Link Aggregation only helps if you are 1) looking for redundancy 2) are transfer multiple individual streams of data. Packets of data aren't split, instead they are sent to one port or the other based on algorithm.
this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2023
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Try and run 2.5 and 5 and 10GbE over the Cat5. Theres a good chance it’ll work.
I don't know why I never thought to just try it out before. Popped in a 10GBaseT module and switched over my mac studio and sure enough, it's running just fine at 10Gb on a cat 5e run.
Short answer: Unless you just want to see high numbers, I'd probably just settle for 2.5gbit and that should work just fine over Cat5. (It would definitely work over Cat5e.)
Can I bond them somehow to make them a single 5GbE port?I haven't bought a switch or router yet.
Yep. This is called "Link Aggregation" and quite a few switches support it. You'd need a switch on both ends to combine the two cables into a single link. Generally, it's more trouble than it's worth, both in terms of price and headache, but the option in there.
With the price of 10gbit equipment to do link aggregation, you might be better off running another cable. How accessible is the existing cable to make a Cat6a run next to it?
yes and no.
you might be able to bond two connection but it is preferable to use LACP and that is normally not available on standard windows drivers / NICs.
on top of that you're internet speed won't go beyond 2.5G for a single session. lets say you download games from stream = you will be limited to 2.5G. But you might be able to download a game from steam at 2.5G/s and another one from EA at 2.5G.
also bear in mind that no HD will be able to save things at 3G/s and a SSD might be able to saturate it f you're lucky.
if you decided to get a 3G connection you must have been thinking about 10G all the way?
Honestly even 1GbE would have been a nice upgrade after being on 400/50 cable for more than a decade.
But the ISP was like you can have 3GbE for $10 more... and got seduced.
My soon to be 40 year old ass doesn't want a Mustang or a sports car, but I do want a fully functional Darth Vader costume and lightning speeeeeed Internet please.
I could serve 20x 4K remuxes to my Plex users and still not come close to saturate a 3Gbit link, that's just cray cray.
I think I will settle on a 2.5Gbe NIC in the PC for now and just run a Cat6 cable eventually. Some drywall will have to come off but its not a terrible job.
Is the Mikrotik crs317-1g-16s+ a good choice?
Bro...you don't have to remove drywall. I don't understand why people get so insistent on removing drywall. Get a number of Pros in there and I bet none of them will say we have to tear all the drywall off. It's probably not your job don't limit their abilities on your own lack of knowledge and skills.
Mikrotik tends to have very good products
3G/s and a SSD might be able to saturate it f you're lucky.
The one is bits the other is bytes ;)
Network...3 gigabits, while a decent nvme gen 4 can do 4-5 gigabytes
Even old SATA connected SSDs should be able to keep up if you don't buy trash.
Most ppl might even have spinning drives, they can do ~100 Mbyte/s..
Some have upgraded to SSD, that can do up to ~500 Mbyte/s.
And a few have upgraded to NVME, most are in the range of 1000-2500 Mbytes/s
All these numbers are for fresh new drives.
3 Gigabit = 375 MBytes/s. Yes I can do the math!
Probably.. Take them both out by them some drinks... j/k Ok I'll leave...
Not without alot of messing around, I'd just stick with 2.5.
If you want 10G performance, you need to get a 10G nic. They are only 30-40$ on ebay.
While, you CAN bond a pair of 2.5GBe ports, and POTENTIALLY get 5g of throughput, it will not be on a single session. ie- you can't download a file at 5Gbps.
10G hardware is cheap.