Is changing to an ethernet cable worth it?

[InDarkestNight]

My town doesn't have good internet access. For years now, I've been having a problem with our wifi prioritizing my roommate's computer, probably because he's nearer to the wifi box. I'm sick of not being able to use my computer at the same time as him. I would like faster speed too. As-is, it literally takes 24 hours to download a game as big as skyrim (which is getting rather annoying since I'm having to re-install everything due to switching operating systems).

I don't know what my speed is, but at best steam downloads games at about 500 kbs. Looking up cables, it keeps mentioning gb per second. I've also read that if my internet is slower than that, switching to a cable isn't going to help with that at all. Also, looking up cables, one the length I would need would cost dozens of dollars.

Would a cable really fix anything? And no, I have the best internet in town, so it can't get better than this. I used to play mobas, until I realized my internet speed was causing delay. My game was running far faster than everyone else's. I didn't have nearly enough time to react to things, and my opponents could even cancel actions I made that shouldn't be cancellable (that was because on their computer, I was just standing there, while on mine my character was doing the animation). Now I'm thinking into getting into fighting games, but I don't see how I could play one with my shitty internet speed. Also, as said I'm beyond sick of things taking an entire day to download, and the stupid wifi not working for me if there's more than one device connected.

Would this solve my problems or is it not worth it?

[hoofhearted4]

Yes it is worth it but No it won't solve your problems.

Cables are generally the best if you can. You wont have problems with interference or congestion, stability, etc. It wont hurt you in any way to use a cable so there's no reason not to as long as its feasible for you. That said, the cable won't magically give you more speed with the internet. Your lag might go down some, or any latency or jitter, and some things might be a bit faster due to the aforementioned reasons, but if you only have say 30MiB internet, the cable won't give you GiB speeds (except internally on your own LAN, but thats not important here). At the end of the day, your internet is your bottleneck. And even with a cable, if your roommate is doing something that uses up your bandwidth, you're going to notice even on a cable. 

[Pagafyr]

Your problems may be that you use the Wi-Fi that is shared by two or more other devices.  Get the manual, or look for the manual, for it on the Internet that is available for you and find out how you can set the Wi-Fi controls.

Your Wi-Fi unit ISP may have a link for your Unit that is a private webpage for you.  That's for you and only the Wi-Fi unit you have.  There should be a username and password for setting up the Wi-Fi unit for the first time somewhere on the Wi-Fi units box.  Get in, find the password setting and change the password FIRST.

Get a LAN cable to connect to your Wi-Fi unit,  so you can get to and use the webpage to set up your Unit. 

Home Wi-Fi Units have controls, including ways to prioritize the users and devices for your homes Wi-Fi devices.  Do you have any home devices, like a thermostat, a room temperature controlled Wi-Fi link to the Unit?  Any other devices that link to the company and use the link to get updates; like a robot vacuum?  They are using up your bandwidth too.

Plug an LAN cable into your computer and to the LAN socket on the Wi-Fi unit and get acquainted with it before you go off and buy Cable Internet Service.

[InDarkestNight]

I have no other wifi devices in my house. However, I am getting my landline through the router. Could that be eating up performance? I know when we switched to the current router, the phone was preventing the internet from working due to overload. This fixed once we hooked up the phone to the router rather than to the wall directly. Could my phones be responsible for this? We can't just leave them disconnected. It would be bullshit if they were eating up performance. Of course, I would assume that wouldn't give me gigabytes of internet. Guess I just can't play games online then, can I?

Edited January 14 by InDarkestNight
typos

[7531Leonidas]

My router has separate 'channels' for the wifi and broadband connections.  So, an ethernet cable might let you open up bandwidth for your computer, while your roommate can keep feeding off of the wifi.  Then, the maximum bandwidth for your router will determine how much your speeds (yours and roomie's) will be affected.  I have a cheap back-up laptop for troubleshooting w/the ISP when my computer is having problems, and I have had that laptop updating via Windows Update at the same time I am on my desktop, and I really couldn't tell any difference in my desktop feed.

You could always try a Cat 4 cable of the proper length, and see if it makes a difference for you while you save up for a Cat 5 cable...

Re: the phone - I am on an ADSL router, and there are filters that have to be placed on the phone jacks to prevent interference.  Don't know about other kinds of hookups.

 

[Pagafyr]

Also, there are apps windows 10 and 11 have put in their OS that you may not know are causing lag and latency.  Unless you use them, turn them Off.

Skype! is one!  Spotify is another.   When I turn on the Dell Intel Killer Intelligent Center Software it checks the connection and shows all the points which are good and gives advice on how to make things better.

7531Leonidas is correct.  I called the cable an LAN cable, it is the Ethernet cable and a Cat 5 is recommended for home users too.

There are two Ethernet sockets on some Home Internet Systems. So two people can plug the Ethernet cables into the box and have a private line.  One Ethernet cat 5 is what most home users get.  Business machines, and if you have a computer with super power a Cat 6 Ethernet cable is recommended.

One thing I like about the Intel company's Killer Intelligence Center you can get from Intel's website if your machine can use it.  The thing I like about it is that it has a switch to turn off all Windows apps that are not necessary when we are playing video games.   

Mine shows 33 apps are temporally shut down while the Killer Intelligence Center's  Gamer switch is On.  When the Gamer switch is On it also cleans up RAM.  Sometimes it only clears 1 gig or 2.  Other times it has freed up 8.9 GB for the game to use.

Those apps in Windows OS can ruin your gaming Online.  You may turn them off.  No laws say that you can't.

Find a webpage that helps you see what you can turn Off.  Turn them off manually by following Online instructions for setting your computer up for gaming.  Remember This: After you do that, the next time Windows sends any patches or Updates they will restore all the apps settings that they have if they can that you turned Off temporarilly.

Your computer is yours.  Take control of it.  

[zixi]

4 hours ago, Pagafyr said:

Your computer is yours.  Take control of it.  

You're absolutely right! Totally agree! No surprise there. But InDarkestNight **has** taken control and is using Linux! 

I know zero about hardware. 

InDarkestNight - do you have a cable knocking about somewhere? We have boxes of the things. They breed. If not can you borrow one? Otherwise, buy it and try it... I guess...

[HeyYou]

A cable will be faster than wi-fi, but, if your wi-fi is already faster than your internet connection, it likely won't make any difference. Or, at least, not much. Worth a shot though.

[dicere]

I recently bought an ethernet adapter for my amazon firestick, it does make a difference. Not a huge one, but noticeable while playing xbox games. The connection is also much more steady.