Use Ethernet Connections For Video Chat And Streaming

Whenever I cajole my way onto This Week in Google, the support staff insists on a hard-wired connection to the router for video chat. It’s a pain, but the reason is plain: Wi-Fi is, according to a study of 14,000 connections, 30 per cent slower than cables in most homes and offices.

Image via osde8info.

It’s something you might have known from experience, but it’s interesting to see the convenience-to-quality ratio put into numbers. PC World quotes researchers from Epitiro after their tests of 14,000 Wi-Fi connections in the UK, US and other countries, and finds that most people are losing around 30 per cent of their speed capacity. It’s not that notable, usually, because browsing, email and other standard Wi-Fi uses aren’t impacted. But for video chat and video streaming, the ball and chain of a cable is a sacrifice probably worth making.

Wi-Fi Is 30 Percent Slower Than Fixed Broadband [PCWorld]


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