How practical is multi-gigabit ethernet today?

[Alfredapowell]

Recently, I received an email from my ISP advertising their newest speed tier - 1.5 gigabits. Naturally, I'm scratching my head wondering how I would even make use of this, given that virtually all consumer-grade endpoint equipment is still stuck in the gigabit stone age.
Or have router and mobo makers quietly been upgrading the ethernet ports on even their cheap/"mainstream" devices to mult-gigabit over the past few years, and I've somehow missed the memo?

 

[HemiHauler]

I’d say it’s more important to have synchronous speeds rather than gobs of “down” and a measly 1Mbit “up”.

I’ve reckoned these packages are sold to gamers who really don’t understand how networks work and assume more is better without understanding the broader story.

 

[Clem72]

Recently, I received an email from my ISP advertising their newest speed tier - 1.5 gigabits. Naturally, I'm scratching my head wondering how I would even make use of this, given that virtually all consumer-grade endpoint equipment is still stuck in the gigabit stone age.
Or have router and mobo makers quietly been upgrading the ethernet ports on even their cheap/"mainstream" devices to mult-gigabit over the past few years, and I've somehow missed the memo?

My ISP says you need to upgrade from 100mbit to 250megabit if you have more than two people watching streaming tv. So by that logic you would likely need 1.5gbit if you want to stream and use outlook at the same time.

 

[Clem72]

I’d say it’s more important to have synchronous speeds rather than gobs of “down” and a measly 1Mbit “up”.

I’ve reckoned these packages are sold to gamers who really don’t understand how networks work and assume more is better without understanding the broader story.

The only applicable use case for "At home" purposes are related to gaming, like downloading new games in a reasonable amount of time (some approaching 100GB to download like Destiny 2 before they removed the old expansions) and game streaming in HD which actually requires lower latency more than higher bandwidth, but typically those are somewhat connected. Same size packets, just more per second, so the latency is lower.

 

[Gilligan]

Would certainly be a waste of time where we are....stuck with an ISP that can't push us more than 150mb on a good day.

 

[SamSpade]

My ISP says you need to upgrade from 100mbit to 250megabit if you have more than two people watching streaming tv.

Somehow the concept of hogging bandwidth in a household is lost on members of my family. At peak times when everyone is on their phone, or playing a game, using their laptop and so forth - some things lag. Like a lot.

I have a hard time making the case that it isn't JUST - a few cell phones - a couple laptops - a desktop - but that we have a whole ZOO of devices connected to the wi-fi.

 

[Sneakers]

but that we have a whole ZOO of devices connected to the wi-fi.

Some of your lag may be due to all of those wifi devices contending for the same frequency to the router. The more devices you have using those frequencies, the poorer the response to/from the router. May not actually be the ISP network.

 

[SamSpade]

Some of your lag may be due to all of those wifi devices contending for the same frequency to the router. The more devices you have using those frequencies, the poorer the response to/from the router. May not actually be the ISP network.

Oh I'm not blaming the ISP - they can only shove so much water down the spigot. It's all the damned hoses draining the water.

 

[HemiHauler]

The only applicable use case for "At home" purposes are related to gaming, like downloading new games in a reasonable amount of time (some approaching 100GB to download like Destiny 2 before they removed the old expansions) and game streaming in HD which actually requires lower latency more than higher bandwidth, but typically those are somewhat connected. Same size packets, just more per second, so the latency is lower.

Right. Larger download speeds will benefit more than gamers though. OS updates for the various operating systems I maintain can be that large as well.

It’s the upload speeds that people overlook (and ISPs gyp you on). I’d rather have 10Mbps synchronous rather than 100Gpbs down and 1Mbps up, for example. I routinely do pushes to remote git repos that have 1-2 GB BLOBs, which means no diffs will be sent, just entire BLOB.

I have found that in my household (before synchronous speeds) complaints about speeds were almost always related to congestion of the outbound traffic — DNS lookups (which should be fast because question packets are small) and kids gaming and using the chat feature of whatever game they were playing. That stuff is usually not connection-oriented but rather UDP and should be more performant, but lots of factors can be at play. Only wifi devices are mobile phones, all other equipment is wired, so as to avoid channel congestion.

 

[PSrada]

Recently, I received an email from my ISP advertising their newest speed tier - 1.5 gigabits. Naturally, I'm scratching my head wondering how I would even make use of this, given that virtually all consumer-grade endpoint equipment is still stuck in the gigabit stone age.
Or have router and mobo makers quietly been upgrading the ethernet ports on even their cheap/"mainstream" devices to mult-gigabit over the past few years, and I've somehow missed the memo?

Multi-gig is starting to become more common but it still is pretty uncommon in the consumer space. Right now in the consumer space you have Netgear's multi-gigabit switches, and a couple basic routers with multi-gig on one port. Newer motherboards are starting to come with multigig ethernet as well. On the other hand, there are a number of options in the business sector, but it doesn't sound like you may want to go that way. Both for complexity and cost reasons. The costs aren't outrageous, but a fair deal above consumer pricing.

Multi-Gigabit Ethernet: A Comprehensive Guide to Upgrading Your Network

Introduction In today's fast-paced business environment, having a high-speed, reliable network is critical. With the rise of high-bandwidth applications like video conferencing, cloud computing, and Big Data, traditional Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) networks are no longer enough. Multi-Gigabit...

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[PeoplesElbow]

That's a lot of porn.

 

[jrt_ms1995]

That's a lot of porn.

Yes, but there's no such thing as too much porn!

 

[GURPS]

I have 100 / 100 FiOS ... 1 GB Backbone in the house

my torrent box runs 24x7

We have one TV in the living room. but 3 gamers

I also run an I2P node with very generous bandwidth settings, because UNLIMITED Comsumption, so why not