Homeplugs (ethernet over power) are fine for some things, but they add so much latency to the network.
Wired is so much better.
this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2025
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Wi-Fi is convenient more than anything. You just have to know the right passphrase and as long as you are in range, you can get in.... In most cases.
When it comes to WiFi, I'm a fan of many smaller and lower power access points vs a few high powered ones. This is rarely the case in residential situations though. Most people buy a single, high powered Wi-Fi in the form of a all-in-one wireless router, and call it a day, then almost exclusively use Wi-Fi and wonder why it sucks, then go buy a newer more powerful unit once one is available.
My motto is: wire when you can, wireless when you have to. Devices like laptops, tablets and phones, usually do not have Ethernet built in, or are too mobile to make it practical to use. Meanwhile anything that doesn't move, like TVs, desktops, etc, need a wire run once, and it will work perfectly until the building falls over.
That's a lot of return on the investment of running the cable once.
I usually prefer all home runs (everything going back to a central point) but networking is diverse, so using a cable to get to an area, then using a switch to serve that area is entirely valid. Just don't Daisy chain too many switches or your going to have a bad time. Whether that link is copper, fiber, MoCA/coax, doesn't matter... As long as it's reliable and fast.
In any case, I have at least 8 access points serving my home, and they need to be moved, since I still have one spot that's a dead zone.
What I did in the living room was plug a USB-C dock with a 2.5 Gbit Ethernet adapter into the wall outlet with a 2 meter USB-C 3.x cable.
So I sit down in the living room and plug in my laptop/phone in to charge when I'm using it and they automatically get a 2.5 Gbit network connection. Even iOS natively supports the common Realtek 2.5 Gbit chipset.
What do you think of 2.5 and 10g Ethernet vs fiber between nodes in the home (I.e, between the modem and office switch, etc)?