Fun With Multigig Ethernet
I love the new batch of multigig Ethernet peripherals that allow you to run 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps over your existing Cat5e cabling.
Comcast’s modem supports 2.5 Gbps, and I can now tap into the full 1.4 Gbps download capacity over wired Ethernet.
But not all multigig Ethernet devices are created equal!
Switches
From my experiments, the best option for switches appears to be the 10/5/2.5 Gbps ones that give you 10 Gbps bandwidth between local devices, and 5 Gbps between switches over Cat5e. I’ve had a really good experience with the TRENDnet TEG-S750.
https://www.trendnet.com/products/10g-switch/5-port-10g-switch-TEG-S750-v1
10G Switches – 5-Port 10G Switch | TRENDnet - TRENDnet TEG-S750
You can get 2.5 Gbps switches too, but they appear to have much lower internal bandwidth. Since you’re likely to encounter computers that support 10 Gbps in the future because it’s an established standard, it’s probably wiser to just go with 10 Gbps today.