SteveR Loc: Michigan

We're building a new house and I have to decide whether to put an ethernet port in my den. My question is whether the ethernet would cause my MacPro to run faster. I currently have a download speed of 400 mps. I don't download movies, etc. We've made decisions on the rest of the house, but could save some money if I skip the den.

Also, would an ethernet connection for smart tv's be better than wifi?

I know these are technologically ignorant questions. My son has told me as much. I do know that ethernet is "faster," but since I don't do gaming or download a lot of movies, etc., would I have some good use for it? Thanks!!

Ourspolair

Most "Smart" TVs have crippled browsers these days, so for that most people are streaming to the TV from their "smarter" cellphones using wifi technology. If you set up a mesh wi-fi system throughout the house with a well located router, you should be able to do without the cable. However, where possible, I connect my computers using a wired connection to the router where cable has been installed to make this possible. Mesh repeaters are about $80 each and will expand your coverage. One caveat is that you may need to convert one of the repeaters to an "access point" if you have a neighbour operating on the same bands, and that requires a cable connection to the router. Your Mac will operate at the same speed, but the internet connection will be faster using the cable and you won't be sharing wi-fi bandwidth with other users.

pmorin Loc: Huntington Beach, Palm Springs

Excellent question! I have my place wired for Ethernet (ex telco splicer) and always thought it was the way to go. But your question prompted me to do a little research and this is what I found online. This is a snapshot of a page and I’m including the link to give a better idea of what the author’s conclusions are.
Pete
https://www.tmcnet.com/topics/articles/2020/01/27/444323-ethernet-vs-wifi.htm

(Download)

johngault007 Loc: Florida Panhandle

If your ISP provides high speed internet (400Mbs and higher), 802.11ac and 802.11n will be adequate for +/- (3.4Gbs (ac) 600Mbs (n)). But both of those signals are shorter distance than some of the older 802.11 signals. Of course, those high speeds depend on environment, network usage, and obstacles between the antennae and the device.

I use ethernet connections whenever it is possible just out of personal preference to reduce as much congestion as I can over wifi, but except for my data server, probably isn't really necessary.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

The real question for me is if I stream tv like acorn plus, would I be better off capturing it through ethernet cable connected to the router/modem or via today's wifi? Or would there not be much difference?

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Unless you use a really old WiFi router that tops out at 11 mbs you would likely see no difference provided you have a good signal

FWIW- my desktop iMac is connected to my router with Ethernet cable, all other devices in my house are WiFi, including streaming to two TVs & two WiFi printers, my wife’s iMac and three laptops over three floors

No slowdowns anywhere, I did need to place an access point in one room to boost the WiFi signal for that room though

pmorin Loc: Huntington Beach, Palm Springs

I agree with the others that think the best bet is to use wifi for streaming. I use Apple TV+ and a Roku streaming stick and broadcast tv channels. It’s easier to set up a stream this way on my old Visio because most of the apps are outdated and no longer are useable. To stream directly to the tv from the router would require me to buy a new tv.

neillaubenthal

No brainer. If you're building a new house then adding ethernet cable is practically speaking not very much. Depending on whether it's a tract house or not and how persnickety the builder is…you could even run the wires yourself. That's what I did during a remodel…once the framing inside was up I ran the cables through the studs to the closet where the patch panel would eventually get installed and left the ends of them coiled up in the wall outlet boxes. The drywall guys cut around them nicely for me and after painting it's pretty trivial to punch down the wires onto the RJ45 jacks.

Even if the builder runs the wiring for you it's still pretty cheap I would think…just the cost of the cable and even running it through the whole house would only take a day or so for 1 guy.

Wired will be faster than wireless with any modern computer…gigabit ethernet is pretty much standard these days.

Whether you see any speed increase depends on your internet speed but you'll definitely have less latency with wired. In my case, Xfinity gives me gigabit internet…and my wired device gives me 970 or so while my 802.11n 5GHz laptop only gets 700 or so…which is still pretty fast. However…wiring a new construction house is pretty cheap as I said.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Personally, I would run the CAT5 or CAT6 cable. Although WIFI is certainly fast enough to stream TV, it will never achieve the rated speed in real world, and all those mesh routers are potential points of failure, and may need to be rebooted if the main router goes down, etc. - just a more complex system to maintain, and like good designers know, the simplest system is the best, all other things being equal. I’ll also be very surprised if the WiFi will actually benchmark anywhere near 400 Mb/sec, regardless of the specs.

rck281 Loc: Overland Park, KS

Things change wit time. What may be adequate today may not be tomorrow. IMHO cable is always preferred over Wifi.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I have a four year old Netgear R7000 NightHawk router. It is connected to a 100Mbps download / 10 Mbps upload cable Internet service. So even if the WiFi can run faster, the speed limiting factor is the signal coming into or going out of the house. We're at the mercy of Spectrum, and their ancient copper distribution network.

We run our Samsung Smart TVs on 5 GHz WiFi. So long as the cable Internet service is stable, the picture on Netflix, Prime, YouTube, etc. is pristine. My son has an old Xbox he uses to watch Netflix. It's on WiFi. We have an iMac, a Mac Mini, two iPads, and four iPhones on WiFi as well.

We hard wired my wife's work PC, because that needs to be secure to meet her company's standards for VPN connections. We hard wired our printer because it sits next to the router. And we hard wired our T-Mobile Hot Spot, for stability on calls. However, most of the time, our phones are using WiFi Calling...

If you're not doing super-sensitive work, WiFi is secure enough, provided you use the right encryption and keep router firmware up to date. We turn on OS firewalls and router firewalls, and use McAfee anti-malware software from Spectrum.

The world is going wireless... We now live in a sea of RF!

As for the MacPro, wired Ethernet CAN be faster on your local network, provided all connected devices run at 1Gb/second (or 10Gb per second if you have that option installed in the new Mac Pro). If you are using a fiber network service, speeds of 1Gbps are not uncommon, so that may be of benefit.

For watching movies, phone calls, and casual web surfing with the occasional file upload, reliable 100 Mbps cable Internet service with a decent, recent router is all you need.