100MB vs 1GB ethernet ports

InfestedGnome · July 2011

Hey guys,

I have a question about 100MB vs 1GB ports for general home use. I am looking at a wireless router to use at my apartment, but I also want to use some of the ethernet ports for hardwired connections. I found a router, but its ports are only 100mbps. Since this is just for home use, and I dont suspect have more than 4 computers connect probably at any given time, should I be concerned about this and strive for 1gb ports or will I not notice the difference with 100mb

Thanks in advance

electricitylikesme · July 2011

1gb ports make a big difference.

At 1 gigabit you can transfer over the network faster then SATA2 hard disks, so if you have to do any big moves then you have them fly along at 70+ megabytes per second, as opposed to 11 megabytes per second.

Even just for home use, it's super-handy to have - but - only if you're going to be using physically wired computers with it. Although, 802.11n can sync faster then 100mbit, so to remove a bottleneck there you'd want 1 gigabit ports.

InfestedGnome · July 2011

So the main difference would be moving large files from computer to computer? If so then I am not too worried about that

Sushisource · July 2011

Trust me you'll want it if you ever need to stream HD movies to your TV or something.

wmelon · July 2011

That's assuming you're not using the wifi for remote clients at which point you're going to be limited to 54MBit anyway

bowen · July 2011

The difference in costs for gigabit is substantial. Unless you've got cat6 wiring in your house you'll probably not see the gains anyways. Wireless will be limited to 54MBit, as wmelon said. And that's on a good day with clear LoS and no one microwaving a pizza.

Nakatomi2010 · July 2011

Wireless N can hit over 200mbps.

G is 54mbps, but N is way faster for sure. My Samsung BluRay player streams Netflix HD using its N card. Works damn good.

But yeah, the main thing here is going to be whether or not your transfering large files. I've got a gigabit network on my end and do a fair number of transfers here and there.

bowen · July 2011

How common is N? Isn't it still Draft?

acidlacedpenguin · July 2011

I don't think N ever made it out of Draft. I'd say most newer routers come with N and many of those come with gigabit ethernet, too. At least in the say $65 to $110 price range.

Gihgehls · July 2011

Netflix streams top out at like 3.8 megabits.

Nakatomi2010 · July 2011

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11#802.11n Wireless N was made official back in '09. Most devices have N in them now-days by default, unless they cheaped out or something.

Dehumanized · July 2011

Yeah, I stream 1080i DVR'd content over Wireless-N, and I used to stream it over Wireless-G. It works for me without any stuttering or issues, but it might not if you have much signal interference. That said, ethernet is very clearly the ideal to strive for, and GigE is where you want to be for the future, when resolutions and bandwidth requirements increase.

Dark Shroud · July 2011

bowen wrote:

The difference in costs for gigabit is substantial. Unless you've got cat6 wiring in your house you'll probably not see the gains anyways. Wireless will be limited to 54MBit, as wmelon said. And that's on a good day with clear LoS and no one microwaving a pizza.

Gigabit switches are $30 or less now. I bought a 5 port Dlink 4 years ago for $25. I've been enjoying streaming 1080p video to my PS3 ever since then. Cat6 cables are dirt cheap at Monoprice and Cat5 is just fine for short runs anyway. I didn't think I'd need gigabit until I got my PS3 and tried to stream a low res video file to it. Then I tried to copy the file over and it took forever. Now I can stream my blu-ray rips without issue.

bowen · July 2011

Ah must be business class ones then. The price difference between a 10 port business router with gigabit and 10/100 is almost $150.

$50 vs $225.

smokmnky · July 2011

for reference Bowen, I just bought a 16 port GigE switch for work, like 100$ total (i bought 3)

Rohan · July 2011

Sushisource wrote:

Trust me you'll want it if you ever need to stream HD movies to your TV or something.

Why? We have a 100MB router and I often watch hd movie files at 1080P over the network - one of them is over 10GB in size - and there's never any problem. 1GB is not needed to watch hd files.

Dark Shroud · July 2011

Just because it's large in size and HD doesn't mean anything. I have BD-rips that crawl over 100MB.

Mustachio Jones · July 2011

The difference is pretty noticeable, and for the price, you might as well. It really is worth it. I've been meaning to wire my house up with a line or two going to all of the major rooms. Then again, I've got several media streaming devices and a file server, so it might make more sense for me to run cat6. The other thing with cat6 is that for the most part, all of the cables meet the fire code standard for shielded and insulated cables, so you're good running them in walls. Go plenum or go home.

uean · August 2011

Just to chip in on all this cat6 cat5 stuff:
Cat5 is 100Mbps
Cat5e is 1000Mbps at 100Mhz
Cat6 is also 1000Mbps at 200Mhz

Cat6 will be faster, but don't think Cat5 will do just fine in it's absence - you need at minimum Cat5e for a gigabit port to function.

Also, the difference between gigabit and 100Mbps ports is amazing. If you don't think you need it, try transferring files. If you have any sort of server setup at home (as basic as sharing files) you'll want gigabit speeds.

Penny Arcade

Quick Links

100MB vs 1GB ethernet ports

Posts