I'm adding this from a conversation in email with another user, because I think the info pertains to the conversation here about ethernet ports and why folks might want to use them when they have the option. There is some un-related material at the start but I decided to leave the full email intact.
JohnGaltLine said:I'm unsure what equipment, and what provider you have for Internet. That said, I think Ethernet plug is probably more accurate than t-1. Ethernet is basically the hard-wired connection to your internet modem. T-1, on the other hand, is a very old term that basically means a telephone mainline. A t-1 line is exactly the same thing as having 24 phone lines. These connections became popular with folks that could afford them, in the early days of the Internet as having 24 phone lines let you download data 24 times faster than a single dial-up modem. Since the 1990's, however, broadband cable and DSL have virtually made dial-up extinct as they are faster and more reliable. A t-1 line tops out a little over 1 Mbps (million bits per second) where as many cable and other internet providers offer speeds of 300-2000 Mbps today. To judge what you need, to stream HD quality video requires a speed of 3 to 5 Mbps, if you are doing absolutely nothing else on the internet and have no other devices connected.Anyway, on to the wifi, the higher end wifi devices out for the last few years transfer data plenty fast enough to not really be worth talking about right now. However a lot of folks are running older equipment, or running inexpensive equipment that will limit wireless speed to 54 Mbps. This is still very fast for one device to download with, but a lot of folks don't understand that if their router is limited at this speed, every device connected takes away something.Think of your wifi connection like a bunch of hoses connected to a large bucket. The bucket holds 54 gallons of water. Radio interference acts like poking some holes into each hose, forcing you to lose some water(data) on the way to your phone or computer. In addition wifi is a redundant system that self corrects errors. In the bucket analogy, once the water gets to your phone, the phone has to pump it back to another bucket to make sure the phone got the right amount of water. All of this back and forth of water(data) takes time, and when all is said and done, that 54 gallons is down to 25-30 that can actually be used on your phone or computer. Then it has to be split up again to go to each device connected. Your train wifi app? 2 gallons. The train wifi base, another 2. Your kids and other family members watching Netflix? There goes 15 gallons. Soon enough the water starts flowing slower. Not enough data can pass through the wifi to keep up with demand.To the question of why have, or use an Ethernet port on a wifi device, the answer is simple. You free up a bit of data flow for other devices that actually need a wireless connection, like your phone or tablet, and... Going back to the bucket of water again, that plug is like replacing the 54 gallon bucket with one that holds thousands of gallons. The wired connection transfers data dozens, if not hundreds, of times faster than wifi.I got a bit off course here in my response to you and more into my reply to the folk on the forum, so I'm going to post much of this there as well. Anyway, I hope there is something useful to you in my ramblings.
The take away from this as it related to this conversation is, if it is not too much of a headache, always use a wired connection if you can. Every device you use on wifi slows the rest down, so if you can plug something in, do it. Wifi is convenient. Hard wired ethernet is fast and secure.
JGL
