WEBVTT

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You probably haven't had to think too much about what gadget to plug into what port on your home

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router or network switch because they're usually all the same speed gigabit on just about everything

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has been the standard for quite a while now but it looks like this is changing as we've started

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to see other speeds even on consumer level gear not just enterprise stuff what other speeds are

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we talking about well we did a video a while ago on 2.5 gigabit Ethernet which was developed as a

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cheaper alternative to the much more pricey 10 gigabit revision not only are the actual 2.5

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gigabit products like routers and switches and adapters cheaper but it can run over existing

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cat 5e cabling not redoing all of your cabling that's a lot cheaper that's pretty appealing you

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don't have to rewire your entire network in order to take advantage of speeds above one gigabit but

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unlike gigabit equipment which usually just has the same speed on every port 2.5 5 and 10 gigabit

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devices sometimes use different speeds on different ports but why well that depends on which gadget

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you're asking about for example 2.5 gigabit routers with only one 2.5 gig port are becoming more

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common typically that faster port is the WAN port designed to connect your modem or optical network

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terminal if you have fiber so that you can take advantage of faster internet connections that

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have recently become available you're going from the outside world to your router that's your fast

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port a 2.5 gig router will obviously support a 2 gigabit connection the fastest commonly offered in

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the us these days and they can even give you a little extra speed on a connection advertised as

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one gigabit if your isp allows it but what's the point of having a 2.5 gigabit port for incoming

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traffic if all the other outgoing ports are just one gigabit well it does mean you're not going to

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be getting two plus gigabits on your client devices but the faster single WAN port eliminates a

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bottleneck at the back end for example if you have two computers both trying to download a huge game

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they could each run their downloads at around one gigabit per second instead of less than half of

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that if your incoming port was just a one gig port so the idea here is to allow consumers to take

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advantage of some of the benefits of 2.5 gigabit without being too expensive especially considering

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the vast majority of client devices like TVs and game consoles and typical desktop computers

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out there right now they just they only have one gigabit but what if your computer isn't

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typical what if you've kitted out with a shiny new 2.5 gig adapter card can you go faster well

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yes if you have the right equipment so if you want to pass that 2.5 gig speed from your router to

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your other devices it's pretty easy to buy 2.5 gigabit network switches these days and unlike

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routers these tend to have all the ports running the same speed not only are these useful for connecting

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any new 2.5 gig computers you might have but they can help you if you run a home media server

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multiple computers trying to access high resolution videos can do so without back end bottlenecking

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similar to the example we gave earlier about sharing an internet connection but remember that

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to connect everything together seamlessly and still have high speed backhaul you will typically

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need a second higher speed Ethernet port on your router for your fancy 2.5 gigabit switch that's

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2.5 to the outside world's internet and then another 2.5 to the switch and although these 2.5

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gig switches are significantly more expensive than gigabit only options they're still way less

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money than the faster 10 gig models which often have just one or two 10 gig ports to again keep

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costs down these are designed more for enterprise settings where you need a really high speed backbone

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for your network though at the time you're out this video there are actually a couple of 10 gigabit

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home routers on the market with two supported ports each one of which features a design that looks

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uncomfortably like a daddy long legs so bottom line a router with a 2.5 gig band port could be

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useful if you have really fast internet and have multiple folks using lots of bandwidth but the

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fancier stuff is probably more in the realm of the home media server crowd offices or other niche

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use cases like having a whole den of video editors on your staff but who in the world would have that

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so thanks for watching guys if you'd like this video hit like hit subscribe and hit us up in

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the comment section with your ideas for topics that we should cover in the future