Warning: 100 Mbit ethernet switches are still prevalent in small towns!

[1clue]

Hi,

Not a support request, feel free to move this if it's not the appropriate place.

If you're in the market for a wired ethernet switch then you need to read this.

I recently ran out of ethernet ports on my wireless router and went looking for what I thought would be pretty common: A 1gbps 8-port switch.

I live in a small town, needed the switch asap and so I went looking at bring and mortar places. The choices are limited here: Walmart, Kmart, Radio Shack and (lucky for me) a one-off business-oriented place.

Walmart and Kmart had nothing in stock. Radio shack had 2 options, both 5-port and both 100 mbps. I checked the local office supply store, also a one-off, and they didn't know much about computers so they didn't bother carrying computer supplies. (?!!!?) Finally I found a business computer supply place, and they had two gigabit switches in stock: A 5 port and an 8 port. I literally got the only available 8-port gigabit switch in town.

100 mbps is 1/3 the speed of an 802.11n connection! How do they still even stock these things? I literally threw out a few of them a couple years ago because they were useless!


So this is just a heads-up: If you're thinking about wired networking for speed and/or privacy, be careful because there are still some dinosaurs out there. On NewEgg, there are still hundreds of switches that don't do gigabit on all ports, or at all.

FYI, 802.11ac speeds are supposedly similar to gigabit speeds. I don't see it in real practice but it's in the ballpark.

[1clue]

An interesting side note: 100 mbps Internet is available here too.

Based on their 30 mbps service, which typically delivers 35/6 rates, it's feasible that you could saturate your ethernet switch without saturating your external Internet connection.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq]

wireless N is not faster than a 10/100 switch, this is due to the overhead in wireless, about 80% of wifi speed is overhead, you will not get much if any over 64% of a 10/100 speed using wireless N

[1clue]

Didn't know that, but it really makes no significant difference IMO. If they're that close, there's hardly any reason to use wired except security.

This is crazy to me. Why sell obsolete hardware? I can see "also" having a 10/100 because you always have something like a printer, and maybe a couple other devices that don't need full speed, but in the main it should be gigabit.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq]

hardwire has a vastly lower latency than wifi (ping time)
hardwire is more reliable also

BTW with 300Mbps wireless N at about 50ft i cant get over ~30Mbps on a 60Mbps uplink

most people dont care about speed as much as they care about a connection, typical people are happy with 2Mbps or better

BTW MBR is not a partition, it is a partition table

[1clue]

I guess I'm not most people. I use video over VPNs with simultaneous data transfer in my job and need the speed. I have 30mbps outside and have considered bumping it to 50 or 100 to get more outbound speed. I also move a lot of data across my lan for work, and 100mbps isn't even close to adequate.

MBR: You knew what I was talking about though, which is the point. There's almost no reason to keep MBR partition tables around on modern hardware, and usually very good reasons to use GPT. Don't really feel like we need to cover that on this thread.

[speedwell68]

wireless N is not faster than a 10/100 switch, this is due to the overhead in wireless, about 80% of wifi speed is overhead, you will not get much if any over 64% of a 10/100 speed using wireless N

QFT.

I have three Raspberry Pi media centres, their ethernet ports are 10/100. Two of them are hardwired, the third is wireless. The router the wireless one connects to is 300 N. The two wired ones will copy a file over the network twice as fast as the wireless one.

[t0p]

they're that close, there's hardly any reason to use wired except security.

Ah, don't go thinking that wired will make you safe and secure! Apparently the old "bounce a laser beam off a window pane" trick is so advanced now they can hear the click-clack of your keyboard and decipher all your secret inputs! And then there are the more traditional espionage techniques - like burglary, sex and blackmail!

[1clue]

@t0p, Come on. I never implied that going to wired ethernet was the only thing I had to do for security, that's silly. All I was saying is that with wireless anyone with a wifi adapter and a little knowledge can hack your network. With Ethernet, that specific exposure is gone.

@Speedwell68, I just got into rpi as well with 3xB+ boards. Not doing media with any of them, but I'm curious as to how well they work? Any truly good quality audio from them?

[uRock]

I have two 48 port fast Ethernet switches and three 24 port switches. My ISP service is ~3.8MB/s, though they are now offering up to 1 gig. Anything faster than that would be wasting my money. It handles Netlix in HD on multiple devices at once, while still being able to open my security cam server from my phone. I prefer hard wired as well. For me, the downfall of my network would be the fast Ethernet ports on my 2651XM.