[SOLVED] Dumb question but is Gigbit safe for older routers?

[DavidKent]

Sorry to sound so dim on this but I'm wondering if anyone could help me with regard to a question I have regarding the inclusion of a gigabit device on a PC. I know very little (as will become obvious) about internet connectivity.

I'm thinking about buying a new PC or rather, a new, used second-hand PC, and I notice that most of them refer to having a gigabit port for the router.
I'm quite neurotic about my router as I rely on the internet on a daily basis and at the moment my ISP is almost impossible to contact because of Covid-19, so if the router stops working this means I'm going to be without the internet for an indefinite period, so I therefore do not wish to do anything that will damage it (I always used my router as wired rather than wifi.)
I don't know what specs of my router are but it's three years old, so if it's 'Fast' ethernet rather than Gigabit ethernet, would a computer with a
gigabit port do any damage/harm to my router?
Thanks
David
* i just checked the box that the router arrived in and there is no information about its specs.

 

[R_1]

its fine. Backwards compatibility will make the gigabit run at the speed the network is running.
think of it like a hose, you can have a fire hose, but if its fed by a drinking straw, only what the straw gives the hose will come out hose, despite the wider path and more bandwidth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backward_compatibility

 

[SamirD]

Gigabit is backward compatible with fast ethernet, so you should have no issues.

 

[DavidKent]

its fine. Backwards compatibility will make the gigabit run at the speed the network is running.
think of it like a hose, you can have a fire hose, but if its fed by a drinking straw, only what the straw gives the hose will come out hose, despite the wider path and more bandwidth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backward_compatibility

Many thanks.