Wired is still better, use it where you can.

In today’s connected world most devices in our homes are using wi-fi.  Phones, tablets, TVs, laptops gaming consoles as well as many IoT devices and even our refrigerators.

Wireless is easy to set up and use, but it’s still a single connection. Every device must wait its turn. Now, don’t get me wrong.  Those turns come around very fast, but its still time and the more devices you have (24 on my network) the longer the wait is. On top of that, if you have a device on the edge of your coverage, you will experience longer delays while that device retries sending/receiving it’s data.  With the smaller devices, the antennas are getting smaller too.  Which translates to issues the farther you are from the router. Combine this with interference from other devices, such as cordless phones, and the dozens of wi-fi signals from your neighbors, it all comes together to make a noisy wireless mess.

There are things you can do to help.  Centrally locating your router for example, trying different channels (auto doesn’t usually cut it), adding extenders/bridges to reach those edges or use crazy expensive mesh routers.  In the end the best option is to reduce the wireless devices by using wired where you can.

Wired connections are dedicated router/switch to device connections that are still 2 to 100 times faster than most wireless connections.  Devices that don’t move like TVs, consoles, and desktop computers should take advantage of this for blazing speeds and always on connections.  Not only will they perform better, but all of your wireless device will perform better as well because you eliminated device competition for the radios.

Wired is also more secure.  It’s not perfect, the hacker has to be physically connected but wireless is in the air for anyone to get. They just have to be in range.  Be careful using shared wireless hotspots.