Ethernet is the backbone of any healthy home network and you're probably not using enough of it. It's the gold standard for home networking, but it's also often misunderstood.
There are several myths, both new and old, that might be getting in the way of your adoption of Ethernet, or at least getting the most out of it.
You need Cat8 for the fastest speeds
Category is: stuff that wastes your money
While I've said you should stop using Cat5 cables , that doesn't mean you have to buy the highest-rated and most expensive Ethernet that exists. Cat5e is more than enough for gigabit speeds, and Cat 6 (which I think most people should use these days) is good for 10Gbps over the sorts of distances you're likely to use at home.
If you have a single long run which is too much for Cat6 then it's fine to make that cable a higher grade to prevent speed drops, but don't waste your money on cables that are overqualified for the job.
Gold-plated connectors improve your internet speed
I like goooooold...
GraphinityLab/Shutterstock.com
If you're familiar with common audio tech gimmicks you know that you don't need gold plating in your cables . Especially if we're dealing with a digital signal.
Plating connectors with gold can have some benefits when it comes to preventing corrosion, but even though gold is a superior conductor, it's not going to make any difference to the performance of your Ethernet cable. So save your money unless you have some good reason to believe you need special corrosion protection. Hint: you don't.
Flat Ethernet cables are always worse
They have their uses
Amazon Basics
My colleague Jorge did a great piece about the problems with flat Ethernet cables , and it's true that they can be a bad choice in many situations, but they aren't universally always worse than a round cable. Over short distances, the signaling issues they're susceptible to are unlikely to manifest, and if you want to run a cable under a carpet or flat along walls or through narrow gaps this is what you need.
The downside is that they have worse shielding and are less durable, but if you're making a short run with a semi-permanent installation, then this hardly matters.
Longer cables always mean slower speeds
Technically true, practically irrelevant
Tim Brookes / How-To Geek
One of the reasons people overestimate what category of Ethernet they need comes from the idea that the longer the cable is, the less speed you'll get.
This is not a myth. If an Ethernet cable is too long, then it can't hit its maximum rated speed. The thing is, your intuition about what's too long is probably wrong. Take Cat6, which, again, is what I recommend anyone buying new cable for a home installation should use. It can sustain its full 10Gbps speed reliably at 55 meters (180 ft), depending on levels of interference. That's probably far more than you need, and it can sustain 1Gbps at up to 100 meters (328 feet).
Wi-Fi is always slower than Ethernet
There are always exceptions to the rule
Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek
Old habits die hard. In the past it wasn't a myth that Ethernet was always faster than Wi-Fi. You could take that to the bank. Even when the theoretical maximum speed of Wi-Fi promised a higher number than Ethernet, the reality was nowhere close.
However, with Wi-Fi 6, 6E, 7, and beyond, things are very different. If we're talking about common Gigabit-class Cat5e Ethernet, then these new Wi-Fi standards can blow past that under real-world conditions, making modern Wi-Fi faster than most people's home internet connections.
That said, Ethernet still has lower latency, better consistency, stability, and reliability. It's not all about speed. Not to mention when you upgrade to 2.5Gbps Ethernet and higher, Wi-Fi gets left in the dust again.
Ethernet cables don't have latency
Death, taxes, and lag
It's obvious that there will always be some latency in your network connection because it still takes electrons time to travel between two points, but that's not what I'm talking about.
The myth here is that using a cable will always reduce latency compared to wireless connections, or that Ethernet cables aren't ever the cause of your lag spikes.
The truth is that damaged or cheap cables can have crosstalk that leads to errors and latency because packets have to be sent again. So, if you're seeing lag on an Ethernet connection, don't automatically assume it can't be the cable.
Ethernet is still king
Whatever the myths might be, Ethernet is still the gold (but not gold-plated) standard for optimal network connectivity. So treat yours right, and use it wherever you can, with Wi-Fi as a last resort. Follow that rule, and you'll be in LAN heaven.
