On the topic of Wi-Fi: then your kids must never grow up.
Let’s say there’s Mom, Dad, and two kids. Mom is watching her favorite soap opera streamed on the TV, Dad is browsing the internet (including YouTube) looking for instructions to fix the troublesome washing machine. Junior, who just turned 16, is gaming online on the PlayStation with friends, meanwhile running a group voice chat on his phone. The daughter, only 12 years old, is browsing YouTube and Instagram, all in HD of course. Her friend is sitting next to her on their phone, fully engaged.
Show me a Wi-Fi channel that wouldn’t collapse under all that traffic. Exactly for situations like this, you need one or another wired connection. The console and TV can reduce their bandwidth demand on the Wi-Fi by using Ethernet cables, freeing up space to supply the mobile devices with enough speed.
If, like Nordlys for example, you mostly have peace and quiet from the youth, then Wi-Fi alone is generally sufficient. But with kids around, it becomes a tricky issue, and it doesn’t take long for them to start blaming each other for slow internet.
Let’s say there’s Mom, Dad, and two kids. Mom is watching her favorite soap opera streamed on the TV, Dad is browsing the internet (including YouTube) looking for instructions to fix the troublesome washing machine. Junior, who just turned 16, is gaming online on the PlayStation with friends, meanwhile running a group voice chat on his phone. The daughter, only 12 years old, is browsing YouTube and Instagram, all in HD of course. Her friend is sitting next to her on their phone, fully engaged.
Show me a Wi-Fi channel that wouldn’t collapse under all that traffic. Exactly for situations like this, you need one or another wired connection. The console and TV can reduce their bandwidth demand on the Wi-Fi by using Ethernet cables, freeing up space to supply the mobile devices with enough speed.
If, like Nordlys for example, you mostly have peace and quiet from the youth, then Wi-Fi alone is generally sufficient. But with kids around, it becomes a tricky issue, and it doesn’t take long for them to start blaming each other for slow internet.
R
readytorumble21 Aug 2018 12:29Interesting discussion.
Between the ages of about 13 and 18, I also spent a lot of time gaming. We played CS (Counter-Strike) around the clock. First at LAN parties, then of course online in various leagues or tournaments.
Even though many people find it ridiculous, I learned a great deal during that time—both in terms of IT skills and teamwork.
Yes, I turned out fine, even though during school holidays I rarely saw daylight except during soccer training. I spent the rest of my childhood on the local playing field.
Eventually, women and alcohol came along, and with them, the interest in gaming faded—just like for everyone else. I also don’t recall a single person who ruined their life because of it. Quite the opposite.
P.S.: Our kids’ rooms have LAN
Between the ages of about 13 and 18, I also spent a lot of time gaming. We played CS (Counter-Strike) around the clock. First at LAN parties, then of course online in various leagues or tournaments.
Even though many people find it ridiculous, I learned a great deal during that time—both in terms of IT skills and teamwork.
Yes, I turned out fine, even though during school holidays I rarely saw daylight except during soccer training. I spent the rest of my childhood on the local playing field.
Eventually, women and alcohol came along, and with them, the interest in gaming faded—just like for everyone else. I also don’t recall a single person who ruined their life because of it. Quite the opposite.
P.S.: Our kids’ rooms have LAN
Seriously, bandwidth is a problem at home?!
Currently, there are two of us, and we have 250 Mbps at the router and Wi-Fi at 5 GHz. My iPad theoretically has about 780 Mbps download speed. That should be enough, even though the TV is connected by cable at 1 Gbps.
By the way: We have clients (in rural areas) who only have 10 Mbps or, for a high price, 50 Mbps symmetrical – for up to 100 employees…
Anything else is a luxury problem.
Currently, there are two of us, and we have 250 Mbps at the router and Wi-Fi at 5 GHz. My iPad theoretically has about 780 Mbps download speed. That should be enough, even though the TV is connected by cable at 1 Gbps.
By the way: We have clients (in rural areas) who only have 10 Mbps or, for a high price, 50 Mbps symmetrical – for up to 100 employees…
Anything else is a luxury problem.
My bandwidth should be sufficient for now, since as of yesterday I have a real 90/30 MBit connection. (I only chose this because the customer retention department of Telekom made a good offer!)
Wherever there could be a wired LAN connection in the house, I believe there should be an Ethernet outlet, and everything else can be done via Wi-Fi.
Speaking of Wi-Fi, I need an access point. I am considering the Ubiquiti UniFi Access Point AC Lite or the Ubiquiti UniFi Access Point AC LR. Does anyone happen to be using either of these models and want to share their experience?
Wherever there could be a wired LAN connection in the house, I believe there should be an Ethernet outlet, and everything else can be done via Wi-Fi.
Speaking of Wi-Fi, I need an access point. I am considering the Ubiquiti UniFi Access Point AC Lite or the Ubiquiti UniFi Access Point AC LR. Does anyone happen to be using either of these models and want to share their experience?
No Ubiquiti at all, because it’s too expensive. Not necessary for a home user.
Otherwise, choose the Lite version without LR. LR doesn’t make a difference in Germany anyway because increasing the output power is not legal, and even if this doesn’t bother you, the client devices’ output power doesn’t magically increase as well.
Wasn’t the Pro version already being discontinued, with the Nano as its successor?
Otherwise, choose the Lite version without LR. LR doesn’t make a difference in Germany anyway because increasing the output power is not legal, and even if this doesn’t bother you, the client devices’ output power doesn’t magically increase as well.
Wasn’t the Pro version already being discontinued, with the Nano as its successor?
Evolith schrieb:
Yes, but how many people can actually operate their router properly? Most haven’t even changed the default password or use something like abc123 as their Wi-Fi password.Either you acquire the expertise yourself or pay a lot for a service provider (I first learned my IT skills through gaming and later expanded them during my studies and work).
So, hours of gaming can sometimes be useful. But I also know people from back then who never managed to move on (35 years old, never had a girlfriend, still living with parents, and unemployed). Whether intense consumption is harmful or not is really a matter of personality.
The same goes for excessive TV watching: You can also educate yourself through television. It doesn’t have to be reality shows all the time; there are many (in my opinion) great and interesting animal, world, and physics documentaries on channels like N24 and others. It’s not about how long you watch, but what you watch.
Back to the topic of bandwidth: Please don’t equate bandwidth with “speed.” They are physically related but have nothing to do with parallel or multiplexed applications. 240 Mbit/s is nice and fast if you have a constant application (e.g., a large 4K stream). But if many devices access the same single internet connection in parallel, even the highest bandwidth can be overwhelmed. It depends on the equipment used and the related software settings.
A clear example: You can drink faster from a Volvic water bottle because its opening is larger (more bandwidth). But if the whole family tries to drink from the same single Volvic bottle at the same time, it causes a bottleneck because the only bottle has to be passed around. Either you have a second bottle (two standard glass bottles would be cheaper and the family would quench thirst faster) for parallel drinking (in IT terms: trunking), or you have pre-poured the Volvic into different glasses (priority/QoS).
Regarding router choice: I personally like Asus RT-AC routers. They cost a bit but offer a lot. It’s important that the router supports 802.11ac (nowadays the standard), and the more antennas the router has, the better the MIMO = speed. PoE is also a nice feature if you want to supply power over the LAN ports and not rely on an external power supply or batteries for the device.
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