Why are ethernet cable connectors so large?

[TheValiantSoul]

I find it odd that when all standards change to make the ports smaller in order to take up less space on the device ethernet connectors stay big. USB type A is losing ground to USB C and Micro-usb, most displays use HDMI which is very small compared to SCART cable ports and DVI etc. There are so many laptops these days that don't have them at all because they take up a lot of space. I'm sure they could make them smaller so why don't they?

[79wjd]

Making them small would also make them impossibly difficult for an individual to put ends on, and considering that is how most ethernet lines are ran in houses, it doesn't make sense to make the connector small. 

[Atmos]

The development of wifi has pushed solid ethernet connections away from required for the majority of devices and moved them into the domain solely of desktops and servers, and in that application there's no need for a smaller standard, or a smaller standard would only impact the versatility of it in the server domain.

[Dissitesuxba11s]

Thin and lights typically have ethernet over the USB-C. You would just need a dongle.

[Guest]

Why change what isn't broke?

[2FA]

1 minute ago, Atmos said:

The development of wifi has pushed solid ethernet connections away from required for the majority of devices and moved them into the domain solely of desktops and servers, and in that application there's no need for a smaller standard, or a smaller standard would only impact the versatility of it in the server domain.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Probably a couple of reasons:

 

It's typically not a connector that needs to be small in the first place.

 

There's decades of compatibility to consider. Changing it to something smaller suddenly makes all of the previous RJ45 based equipment incompatible with the new stuff and likely vice versa. Makes adding new hardware difficult if it's not backwards compatible and using an adaptor would defeat the point. 

 

People wire up network cables a lot. Making them too small and fiddly would cause problems for basically everyone, either directly or indirectly. 

[Lurick]

You can make them smaller. You just need to convince the following companies to throw away all of their existing products:

All of the companies

[Bananasplit_00]

makeing ethernet cables is enough of a PITA already, makeing them smaller would make that worse

[Mira Yurizaki]

10 minutes ago, TheValiantSoul said:

 USB type A is losing ground to USB C and Micro-usb,

Not really. Type A will suffer a long, slow death and will likely never really disappear. I mean, we still have modern high-end boards with PS/2 ports even though most of the benefits they used to provide aren't so now that high-end USB based keyboards have caught up.

 

Quote

There are so many laptops these days that don't have them at all because they take up a lot of space. I'm sure they could make them smaller so why don't they?

It's because Wi-Fi is ubiquitous enough to not really need an Ethernet port. The only time I ever needed one on a laptop was to service a Wi-Fi router for its first time setup and I didn't want to move the router around to my desk and where it would it live.

 

Anyway, Ethernet is fine. RJ45 has been around forever and trying to convince every company in the world and their IT department to use something else is going to take a miracle.

[Dissitesuxba11s]

3 minutes ago, Lurick said:

You can make them smaller. You just need to convince the following companies to throw away all of their existing products:

All of the companies

Don't forget that you would have to tell the networking person that's been doing his/her job for 30 years that he/she has to buy a new crimper. 

[Lurick]

Just now, Dissitesuxba11s said:

Don't forget that you would have to tell the networking person that's been doing his/her job for >30 years that he/she has to buy a new crimper. 

That's true, and you'd have to explain to "tech guy who couldn't identify USB Type A vs Type B but is really really good at "the tech"" what the new connection is for.

[Canada EH]

mainly for mechanical fastener strength.

[Drak3]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

we still have modern high-end boards with PS/2 ports even though most of the benefits they used to provide aren't so now that high-end USB based keyboards have caught up.

No drivers needed with PS/2...

[Canada EH]

Otherwise you would solder the connections and everything would be smaller.

I bet the standardization of it was put in place decades ago and it just stuck.

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

No drivers needed with PS/2...

If you need drivers for USB, you should probably get a new OS.

[porina]

What is the problem you are trying to solve by changing the connector?

 

The drive for smaller USB connectors is because they're going on ever smaller devices. Wifi is "good enough" for a non-performance laptop type scenario. Cabled ethernet is more a reliability, performance and maybe security option where needed.

 

I think the only maybe reason for a new ethernet connector to take hold would be if it supported out of the box much higher speeds than currently. But it isn't just the connector, but also the rest of the infrastructure to support it. We already kinda have 10G possible so need to one-up that. 100G would be a good enough excuse, and that would probably require a new style cable to make it work. That's the bigger question, why has affordable ethernet stagnated at gigabit whereas the rest of the computing industry has more everything.

 

I just wish they re-design the plug to be more rugged. I don't know how many cables I see where the tag has broken off at some point, and even the "snagless" with some protective overmoulding are limited in how much they help.

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

If you need drivers for USB, you should probably get a new OS.

Some USB keybaords wouldn't work in the bios (with older, but still relevant hardware) either. @M.Yurizaki

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Some USB keybaords wouldn't work in the bios (with older hardware) either.

The complaint is that PS/2 is still on modern hardware.

 

I mean if you really want to run Windows 95 on a B350 board, that's fine. Or you're LGR and were doing it for science.

[Drak3]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

If you need drivers for USB, you should probably get a new OS.

The USB ports on my Gaming Pro Carbon were ultra finnicky under Win 10 and Ubuntu, running both generic and specific drivers. Plus, that's assuming drivers don't get updated or get corrupted and nigh brick functionality, because you can't interface with the system.

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

The USB ports on my Gaming Pro Carbon were ultra finnicky under Win 10 and Ubuntu, running both generic and specific drivers. Plus, that's assuming drivers don't get updated or get corrupted and nigh brick functionality, because you can't interface with the system.

What's with you and having the worst luck with hardware?

[Drak3]

Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

What's with you and having the worst luck with hardware?

I have a lot of hardware.

And the Gaming Pro Carbin issue wasn't exactly a rare thing either.

[porina]

3 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

The complaint is that PS/2 is still on modern hardware.

I haven't looked, but is it found more often on higher end modern mobos than low end ones? There is a possible explanation for that: competitive overclockers. USB support is a pain when it comes to Windows installs. XP and Win7 seem to be the top OSes for that, and the extra hoops needed to get it installed using USB on Ryzen/Z270 or newer is an extra hurdle you can circumvent easily by PS2.

[Mira Yurizaki]

3 minutes ago, porina said:

I haven't looked, but is it found more often on higher end modern mobos than low end ones? There is a possible explanation for that: competitive overclockers. USB support is a pain when it comes to Windows installs. XP and Win7 seem to be the top OSes for that, and the extra hoops needed to get it installed using USB on Ryzen/Z270 or newer is an extra hurdle you can circumvent easily by PS2.

Every motherboard I've owned in the past three builds have had PS/2 ports, and they were all Z-series chipsets.

 

So between you and Drak3, I must be finding unicorns because I've never had a problem with going purely USB for inputs since 2005. Or maybe 2006.

[AshleyAshes]

9 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

The complaint is that PS/2 is still on modern hardware.

 

I mean if you really want to run Windows 95 on a B350 board, that's fine. Or you're LGR and were doing it for science.

 

But how am I supposed to run my 20 year old eMachines keyboard without PS2!?