Ethernet is Still Going Strong After 50 Years::The technology has become the standard LAN worldwide

  • TaintPuncher@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    135
    ·
    1 year ago

    The only bad thing about Ethernet cables is that they’re shaped like a goddamn grappling hook. If I wanna pull an Ethernet cable through my desk, I must understand that every other cable in its path is coming with it.

      • GreyBeard@lemmy.one
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’ve never heard it called foreskin, that’s pretty funny, but FYI, the proper term is “boot”. And I’m a big fan of no boots in the rack. They are nice for desks and places cables might be rearranged constantly, but in switches and backs of servers they just slow you down.

    • You999@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      50
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Not to be that person but ethernet is the specification, the “grappling hook” you are referring to is the connector (Rj45 8p8c). Ethernet has a ton of different connectors in the spec from SFP to DE-9 and even HDMI.

  • RememberTheApollo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    78
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Why not? I prefer a hard wired connection over wifi where possible any day. The speeds are more than adequate for 99.9% of needs, it’s pretty secure, what’s not to like?

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      36
      ·
      1 year ago

      The speeds of wired ethernet are typically faster than wifi, and are consistantly more reliable.

      I’ve worked in RF for my entire career, and I’ll always recommend a wired solution as the best option unless the use case requires the hardware to be moving arbitrarily.

    • macrocephalic@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      1 year ago

      Tell me how you didn’t read the article…

      Wifi (802.11) is a type of ethernet. Ethernet is the communication specification not the medium.

  • FancyFilingCabinet@reddthat.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    55
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m really confused by the number of people here that are conflating Ethernet as a protocol and the physical medium it runs over. Coxial, fiber, and twisted pairs, can all carry different protocols. None of them are as ubiquitous in the home as Ethernet. Alternative network technologies are usually specific purpose, like fibre channel for storage, or infiniband for low latency, or 5G for wireless telecommunications.
    It’s a very long lived protocol and it’s a testament to its lightweight and flexible nature. Ethernet really is a framework for higher level protocols where increasing change happens. IP addresses? Not Ethernet, that’s all Internet protocol. It’s more reminiscent of when electricity in the home was becoming common place. Before standardisation there was all kinds of chaos with different sockets, voltage, AC vs. DC etc. Although arguably that’s a less settled debate with suppliers and home users often preferring different standards.

    • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      1 year ago

      I just want to say that my home network is entirely ethernet, and I have a few fiber connections in there that are also ethernet.

      The vast majority of the ethernet connections out there are done over category (5/5e/6/6a) cable, at least when it comes to end users, but that’s not the only thing that can transmit ethernet.

      802.11 is extremely similar to ethernet, though, very notably, it is not ethernet. It is ethernet compatible, and mostly just adds things like encryption and source and endpoint radio identifiers… It more adds to ethernet than it changes anything. Bring so similar, the end to end ethernet connection is almost entirely unchanged when there is a wireless link in the chain…

      It is, of course, different, as it has some different methods for handling issues, and other things, but ethernet is in there.

      Fact is, ethernet is not your category cable, nor your 8p8c “rj45” cable connectors.

      There are so many protocols and standards that work together to make networks function that many have not observed outside of the practical application of LAN networks. Thus all the terms get conflated together because the vast majority have not observed these things used in any other context.

      Category cable is just a standard for twisted pair wiring. “Rj45” is actually a very specific connector and signaling that has nothing to do with LAN networks. Most of the wiring standards used are born from other purposes, and few know the history behind it.

      Oh well. It’s not worth getting upset about it.

    • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      1 year ago

      I was having a discussion about this with a colleague at work about the so-called “HDMI over Ethernet” and how it’s a misnomer. As you said, Ethernet is a protocol, not a physical medium. I know a lot of people refer to the cable as “Ethernet cable” but the HDMI signal is being sent over CAT6 cables. There’s no encapsulation into Ethernet frames being done.

      • GaMEChld@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Didn’t he say that it’s a framework for protocols, not a protocol? Or am I parsing the comment incorrectly?

        • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Eh, it’s both. Ethernet is layer 2. It is your MAC address, more or less. There’s some functionality to it beyond simple hardware addressing, but it provides a scaffold for other, higher layer protocols to operate on top of.

          So ethernet, in and of itself is a protocol, and it also provides a framework for other protocols like IP.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      If I’m talking to a client and say, “All you gotta do is plug in the Ethernet and power to the NUC I sent you.”, they know what that means.

      Vernacular vs. technical usage.

  • deur@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    49
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    It’s really cool how a lot of the tech that powers the Internet today has a looong legacy. The longevity is astounding!

    I watched someone set up their own dial-up ISP on youtube, they were able to consume the modern net with it as well.

  • henfredemars@infosec.pub
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    32
    ·
    1 year ago

    Let’s also mention how cheap basic managed and unmanaged switches are today. I just bought a couple to improve my wiring situation.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Even proper managed switches! Our clients, “I can’t find a free port to plug in the computer you sent.”

      “Is it really worth losing your whole business for a day because you don’t have a $150 Dell from eBay?!”

      And these particular businesses make all their money on one day of the week!

  • kingthrillgore@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Ethernet is gonna be, if its not already, one of those lifetime IEC standards that everyone has to support similar to how there are 20 different power plug standards, and someday USB will replace those. Boy, Ethernet over USB. That’ll be the day…

    250 years from now they’ll be running Cat6 in mega-spaceships because it works, and the error-correction will be good enough for cosmic ray noise.

  • mspencer712@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    1 year ago

    Ok now I’m curious what I’m missing out on. Can anyone recommend a good PCIe token ring adapter and concentrator?

    • dhork@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m looking for a router that can bridge 10G optical SFP+ to thinnet 10-base-2 coax

      • mspencer712@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        1 year ago

        Hmm I’ve got an old Compaq 575e with a PCNet32 nic, and an old 3com 3c509 ISA adapter in a closet with 10base2 and AUI ports.

        Use a modem router or managed switch to get down to 100baseT, give this box a Linux distro, enable Ethernet bridging in the kernel, and slaps case this baby can drop almost 20k packets a second, no sweat!

  • ComradeWeebelo@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Why wouldn’t it be? I don’t understand the point of this article. It’s not like some other direct P2P communication medium is going to come along and upend it. It doesn’t really make sense to run fiber inside your home. You don’t need that kind of bandwidth for such a small number of devices and it would be prohibitively expensive since you need a specialized, highly trained technician to run it - unlike Ethernet, where any sufficiently motivated person can do so. I’ve heard that the people that run fiber for ISPs make something like $200/hr or so.

    • felbane@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      You’re saying “Ethernet” but what you mean is BASE-T (aka Cat5, Cat6, etc). Ethernet runs over fiber just as well as twisted pair copper.

      The OSI model says hi 👋

    • datelmd5sum@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      Here welding fiber is part of pretty basic sparkie training. I’d be surprised if they’d make more than doctors.

    • Jako301@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago
      1. Running fibre really isn’t as complicated as you make it out to be. The only problem is that you can’t do any 90° turns, so just running it along the walls isn’t possible. And the fact that the lasers each cost about 30€ for your standard 10G connection isn’t really helping either.

      And I really would like to see the job where running fiber gets you $200/hrs, i would switvh to there on the spot. The most complicated part is splicing 2 cables together and that isn’t all too hard with the right tools and machines.

      1. The article isn’t talking about cables at all, but rather the ethernet protocol that is used as a standard for data transfer for a long time now. It has nothing to do with the debat over fiber vs. copper.
    • Crack0n7uesday@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      It falls under the low voltage // communications lines in most US states, so standard electricians union pay. It’s pretty good, but not $400,000 salary good.

    • FancyFilingCabinet@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Depends entirely what type of fiber you want to run. I wouldn’t consider running fibre strands in the home but normal jacketed fiber can be run without anything specialised. The armoured stuff can take a lot more abuse than a standard “Ethernet” cable.

    • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      1 year ago

      One person wrote an article on it a few weeks ago and for some reason everyone clicked on it, so now similar articles are being written to capitalize on that success.

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      … Then we can reuse the solution, sprinkle some unnecessary features, and then resell it as the evolution of a thing and make a butt load of money

  • PhillyCodeHound@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    1 year ago

    First thing that came to mind was that it clearly wasn’t developed by Google! Thank goodness. It’d be long dead.

    • long_chicken_boat@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Ethernet is an standard. as long as standards are open (and they should be, by definition) they can’t die as long as there is an use for them.

      • onlinepersona@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        Google has so much pull now that they alone can define a “web standard” by adding it to Chromium/Chrome. If it’s there for more than a year and used by major websites, people will ever forgot it wasn’t agreed upon by all parties. Any other browser will implement it simply because of the market share.