Ethernet Is Still Going Strong After 50 Years

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Fifty years after its invention, Ethernet is still the backbone of both home and enterprise networking, praised for its backwards compatibility, robustness, and ability to quietly absorb new signaling and media while keeping the same basic frame format. Commenters contrast ubiquitous 1 Gbps copper links with emerging 2.5–10 Gbps offerings, debating whether most households truly need higher speeds as use cases like 4K/8K video, massive game downloads and VR evolve, and noting large regional disparities in available WAN bandwidth. Much of the conversation centers on practical wiring realities—reusing old Cat5/5e, leveraging coax via MoCA, avoiding unreliable powerline gear, and the challenges of upgrading infrastructure—alongside more technical points like Ethernet’s “fossilized” 1500-byte MTU and why jumbo frames remain largely confined to local networks.

Home and Consumer Speeds

  • Many homes still run on 1 Gbit/s Ethernet and Cat5/5e cabling from ~20 years ago; it generally “just works” and is sufficient.
  • Others report widespread 2.5 Gbit/s (and even 4–10 Gbit/s) offerings in parts of Europe, with small price deltas vs 1 Gbit/s. Hardware support (NICs, routers, PoE switches) lags and is often expensive.
  • There’s strong regional variation: in some countries gigabit is ubiquitous or cheap; in others, most households have only a few hundred Mbit/s and 10 Gbit/s gear is uneconomical.

Do We Need >1 Gbit/s?

  • One camp: 1 Gbit/s is more than enough for “a lot of people,” including gaming, streaming, and typical home use; higher speeds mostly benefit multiple simultaneous users.
  • Other camp: history shows new capacity quickly fills (e.g., huge game downloads, 4K/8K, high‑FPS/HDR video, future VR); gigabit will feel limiting sooner than expected.
  • Example use cases cited for higher speeds: massive game downloads, 4K Blu‑ray remux streaming, fast NAS/file transfers, multi‑person high‑bandwidth households.

Cabling, Retrofits, and Alternatives

  • Existing Cat5e is often fine for short‑run 10 Gbit/s; many see no need to re‑cable if it works.
  • Others note real‑world constraints: stapled cables, fire foam, brick/plaster walls make replacement difficult.
  • MoCA (Ethernet over coax) is praised as fast and reliable (often >1 Gbit/s) where coax is abundant; requires proper splitters/filters and active adapters at each end.
  • Powerline networking is widely reported as inconsistent, noisy, and often slow despite high advertised rates.
  • Thread includes extensive DIY vs. hire‑a‑pro debate on running new Ethernet through attics/crawlspaces.

Jumbo Frames and MTU “Fossilization”

  • Several lament the de facto 1500‑byte MTU, calling it inefficient at 10–100 Gbit/s.
  • Jumbo frames are common on LANs but considered effectively unusable across the public Internet due to path MTU issues, router behavior, and support burden.
  • Some argue a coordinated migration (analogous to IPv6) could increase MTU; others see it as practically impossible given installed base and risk of breakage.

Ethernet’s Evolution and Branding

  • Discussion notes Ethernet today is physically very different from original coax bus (10BASE5/2), but frame format and MAC addressing stayed stable, enabling long‑term interoperability.
  • Ethernet is described as a “brand” covering many rewrites of PHY/topology under one umbrella, a successful example of a stable layer‑2 “narrow waist.”

Wi‑Fi vs Ethernet

  • Many still strongly prefer wired for reliability, latency, and determinism; Wi‑Fi is seen as a convenience or fallback.
  • Others report modern Wi‑Fi (Wi‑Fi 6/6E) being “good enough” or even faster than 100 Mbit/s TV ports, though consistency and congestion remain concerns.