Ethernet vs Wi-Fi: Is Wired Connection really better?

Wireless is the general standard of every emerging technology so much so that it is not a flashy feature anymore. With the world becoming wireless, the usage of Ethernet cables makes less sense, but they do provide a lot more options.

Nobody has seen people using Ethernet cables with their smartphones, but it is a good option to consider in many use cases like using your backup devices, gaming and all. Even though it is not as comfortable as using a wireless network, Ethernet has three great advantages more reliable connection, faster speeds, lower latency.

Also Read: How Airplane Wi-Fi Works? How does Wi-Fi work in an Aeroplane?

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Speed

When it comes to speed of data transmission, Ethernet has a slight upper hand on Wi-Fi but you are trading a marginal speed difference for the comfort of taking your device to anywhere with-in the Wi-Fi range.

When Wi-Fi first hit the market with its 802.11g standard, it became a bottleneck for the people with great internet speeds since 54Mbps is the band limit compared to 1000Mbps of Ethernet. However, with the latest Wi-Fi standards like 802.11ac, this is no longer a problem. The band limit is now 3200Mbps(Theoretical) which is far greater than the internet speeds in most houses nowadays.

Reliability

Even though Wi-Fi offers great speeds now, they are theoretical only. In the practical use case, the signals are susceptible to various disturbances like Radio waves, walls can weaken the signals even the atmosphere can change the signal strength. Ethernet really shines here, since it gives a stable speed as expected of a bounded medium of data transfer.

This difference is a signal strength is normally seen when you are downloading a huge file or streaming a video in 1080p or above.

Security

Security is undoubtedly the best feature Ethernet has to offer compared to Wi-Fi. The data sent via Ethernet can only be accessed by the sender and the receiver of the data at the both ends of the cable. However, in the case of Wi-Fi, the data is sent through the air, anyone who can crack the encryption has your data. Using open Wi-Fi in places like Train stations, coffee shops is not at all secure and pose a great threat to your security.

Even though Ethernet has many advantages over Wi-Fi, it doesn’t make sense to use a wired connection all the time with your laptop. The performance factor is almost same in both the cases, but if you are picky then Ethernet is the one for you