Summary
Wifi is a wonderful convenience, but it has its faults. It can be easily blocked by many things around your home, and the airwaves have to be shared by all our devices. If you have a device that you don’t need to be mobile, a wired Ethernet connection might make more sense.
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You can connect to Wi-Fi on almost any device. Since many items can only use Wi-Fi, it might be tempting to ditch all the cables and connect everything wirelessly. However, there are still reasons why you should choose an Ethernet connection over Wi-Fi for some of your devices.
For Personal Tech Media, this is Two Minute Tech. I’m Jim Herman.
Wi-Fi is a trade-off. We give up some of the speed and reliability, but in exchange, we get the benefit of being able to move around and still be connected.
Many of your household items can disrupt your Wi-Fi signal. Metal objects, concrete, microwaves, and fish tanks can disrupt your connection and create dead zones. Plus, with an Ethernet cable, you can plug your device in and be connected immediately without the need to enter a network password.
On top of that, we have more devices sharing our Wi-Fi than ever before. Although Wi-Fi speeds have gotten faster, many more devices are sharing that bandwidth. In the early 2000s, we had just one or two computers in our home that needed the Wi-Fi connection. In the 2010s, we started adding phones, tablets, and more. And now, we’re connecting smart TVs, gaming consoles, doorbells, security cameras, baby monitors, refrigerators, and even toilets to our Wi-Fi.
As a general rule, if a device is going to stay in the same area and it has an Ethernet port, you should use an Ethernet connection if you can. It may not be possible to get an Ethernet cable to each device that meets that criteria, but whenever Ethernet is an option, it’s still the better choice.