Which is best.... USB or Ethernet?
- Thread starter Dr Love
- Start date
Better connection in what sense?
Ethernet's preferable over USB because you don't need drivers (other than for your network card, but pretty much any OS has drivers for the most common options) and it's generally faster and more stable, but it's probably not going to make much odds to your internet connection (issues with USB and connections faster than ~4Mbps aside).
Ethernet's preferable over USB because you don't need drivers (other than for your network card, but pretty much any OS has drivers for the most common options) and it's generally faster and more stable, but it's probably not going to make much odds to your internet connection (issues with USB and connections faster than ~4Mbps aside).
Soldato
- Joined
- 25 Nov 2007
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the modem will be more simple and not need to do stuff like open ports, but that would only be for one PC, if you ever think you will have another, then ethernet
One important way in which ethernet is superior to USB is security. With USB everything is dependent on your PC's security. With ethernet your PC's IP address is different from the one supplied by your ISP and the modem translates between the two (Network Address Translation or NAT). This instantly provides a small amount of firewalling as your internal IP address is hidden from the internet. Use a full router instead of just an ADSL modem and you should get an effective firewall built-in.
I found USB to be very unstable when networking. It kept dropping packets at regular intervals and couldn't sustain a decent transfer rate.
They only advantage USB did have was it meant I could still use the internet in the event of a power cut as it does not require its own power source (PC has a UPS btw).
They only advantage USB did have was it meant I could still use the internet in the event of a power cut as it does not require its own power source (PC has a UPS btw).