All about Ethernet

Normally Wi-Fi gets all the press. Nobody ever mentions the old reliable wired networking anymore, so this month we thought we’d try and rectify that a little and take a look at the backbone of nearly all modern local networks: Ethernet. What is it, how has it changed, and how does it work? Can you make your home Ethernet work better, and do you need to?

A very brief overview of Ethernet

Ethernet is the name of a standardised system for sending data over wired connections. When people talk about “wired” in a local area network context, they pretty much mean Ethernet.

Technically speaking, Ethernet is a layer-2 (data link) protocol that manages how data is