The router is useless-ish without the $3 snakey boi.
“Ish?” Because you could set it up as a Wireless repeater?
Yes, some wireless routers can be used as repeaters.
Routers like that are really multi-purposes devices that handle routing, switching, and wireless. If you’re only using a local network, you can still have the wifi network and all your devices communicate through that. You just won’t have internet access.
With out the router/switch, the cable’s usefullness is reduced - at least in the networking application we’re talking about (the cable itself is incredibly usesful for many other things besides ethernet). You can connect (most) devices directly together for communication, they’ll just self assign an IP address.
In less words, you can have a network with just a wireless router and no cable, but you can’t have a network with only a cable and no router (well, you can’t with ‘normal people’ devices)(also you don’t need a router for a local network, only a switch - but the home versions are often combo devices and just called a router).
$3 for CAT cable is not realistic but you still have my upvote
There’s a few 10 packs of 6 foot cables on Amazon for around $18, that’s less than $2 each.
for a short prefab patch cable to go from modem to router, it’s actually a bit higher than what we pay.
Why the fuck do they join the cables that need to go separated into the connector? Setting these up is a pain in the ass.
The “twisted pair” part of it makes it work like coax at the frequencies it uses unless you bend it too much.
If you want to come to my house and run cable feel free.
Aww, not quite big enough to lay pipe? :3
Is that a euphemism?
I’m open to both interpretations!
What’s the difference between jam or jelly you ask? You can’t jelly that cabling in there … Wait a second. This joke doesn’t work either way
I’ve grown to hate these routers. They only seem useful if you live in an apartment and place them in the middle and your walls are made of paper. Bought a few through the years thinking more money = better wifi, but wall construction and placement have much more impact. Living in a brick house, they’re pretty shit. I’ve switched to non gamified wifi AP’s connected to ethernet and the wifi’s been great. Still prioritize wired wherever possible though.
One of the worst things about those routers other than having generally poor coverage despite looking like a Crown of Thorns was that if you actually took advantage of the more advanced features like VLANs, port forwarding, static routes, FTP and all that stuff and set it up… It inevitably seemed that there was a 99% chance that a firmware update would not allow you to restore a backup of the router config on the updated device!
That happened a couple times, spent days getting everything set up only to find out the firmware update refused to load a config made with an older version. F that. Never used those routers again.
Used to live in a 2 story house built in the 1900’s. It had plaster & lath walls. I ended up with 4 AP’s scattered about before we had decent WiFi coverage.
If something looks cool and flashy and has tons of “extra functions” I stay the fuck away from it because I know the target demographic and I know it’s going to be shit in surprising ways.
None of them are as cheap as mentioned in the post. But the snakey boi wins easy. The spiky boi is good if you wanna connect multiple devices and WiFi based file sharing in ecosystem setups. But the snakey boi has no dropping WiFi packets issues because it is simply internet plugged into your computer. Plus, WiFi travels through your walls the way it wants. Snakey boi travels through your walls the way you drill the holes to pass the cable. So, snakey boi wins always!
Btw, dafaq with router prices? Do they think they sell laptops?
Have you seen current laptop prices? It’s wack.
Still a computer. And quite integral one. If it doesn’t work, your internet and all devices that connects to it won’t work. This is a device that has to work 24/7 and produce 0 issues at any time ad long ad it works. Higher end ones also have quite a bunch of useful settings and customization options. A normie might not need them, but a power user would appreciate these settings and how reliable this router is.
But for 750 that is overkill.
Because the stupid administration put bullshit arbitrary rules on routers the remaining ones are in short supply.
Compounded that 2.5gb is the norm now with wifi7. Consumer routers with 2.5 were inflated to being with last I checked and I have no idea what they cost now.
They are computers, more or less. Very specific and controlled computers, with only exactly what they need to do their job. Mostly anyways.
More spikes = more internet, duh.
If we put more spikes on the router, maybe there will be less spikes on the ping graph. 🤔
Wifi? You may as well believe in magic. Buy a box of cable and one of these!
No testers - raw dog it. Party like a Quake party in 1999.
Had one. Somebody stole it at a lan, many years ago. Haven’t bought another one, since, because I’m dumb.
I bought a cheap tool years ago and a few hundred feet of cat6 and some connectors and wall plates
ran my main AP off my own crimped cords for years without issue. speed tests always showed full speed
What is one of these called?
It’s called a crimp tool or a crimper.
Thank you! The name totally escaped me haha
And now I will sing a traditional song of my people.
🟧⬜,🟧,🟩⬜,🟦,🟦⬜,🟩,🟫⬜,🟫.
A or B, can’t be bothered to look it up
OK so I just learned, like, last week that there are two standards. Why are there two standards? WTF?
(The context is I was turning an Ethernet cable into an EtherCAT cable, which is a stupid industrial standard where you only wire up pins 1, 2, 3, and 6, and then charge the end user 200 times more for the cable.)
B
https://youtube.com/shorts/EsoLNh9POhE
The rest of the channel is pretty funny too
My brain was like that’s to many wires… Until I finally was like oh orange white … One wire lol. Them everything fell into place.
Wasn’t there a second configuration too?
Crossover, but it isn’t needed anymore since most modern devices can detect what they are connected to and adjust.
Well there was A and B and it’s been long enough since I made any cable, I don’t remember which one everyone uses and which one only weirdos use.
T568B is the one everyone uses while T568A is the odd one.
I don’t get what’s particularly bad about T568A though? I was told it’s just plain worse than T568B for anything faster than gigabit and I swear I never saw any store bought cables using it.
I think it’s something to do with the crosstalk between strands.
The configuration has absolutely no bearing on performance. It is purely for standardization. Straight through cables work with either because it’s literally just connecting the copper on either end. The difference between A and B is just flipping 2 pairs around although I forget which. Only 4 or 5 cables of 8 are even used to this day which is crazy.
If I have a PhD in WiFi, does that make me a wizard?
It makes you almost qualified to answer why the damn printer won’t work.
Come on now… Not even god can answer that one.
Someone should consider asking an AI to fix a series of platters, it’ll probably just shut itself down.
Why doesn’t it work? Because it’s fucked… That’s why
It’s still nice to have a competent router though. Why not both? Also shield your cables!
Appreciate the discussion, but I just need to say it:
This router looks like the cybertruck, in every way.
I don’t understand. Who thinks these are comparable?
They serve very different purposes.
Whaaaat? No waaayy. Jokes on da internet?
thanks for reminding, I need an external antenna in my basement…
$350? Since when? My piece of shit was north of $750
Wtf did you buy? You could have gotten a wired router with a couple of access points for that.
Tp-link 🤷
I have a TP-Link router (with the wifi shut off) and three TP-Link PoE access points, and I still paid much less than that for the entire setup including cable to wire my house.
TP-Link is supposed to be the cheap alternative, FFS!
That thing better have SO many spikes for that price.
My router:
It’s pretty great but yeah, that’s a lot
The snaky boy is more than $3 these days, at least if you get a long one.
Also for just cheap cat5, it might not actually faster than modern WiFi.
cat5 beats wifi in terms of wall penetration though, assuming you penetrated that wall with a drill and then pulled the cat5 through
Say “penetrate” again, I’m almost finished.
Cat 6 is what, $0.15 a foot? Plus maybe another $0.50 for the connectors and boots? That’s a 16 foot snake for $3.00.
I think last time I bought one it was a 50 foot one for something like $15-$20.
People are mentioning buying from a spool but I am thinking more going to my local computer store,so there’s a some markup.
Buy them in spools.
