ᐅ Are Ethernet ports still relevant today? Wi-Fi and wireless connections are the future!
Created on: 29 Jan 2020 21:06
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Bauherr am L
Hello fellow cable enthusiasts and Wi-Fi addicts,
I already confessed in the SAT discussion that I consider coax outlets and satellite dishes completely outdated since entertainment is streamed nowadays, and I’m not planning to include them in our new build (more on that in the SAT discussion). But that’s not what this is about.
Right now, I’m trying to smartly distribute LAN duplex Cat 6a and Cat7 cable outlets throughout the rooms (1st floor: 2 kids’ rooms, kids’ bathroom, master bedroom, dressing room, master bathroom, hallway; 2nd floor: open living/dining/kitchen area, hallway, entrance area, guest restroom).
On one hand, I feel like none of the rooms really fit the outlets perfectly, like: “the desk could go here…” But what if the TV ends up in that corner instead?
On the other hand, I’m looking at our current devices and very few still have LAN ports: MacBooks, iPhones, tablets, or devices that have LAN options but mostly connect via Wi-Fi anyway, like Sonos, printers, TVs.
So the question arises whether LAN ports in rooms are still that important today. I’m not talking about the Wi-Fi access points, which of course should be connected via LAN in a convenient location, or special cases like PoE cameras and door intercoms. I’m mainly referring to the LAN outlets in individual rooms. Most end devices are mobile anyway, and the outlets will be in the wrong place 99% of the time.
I read (yes, I spent some time researching this) that the cost of LAN outlets is negligible. Well, if I install duplex outlets in all those questionable locations, the cost for switches and everything else adds up to a nice chunk.
I would be interested in your opinion on this. Since I am straightforwardly skipping any traditional TV (in our case only satellite would be possible) and the corresponding connections, wouldn’t it be consistent to also counteract the outlet overload regarding LAN?
Looking forward to your comments, thanks!
I already confessed in the SAT discussion that I consider coax outlets and satellite dishes completely outdated since entertainment is streamed nowadays, and I’m not planning to include them in our new build (more on that in the SAT discussion). But that’s not what this is about.
Right now, I’m trying to smartly distribute LAN duplex Cat 6a and Cat7 cable outlets throughout the rooms (1st floor: 2 kids’ rooms, kids’ bathroom, master bedroom, dressing room, master bathroom, hallway; 2nd floor: open living/dining/kitchen area, hallway, entrance area, guest restroom).
On one hand, I feel like none of the rooms really fit the outlets perfectly, like: “the desk could go here…” But what if the TV ends up in that corner instead?
On the other hand, I’m looking at our current devices and very few still have LAN ports: MacBooks, iPhones, tablets, or devices that have LAN options but mostly connect via Wi-Fi anyway, like Sonos, printers, TVs.
So the question arises whether LAN ports in rooms are still that important today. I’m not talking about the Wi-Fi access points, which of course should be connected via LAN in a convenient location, or special cases like PoE cameras and door intercoms. I’m mainly referring to the LAN outlets in individual rooms. Most end devices are mobile anyway, and the outlets will be in the wrong place 99% of the time.
I read (yes, I spent some time researching this) that the cost of LAN outlets is negligible. Well, if I install duplex outlets in all those questionable locations, the cost for switches and everything else adds up to a nice chunk.
I would be interested in your opinion on this. Since I am straightforwardly skipping any traditional TV (in our case only satellite would be possible) and the corresponding connections, wouldn’t it be consistent to also counteract the outlet overload regarding LAN?
Looking forward to your comments, thanks!
I no longer consider 10 Gbit to be that unusual. When I get a new NAS, it will likely support that speed as well. Currently, it’s still within the local network, but external connections will also exceed 1 Gbit. For example, cable providers are already working on DOCSIS 4.0.
SteffenBank schrieb:
Then please tell us what you are doing there and show what percentage of the bandwidth you actually use during your work. Probably temporarily up to 100 percent, and that’s the point. Of course, it’s possible to browse, stream, email, use Instagram, or whatever with much less bandwidth, but when I transfer larger amounts of data, I want it to be fast. That’s why my NAS is connected via QSFP+ and all desktops via SFP+. Naturally, this also requires corresponding high-performance hardware in the NAS to fully utilize that bandwidth.
untergasse438 Jan 2021 12:41Video editing, image processing for desktop publishing, regular computer tasks. I never claimed to fully utilize the 10 GbE; the SSDs and hard drives in the NAS probably rarely reach that speed either. But I regularly operate in the range of 3-4 Gbit, which is significantly beyond the usual 1 GbE network.
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SteffenBank8 Jan 2021 12:53Thank you for the comment @untergasse43
I hope you don’t misunderstand me, but to me those bandwidths are very high and not exactly inexpensive to implement.
I always wonder what people are doing online at home to justify needing such high bandwidths.
I can hardly imagine multiple people simultaneously editing videos over a LAN on a NAS, or having 5-6 video streams running at the same time.
As I said, what you’re doing is definitely impressive.
I hope you don’t misunderstand me, but to me those bandwidths are very high and not exactly inexpensive to implement.
I always wonder what people are doing online at home to justify needing such high bandwidths.
I can hardly imagine multiple people simultaneously editing videos over a LAN on a NAS, or having 5-6 video streams running at the same time.
As I said, what you’re doing is definitely impressive.
Well, even just performing regular automated backups of entire computers (which isn’t that unusual) can be quite useful. It’s really just a simple calculation. If you do it regularly, the network traffic won’t be as heavy at once.
For example, I’ve wanted to set this up for a long time but never really found the time to do it.
For example, I’ve wanted to set this up for a long time but never really found the time to do it.
It should also be clear that a server’s bandwidth should generally be greater than that of the fastest client; otherwise, the client could fully consume the server’s capacity, leaving everyone else without service. Since there are not many options above 10 Gb/s, 40 Gb/s was chosen. Yes, this is by no means necessary and you can still have fun without it, but it is also somewhat of a hobby.