Ethernet is Still Going Strong After 50 Years

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 396 points –
Ethernet is Still Going Strong After 50 Years
spectrum.ieee.org

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

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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.

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 👋

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

  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.

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.

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.