Upgrading my home network

[blackbeard_teach]

Hello
I am planing to upgrade my home network where ever I see possible
My current set is as follow
Fiber optic- echolife hg851
Router- Dlink 850L
Cable- Cat5e
Motherboard- Z170-A
ISP connection- 50mb download 10mb upload.



The thing that get my head scratching, with my Lenovo laptop, I download at 2mb from steam, however ever with my new computer, I download at 4-6 mb

My LED at motherboard Ethernet port indicate I got a Gigabit connection, so I got that out of the way(it's the best correct)?
My relative claim he is downloading at 8mb while getting a 20mb from ISP with a Cat6.

Echolife Hg851 is bugging me, this product is discontinued and possibly outdated, not sure if ISP have a newer version since they Had their OWN version of the device

In term of router, I think I will get a netgear router( nighthawk R7000) cause u heard it was good and I really like the genie software.



So my list of required upgrade are:

1) upgrading my Cat5e to cat6
2) upgrading my Router

in short, I wish for my router to have the best Wired connection and average wireless connection

And where does the Cat6 cable start from??, from the fiber optic device or the router?

And thx

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To summarize:

*Cat5e and Cat6 are almost used the same since 99% of people can't reach 10 Gigabit speed.
*fiber and copper are almost the same, but fiber is better at longer distances, handling Data centers, and not for House usage currently.
*there is a Device that can Transmit wireless connection to your Far away Hardware without crappy Range extender Via LAN
*"Your equipment is all gigabit capable and no more, just like 99% of consumer equipment."

 

[RealBeast]

You do not need to change your cables from CAT5e to CAT6, both are gigabit capable and there will be no improvement of any kind in doing so. Your cable will start from the router.

I agree that the R7000 is the best choice for a router at present, although I don't know that you will see much improvement over your current Dlink 850L.

While the Echolife Hg851 is a very old model, as long as you are actually getting 4-6MB/sec. downloads on a 50Mbps ISP plan it is working adequately and you will not get faster speed from making a change.

If your relative has a 20Mbps plan, there is no way that he is really getting 8MB/sec downloads unless the ISP actually has him on a 75MBps or higher plan. He is confused.

As far as your Lenovo laptop, is that download over wireless or wired?

 

[blackbeard_teach]

You?

"You do not need to change your cables from CAT5e to CAT6, both are gigabit capable and there will be no improvement of any kind in doing so. Your cable will start from the router."

it seems true, but lot's of people are going with conflicting things.

it include things such as future proffing, higher Frequency, faster "something", now i am not sure anymore, but the concept of future Proffing seems to always get to me.

however i have another question in that regard, i did a couple of reading and saw a thing for fiber optic.

Should i get fiber optics? or is it useless/ impossible?

"I agree that the R7000 is the best choice for a router at present, although I don't know that you will see much improvement over your current Dlink 850L."

My room have been moved and the 850 is having trouble Delivering good connection to my Room(i could only put it in the living room), so what ever router i am getting, i am sticking that sucker on the living room around 1.8-2.5 high on the ground(heard the higher it is the better), plus on Fridays i will have lot's of Wireless Devices and the connection somewhat drops if using a wireless Device.


"As far as your Lenovo laptop, is that download over wireless or wired?"

it was wired, and this is the links to my hardware.(they both ran on same cables and internet speed)

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z170-A/
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/t430s/#tab-tech_specs

the lenovo says Ethernet RJ45
the asus says"Gigabit Intel® LAN Connection" and "Intel® I219V, 1 x Gigabit LAN Controller(s)"

which got no idea what they mean

 

[RealBeast]

Let me state this clearly for you -- there is ABSOLUTELY no advantage for you to use CAT6 over CAT5e for gigabit Ethernet.

10 gigabit Ethernet is still far too expensive and will be for a number of years, and when you eventually move to 10 gigabit Ethernet you will probably want to use CAT6A or CAT7 cabling, although CAT6 will work for short runs. Long story short, no reason to upgrade from CAT5e at present.

You also do not need fiber optic for short runs now, it is really only useful for very long runs and data center applications at present. Again cost is a significant issue for the next few years at least.

It is unlikely that an R7000 will improve your range issue. A better approach would be to use a pair of very good (i.e. AV1200 powerline adapters, which work far better than wireless at a distance). You can attach a cheap router to the end of the distant powerline adapter or use a switch or direct connection.

Your equipment is all gigabit capable and no more, just like 99% of consumer equipment.

I use a pair of 10 gigabit Ethernet adapters at my home and they run about $250 per adapter and close to a thousand for a reasonable 10 gigabit switch, and it is only beneficial if you need a very high speed connection to a large/fast storage array. 10 gigabit will not be practically available to consumers for quite some time due to the high cost, and most do not need it since it is faster than their storage devices can handle.

 

[blackbeard_teach]

Let me state this clearly for you.

"there is ABSOLUTELY no advantage for you to use CAT6 over CAT5e for gigabit Ethernet."

u could be right, i read around and 10 Gigabit is Available at around 400$ PER MONTH.
i just managed to contact the Relative, and he said that he got 2 cables, one is 15m, the other is 10m.
15m gets him the same speed as me, but the 10m gives him the 8Mb download speed from steam, He claims that 15 is cat6, and 10 is cat5E(which blow me away).
in term of ISP yea, i asked his other brother and he conformed it was 50, not 20(would that be possible to reach that download speed now?).

i get the feeling that as soon as i reach the shop, i am going to get the Cat 6 if was the same price as a pizza(since i only need 10-15)

"A better approach would be to use a pair of very good (i.e. AV1200 powerline adapters"

*clap clap clap

thank u sir, never knew such thing even existed.

but the thing is, i am talking about 4-6 Devices in a far away room+4-6 in the living room+my PC,Ps4 and a couple of devices that travel in a dynamic motion, so your power Adapter is great, but i will be using wireless mostly which as i see only works with LAN cables, so i guess i am sticking with the R7000(might go Lower).

 

[RealBeast]

Gigabit Ethernet over CAT5e and CAT6 are both rated at 100 meters, and unless one cable is damaged there would be no difference at 10-15 meters.

I have set up many distant home access setups with AV1200 powerline attached to the main router on one end and another router set up as an access point at the other. That gives a strong wireless signal at the distant point and also provides three LAN ports for wired connections (the 4th LAN port is used by the powerline adapter connection using Ethernet cable). So that arrangement can support many devices at much lower latency than wireless from the main router at a long distance.

When I mentioned 10 gigabit, I did not mean that Internet service level from your ISP, but a high speed connection for part of your local area network. AFAIK there is no ISP offering in excess of gigabit Internet at present.