Urgent question 5mb wired vs 50mb wireless

MoRT489

MoRT489

MoRT489

Soldato
Joined
21 Aug 2006
Posts
7,512
Question 5mb wired vs 50mb wireless

I've got the engineer here to update our home connection to optical but he's just told me the router needs to go by the front door (otherwise lots of drilling required to route cables etc).

I want to know is my gaming PC going to be better on the current 5mb broadband wired connection or a 50mb wireless optical connection?

I have to decide in a few minutes as if he goes it will be some time before another appointment...

Thanks for any immediate answers!!
 
Last edited:
50mbit fibre connection to the front door and Cat5e/6 to your PC. If you won't run ethernet cable then consider powerline before settling on wireless.

I assume when you say optical you actually mean FTTC.
 
Last edited:
Sorry, I mean I'm currently on broadband and PC is right next to the phone socket so it's 5mb over cat5e but if he installs optical (it's called GPON here) the router will be by the front door and no way to run a cat5e cable to the PC as would need to drill holes all over the flat!

So question do I stay on 5mb as I'm concerned about WiFi latency when playing online FPS (as with GPON PC would have to be with a wireless card)?
 
Get optical
Latency is not high on a decent wifi card.. but as above get powerline adapters,, Definately get it though.
Also the high upload will help with only gaming a bit
 
Tell the engineer to stop being lazy.
They are pre-authorised to fit an extension kit so they can mount the modem by your master socket and extend to a point where you want the router.
 
Steveocee said:
Tell the engineer to stop being lazy.
They are pre-authorised to fit an extension kit so they can mount the modem by your master socket and extend to a point where you want the router.
Click to expand...

I've put him off for another day pending a solution to this :o. He probably is being lazy, but I don't see how he could do what you suggest without running wires through the flat (optical or Cat5e) as the individual phone points (as he says) are copper but by the door is optical. I don't really see how they have done this upgrade to the building though as it was built about 15 years ago and they haven't done works as far as I recall. Is it right that existing phone lines in the flat won't support this new connection type?
 
You want the best experience but don't want to run cables..

Yes using Wifi will work, but it will also give you lower WAN throughput(depending on hardware used, but most likely), possible interference, issues should you need to hard wire directly into the router for troubleshooting/flashing, higher latency, less LAN throughput.

Go wired, if not go powerline, if not go wireless.

And your old phonelines will still work, it's only the master socket that's changed should you go for fiber.
 
50meg wifi or 5meg wired? It's a no brainer really. Also pretty sure virgin have to fit the router where u tell them, he's just beating lazy
 
GefGz said:
You want the best experience but don't want to run cables..

Yes using Wifi will work, but it will also give you lower WAN throughput(depending on hardware used, but most likely), possible interference, issues should you need to hard wire directly into the router for troubleshooting/flashing, higher latency, less LAN throughput.

Go wired, if not go powerline, if not go wireless.

And your old phonelines will still work, it's only the master socket that's changed should you go for fiber.
Click to expand...

HAz said:
50meg wifi or 5meg wired? It's a no brainer really. Also pretty sure virgin have to fit the router where u tell them, he's just beating lazy
Click to expand...

Is it a no brainer? Gamers often moan when playing on a wifi connection that they get lag, rubber banding, connection issues, etc. It's exactly the reasons stated above by GefGz that I want to maintain my wired connection, higher latency being the most important one. Also, it's not Virgin, I'm not in the UK and he could have course put the router anywhere in the flat but it would mean drilling a load of holes for wires, hiding the wires behind skirting boards, etc (tiled floor so no carpets) - creates mess and would look untidy (read my wife would be angry!).

For FPS the connection speed is not that important once you get over 5mb, provided ping is low, the increased speed is only really useful to me if downloading movies but we usually stream through netflix etc, so not sure if we'd actually notice a difference. Youtube does often load slow but I think that's more to do with Youtube being **** as it often loads slow on my parents 20mb Virgin connection.

They offer up to 320mb connection but what they don't tell you unless you ask the engineer is that their router is limited to 50mb :rolleyes:. Would get the benefit of cheaper bills and some HD TV channels (but not as great as it sounds as I don't understand Russian!).

But if there is no way this tech will work through the phone line then I think I'd need to get powerline and probably need a new thread to work that out :rolleyes: - more hassle than it's worth.
 
Last edited:
I've been playing wirelessly for years, both on 2.4GHz and now on 5GHz without issue. If you have a good signal and are on an uncontested channel you won't have a problem. I have tested both and other than a 3-5ms increase in ping (which is negligible) I couldn't tell the difference. Download speeds were also maxed out.
 
Decent wireless can be almost identical to wired, mine adds 0.4ms to my ping. 50Mb/s is not unfeasible on wireless either. I get real throughput rates of about 140Mb/s on wireless n.

My kit is a Asus RT-N56U and an Asus PCE-AC66
 
MoRT489 said:
Sorry, I mean I'm currently on broadband and PC is right next to the phone socket so it's 5mb over cat5e but if he installs optical (it's called GPON here) the router will be by the front door and no way to run a cat5e cable to the PC as would need to drill holes all over the flat!
Click to expand...

Cant you just use the same cat5e cable?
 
I don't think u got it - the phone socket is in the lounge next to my PC so the current broadband router is plugged in there with a CAT5e cable running about 1m to my PC. If installing GPON, he's telling me the new GPON router has to go next to the front door as the optical cables only run to there. TO have a wired PC I would need to run a 10-15m CAT5e cable from the front door to the lounge, which isn't feasible.

If wireless only adds a few ms or less to ping then I'll get it.

Gammawolf said:
My kit is a Asus RT-N56U and an Asus PCE-AC66
Click to expand...

This adapter seems expensive, do I need to spend this much to get a decent steady connection?
 
Last edited:
MoRT489 said:
I don't think u got it - the phone socket is in the lounge next to my PC so the current broadband router is plugged in there with a CAT5e cable running about 1m to my PC. If installing GPON, he's telling me the new GPON router has to go next to the front door as the optical cables only run to there. TO have a wired PC I would need to run a 10-15m CAT5e cable from the front door to the lounge, which isn't feasible.

If wireless only adds a few ms or less to ping then I'll get it.



This adapter seems expensive, do I need to spend this much to get a decent steady connection?
Click to expand...

Go powerline.

Best of both worlds, don't have to put up with wifi and you don't have to run cables
 
Is it secure in a large apartment block? Also with 34 options to choose from on OCUK alone, where do I start?! Why is it better than wireless?

Does it work with one plug right next to the router connected by ethernet and then a second plug anywhere else in the apartment with the PC connected to that plug by ethernet as well?
 
MoRT489 said:
This adapter seems expensive, do I need to spend this much to get a decent steady connection?
Click to expand...

Mine is rather overkill since it supports wireless ac (which i planned on using but never got around to replacing my router), you could get much cheaper and just as decent sticking with n rated kit
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom