Ethernet vs. wifi

[WeatherWeasel]

Kind of a silly question. I have a 2017 imac i5 processor, 32G RAM. I really don't do much but stuff like this, email and other stuff. I do sometimes download from my wife's college assigments for her to grade (print on printer, she is one of those professors who reads and grades everything.) and then scan them to pdf and send them back to her to send to her students. I used to teach chemistry, physics and math and have the need to crunch numbers for my weather data for my other hobby. But now just weatherdata and the forementioned stuff.

I was going to upgrade to Fiber, but the installer forgot to get arial permits to cross the line over 2 properties. In Iowa, you have to have them and then again there is a line going to a neighbors house across the street that for some reason the installer (1 month experience) claims is not installed correctly, but they still have fiber. So.... I still have DSL, 40 up, 5 down, claims it has 50 down and I am not telling them. So it is fast enough, and I would have them come back, but the wife says we should wait until they get their act together and have them back later.

My question is this, I have both the wif to my modem/router (Xyzel C1100Z) which is 5 feet away from my computer (the wife has a mac air pro that is everywhere in the house and her ipad etc) and I also have ethernet connected.

Ethernet is faster for some reason, and even with me not connected to the wifi per se, I can access our two wifi printers with no problems. Is there anything I am messing up by having both running connected, or should I just go with the ethernet? If I go and unconnect to the wifi the net preferences claim the wifi is still on, but I have not selected my network.

Being retired has the drawback of over thinking something and I have to reach out . Arghhhhhh

I should say they are connected to same network

 

[0128672]

This is also being discussed here:

iMac 2021 using wifi or ethernet?

For those who purchased the iMac 2021 with the ethernet included in the power block are u using ethernet or wifi?

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Ledgem]

I do sometimes download from my wife's college assigments for her to grade (print on printer, she is one of those professors who reads and grades everything.) and then scan them to pdf and send them back to her to send to her students.

Unrelated to your question, but have you considered going full digital? Apple's iPad Pros support the Apple Pencil, and if you haven't tried it, it's really like writing on paper. I use PDF Expert as my PDF manager of choice for marking up PDFs; she can then "flatten" them (make her markups a permanent part of the document that can't be moved or erased) and send them back. Admittedly I still have the first-generation "big" iPad Pro with the first-generation Apple Pencils (I used the feature so heavily that I bought two); I'm sure the newer ones have only improved since then (although the price went up...). No need to get the latest and greatest, if mine from 5-6 years ago is still going strong, you can probably get old ones off of eBay to do the trick. Just make sure you're getting the correct generation of Apple Pencil, if you're planning to go way back to the earlier models. Save paper, save the planet.

Ethernet is faster for some reason, and even with me not connected to the wifi per se, I can access our two wifi printers with no problems. Is there anything I am messing up by having both running connected, or should I just go with the ethernet? If I go and unconnect to the wifi the net preferences claim the wifi is still on, but I have not selected my network.

No downside. Ethernet will have a lower latency and more reliable, higher speeds compared with wifi (particularly if your network is congested - and if you have any "smart devices" in your home, the number of wireless clients begins to add up very quickly). A few years ago MacOS required wifi to be on to utilize location services; I'm not sure if they've changed that in recent operating system versions.

For what it's worth, you can change the order of priority for MacOS by going to System Preferences > Network. Looking on the left, you'll see a list of devices and network protocols. Make sure that Ethernet is listed above Wifi (if it isn't, look at the bottom, click on the button with the three dots in a circle, click on "Set Service Order," and make sure ethernet is on top).

 

[ADGrant]

Ethernet is faster for some reason, and even with me not connected to the wifi per se, I can access our two wifi printers with no problems. Is there anything I am messing up by having both running connected, or should I just go with the ethernet? If I go and unconnect to the wifi the net preferences claim the wifi is still on, but I have not selected my network.

Ethernet is always faster. You can keep both connected.

 

[960design]

Ethernet is always faster. You can keep both connected.

Except when it's not. Ethernet is almost always faster. It, of course, depends on your switches and cabling. Considering you are running less than 1Gbs then both are almost exactly the same ( except, when it's not - aka you are 200+ feet from the WiFi router and there are three walls between ).

In your specific case it comes down to convenience. The differences in speed will be insignificant for the experience.
( Your car may go 250mph, mine may only go 90, but cars normally stay in the 60 - 75 mph range. Mine may conveniently get more miles per gallon, or haul more groceries, more friends, it really comes down to convenience ).

 

[Geepaw]

I would go wifi for the convenience factor. For better performance (i.e., speed), if required, ethernet is usually the best.

 

[Fishrrman]

If you already have ethernet set up and running, just use it.
"What works, works"...

I'd get that fiber optic installed, pronto.
THAT is what will make a real difference...

 

[pmiles]

Here's the deal. A wired connection is always going to be better than a wireless one... always. You pay a premium for not being tethered to something.

Here's the deal, everyone will be on fiber optics in the relatively near future. Technology is such that the current system is just too slow to handle the kind of traffic that will be placed on it. And when I say slow, I mean when under load. If it's just you on the internet, it would be blazingly fast as you are the only one asking it to upload or download anything. And some more people, and that changes. We're talking networks that have to handle millions of users concurrently. Fiber optics is just another solution to that congestion problem.

That's the fun thing about fiber optics... it's so relatively new that very few people are actually on it. So in some respects, you're paying for a private line to the President so to speak. Only that reality will change over time as it becomes more mainstream and eventually replaces the current system. Those incredible speeds will slow down as more and more people use it. BUT, it will ultimately be faster than what exists now because it was designed to handle the traffic better.

The question is this... are you so cutting edge that you are willing to buy a Lamborghini to drive to the bathroom, or are you pretty much okay with the speeds that they are at now? Because if you get fiber optics now, you are paying for everyone else who will eventually get it as the norm later on at a substantially cheaper price. You are paying a premium to get on the ride first, so to speak.

To put it into perspective, when I was younger, they were just rolling out this thing called cable. Everyone had their antennas on their rooftops to watch TV with. It was free. But for some money, they'd run this cable right to your house that allowed you to get picture perfect TV and much much more of it. If you held out, eventually everyone on the block had cable to their house because the cable company was going to run it to everywhere anyways... they just wanted to get you to front the cost upfront to get it earlier.

If they have to string it to your house, you are paying a premium to get it. Is it really all that much better than what you have now considering the cost of switching to fiber? In a couple of years it will all be fiber. But a hell of a lot cheaper than the fiber now because you didn't pay for them to string it to your house.

 

[WeatherWeasel]

Here's the deal. A wired connection is always going to be better than a wireless one... always. You pay a premium for not being tethered to something.

Here's the deal, everyone will be on fiber optics in the relatively near future. Technology is such that the current system is just too slow to handle the kind of traffic that will be placed on it. And when I say slow, I mean when under load. If it's just you on the internet, it would be blazingly fast as you are the only one asking it to upload or download anything. And some more people, and that changes. We're talking networks that have to handle millions of users concurrently. Fiber optics is just another solution to that congestion problem.

That's the fun thing about fiber optics... it's so relatively new that very few people are actually on it. So in some respects, you're paying for a private line to the President so to speak. Only that reality will change over time as it becomes more mainstream and eventually replaces the current system. Those incredible speeds will slow down as more and more people use it. BUT, it will ultimately be faster than what exists now because it was designed to handle the traffic better.

The question is this... are you so cutting edge that you are willing to buy a Lamborghini to drive to the bathroom, or are you pretty much okay with the speeds that they are at now? Because if you get fiber optics now, you are paying for everyone else who will eventually get it as the norm later on at a substantially cheaper price. You are paying a premium to get on the ride first, so to speak.

To put it into perspective, when I was younger, they were just rolling out this thing called cable. Everyone had their antennas on their rooftops to watch TV with. It was free. But for some money, they'd run this cable right to your house that allowed you to get picture perfect TV and much much more of it. If you held out, eventually everyone on the block had cable to their house because the cable company was going to run it to everywhere anyways... they just wanted to get you to front the cost upfront to get it earlier.

If they have to string it to your house, you are paying a premium to get it. Is it really all that much better than what you have now considering the cost of switching to fiber? In a couple of years it will all be fiber. But a hell of a lot cheaper than the fiber now because you didn't pay for them to string it to your house.

For now, I am keeping the dsl. The people across the street have theirs ran from a box down the street on a telephone pole and a wire from that strung across the street to their fiber box an it seems it still works, although techie from the same company said it had to come from the same pole that our telephone lines, across 2 properties, permits etc. So I figure that the best solution here is to wait until someone from Centurylink gets their act together and figures out how the wires go. I get about 40 down and 5 up . The wife teaches online and has been watching videos nonstop on her ipod. Sooooo it isn't that slow. Sure macos updates are slow but then again, I have the time.
you are right, whyshould I fund others when I can wait . In West Des Moines google is running fiber and it seems it isn't going well right now. since they are burying it, people have had their utiilities screwed up. Me , in the old part of town,, it is overhead wires. Hey, thanks everyone for your input.

 

[Begdov]

Someone can tell me about the Wi-Fi module. It is constantly disconnected if the connection is bad. How can this problem be solved?