6: Zyxel NWA210AX (1.7Gbit peak at 160Mhz)
WiFi5: Ubiquiti NanoHD OpenWRT (~500Mbit at 80Mhz) Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, MS510TXPP, GS110EMX
ISPs: Zen Full Fibre 900 (~930Mbit down, 115Mbit up) + Three 5G (~800Mbit down, 115Mbit up)
Upgrading Laptop/Desktop CNVIo WiFi 5 cards to PCIe WiFi6e/7

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On 3/5/2023 at 6:39 PM, Alex Atkin UK said:

Kinda obvious I was talking about performance and reliability wasn't it?  Which is why I said its not necessarily the practical option.

It's often very practical to run ethernet the same route as the mains.

 

 

If you're interested in a product please download and read the manual first.

Don't forget to tag or quote in your reply if you want me to know you've answered or have another question.

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