Should I connect my laptop through an ethernet cable instead of wifi?

Question

Im currently running Internet through everything in my house (two laptops, one desktop, 4 phones, a couple iPods) through WiFi through my 2.4GHz router. My laptop is pretty much always sitting very close to my router and was considering buying an ethernet cable and connecting my laptop to my router through cable because i heard it could be beneficial.

I dont know a ton about these things (im a little bit more into software) and i was wondering how it would work. Would this change anything through my internet service plan? What are the benefits? Would you recommend it or do you think i should stick with what i currently have.

I did the wifi speed test online and im running about 20mB/s which i know is pretty good for a Wireless connection but i just wanted some expert opinions

Solution

Using Ethernet cable will unquestionably improve PC network speed for your desktop and laptops. Modern routers are actually switches, and send the signal to the PCs connected by cable to only that PC; traffic to and from all the other devices over WiFi are all broadcast over the same channel, so they will often collide.

When the signals collide, each transmitting device (and they're all transmitting, even just to say 'yeah, I got the signal packet') must wait a random number of milliseconds, before retransmitting. The number of collisions go up in proportion to the square of the number of devices, and every collision results in more delay.

Every 'packet' of data is about 1.5KB in size (or less), so a megabyte of data generates about 700 packets. How many megabytes does every device in your household use? That's a lot of collisions, so if you get the desktop and laptops off of WiFi, they will be delayed by collisions a lot less.

Also, you will still need the router (if you have a combo modem-router, it's called a gateway) to divide up the Internet signals and send each packet of data to the correct device.

Comments

[Psycogeek]

A cable & configure one thing in the OS, no reason not to test it, even before asking . You did not define your ISP plan, but one could assume your connection style, and it would make no diffference. Benefit could be some or quite a bit more speed, and reduced latency. because you could test this easily there is no reason to guess.

[RogUE]

If you have an eathernet cable, test the speeed with it, and see the difference. Because theoretical values may vary with devices and their arrangement.

[JackV]

@RogUE Thats a good idea but one quick question. So since i connect through a router i need a modem for the router to connect to (which i have). If i were to connect through a ethernet cable the modem would hold no value anymore correct?

[RogUE]

No, the modem connects you to your ISP, and the router connects all devices in your LAN. But, there are some devices that combines both,

[RogUE]

If your modem(which you say it is) have router within, then you can avoid the router and connect the eathernet cable directly to the modem. For example,amazon.in/8901N-ADSL2-WIRELESS-MODEM-ROUTER/dp/… device is a modem as well as router

[user1686]

"Modern routers are actually switches"? You meant that as opposed to hubs, I hope?