Almost any cable provider can provide adequate bandwidth for playing WoW whether it be a fiber optic or coax internet provider, but here are a few things to keep in mind.
Although you may find a wireless connection adequate, use a ethernet connection for max performance
Do not use any Cat 5 equipment between your PC and the router. This applies to ethernet cables and ethernet splitters. Cat 5e and Cat 6 are fine. For example, I was with a coax cable company, Spectrum, that provided me with 400 Mbs service. When running a speed test on one PC, I was getting a download speed of 480 Mbs and on a second PC was only getting 40 Mbs. When I changed the cable on the second PC from Cat 5 to Cat 5e both PC’s were getting 480Mbs download.
Google “speed test” to find out what speeds you are getting. You can run a speed test on any device including your wifi-connected phone.
Check your speeds at peak times for your service provider, like 6-7 pm during week days.
Although coax should be more than adequate, fiber optic will hold up better during peak times. Also fiber optic will give much better sustained upload and download speeds at all times during the day. However, for WoW it is the download speed that matters the most unless you are an extreme gamer. Coax is fine.
Cat 5e and Cat 6 will provide speeds up to 1,000 Mbs. Cat 7 and 8 are overkill for the home unless you believe you need speeds approaching 10,000 Mbs.
Sorry, didn’t mean to hijack the other thread. Didn’t see it.
Heh, I got cable at the highway. Then Its wireless antenna bridge about 1/4 mile off road, up about 300 ft elevation, through the jungle. So… I ain’t dropping that much line. It’s wifi for me. But its about 10ms average to get to my gateway. Another 100ms average to get to mainland. So my wifi is the least of the issue.
Most of the latency will be between your router and the servers anyways, unless you require a lot of bandwidth WiFi will be fine. I prefer cabled myself, but that’s because it’s no hassle and I need the bandwidth for other things than online gaming.
Proper Cat 7 installation requires a complete redo if you are using cat 5, 5e or 6. Cat 7 not only shields each of the 4 twisted pair wires, but also shields the entire cable.
I don’t really have Cat 7 because I need it, but if I’m getting a new Ethernet cable I might as well get the latest standard for future proofing as they cost almost the same. I’m currently connected to the Switch with a Cat 5 cable and I’m more than maxing out my 500Mbit connection.
It’s an old cable, but since wired network speeds kinda stopped dead after reaching 1Gbps (for regular consumer equipment anyways) it still does it’s job.
Let me rephrase. Comcast in Georgia, in an area where they have a monopoly on anything but dial-up internet. There’s a reason they have a lower approval rating than Congress.
Hey I know that this is a old Forum Post but can you maybe help me with this: Is it a bad idea to buy a cat 8 from Amazon? I’ve never used Ethernet and I wanna know if a overkill can be bad for my system. Cause I’ve no problems to pay 30$ for a 15 m Ethernet Cable if there aren’t any disadvantages. Or should I buy a older one?
Hey thank you very much. I found a very cheap Ethernet cable in my home that I’m using now it says cat 6 but I’ve testet it and I have like 0.5% Packet loss. If it works properly I shouldn’t have any Packet loss right?
