4 ms·

Swisscom customer (and employee) here, opinions are my own of course. They recently called me to upgrade my fiber connection from 1 Gbps to 10Gbps for free (ev

Swisscom customer (and employee) here, opinions are my own of course. They recently called me to upgrade my fiber connection from 1 Gbps to 10Gbps for free (every customer with a compatible connection gets it, AFAIK). I have to admit that, although the network is indeed faster (on the speed tests and file transfers), I really don't see the point quite yet. Considering that: - Most of the devices I use are anyways connected to WiFi 6 - Reaching a 10Gbps peak is highly unlikely - Most of my ethernet ports are anyways at most 1Gbps - Most of the servers won't serve you more than 1Gbps anyways I do not really consider this a must-have upgrade for a residential customer, especially if you live alone / less than 4 people. On top of that, as demonstrated by these tests, servers aren't quite there yet, and the 10Gbps / 25Gbps you are getting are not fully dedicated to your connection. Don't get me wrong, I love to be able to use the fastest internet I can - but realistically speaking this is just useful in a few specific cases. If you are hosting your own server at home, a 10 / 25 Gbps upload is definitely interesting though. It a nice thing to have already, and I'm really thankful to live in a country where I have the privilege of having such a luxury, but as of today a >1Gbps connection is overkill (heck, for most of the stuff even a >100Mbps is overkill sometimes).

lukasLansky 5y ago
My ethernet is also capped at 1 Gb/s for most of my computers. The 10 Gb/s connection is still useful as it makes sure that things running at different devices won't affect each other. Streaming won't affect games won't affect work-related video calls. It's great.
- denysvitali 5y ago
  Yes, in that sense you'd have a "dedicated" 1Gbps for each device. But realistically, how often do you need that? I don't know about you, but the only time I would reach such a peak would be in case I download something huge while watching Netflix at 4k (which I don't have) and while at the same time downloading an update for my phone and a game for the PS5 (which I don't own). I would argue that the likelihood of all the above things happening at the same time is quite low, at least for me :)
  - Too 5y ago
    Families with two teenagers could easily hit 3x 4K Netflix/YouTube streams, 2x gamers and 1 backup sync at the same time. But even such high peaks should be covered by “only” 1G.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    Perhaps we would not have to rely on other entities such as Apple/Google/Microsoft/Dropbox/etc to serve our content if we had decent upload bandwidth at home.
  - pixl97 5y ago
    I mean in 1980 how often did you need 128kb ISDN? A hunter gatherer would have told you they have no use for a spaceship, yet modern society uses them do deploy satellites of all kinds. Just because you dont have a need doesnt mean that needs dont exist.
    - denysvitali 5y ago
      I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that as of today, I personally think it's useless. Sure, being 10Gbps-ready is already awesome, but it feels like buying a 16k TV today. For some niche use cases it might make sense, but until this technology is mainstream and makes sense it would take a while
- chrisandchris 5y ago
  The last time i streamed 4K video while gaming on my PS4 during a work related video calls was just a couple days ago. Joke aside. I get your point, but how many people do you have to have on a single 1 Gbit line to saturdate it? Some things will get faster for sure (like downloading large files, if the other side is fast enough), but I feel like most of the time it's driving a Ferrari within a city.
  - tgsovlerkhgsel 5y ago
    > it's driving a Ferrari within a city. Given that this article is about Zurich... that's a very apt analogy.
    - xiphias2 5y ago
      I have taken over quite a lot of Ferraris in Zurich by a bicycle on the bicycle road when I was living there, it was always fun :)
zepearl 5y ago
I assume that you got from Swisscom a new router? If yes, does it have an active fan? If yes, is it usually active? Thx
- denysvitali 5y ago
  I kept my Internet Box 3 (IB3): the 10Gbps doesn't need a new router, just a new SFP module (sent free of charge) :) If you want you can get a IB4 and forget about the replacement module (it should have the module directly soldered onto the board AFAIK). Anyways, both routers are fanless from what I know (and can hear). https://www.swisscom.ch/content/dam/assets/b2c/products/internet/help/pdf/ib3_ib4_a_quick_xgs-pon-kit1105335212-21web.pdf https://www.swisscom.ch/content/dam/assets/b2c/products/inte...
nix23 5y ago
>Reaching a 10Gbps peak is highly unlikely True because the customer router has just one 2.5G and four 1G ports....thank you swisscom...but hey like you said the upgrade from 1G to "shared" ~10G was free.
- denysvitali 5y ago
  That's true for IB3, but IB4 has a 10Gbps port, fyi

lukasLansky 5y ago

My ethernet is also capped at 1 Gb/s for most of my computers. The 10 Gb/s connection is still useful as it makes sure that things running at different devices won't affect each other. Streaming won't affect games won't affect work-related video calls. It's great.

denysvitali 5y ago
Yes, in that sense you'd have a "dedicated" 1Gbps for each device. But realistically, how often do you need that? I don't know about you, but the only time I would reach such a peak would be in case I download something huge while watching Netflix at 4k (which I don't have) and while at the same time downloading an update for my phone and a game for the PS5 (which I don't own). I would argue that the likelihood of all the above things happening at the same time is quite low, at least for me :)
- Too 5y ago
  Families with two teenagers could easily hit 3x 4K Netflix/YouTube streams, 2x gamers and 1 backup sync at the same time. But even such high peaks should be covered by “only” 1G.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  Perhaps we would not have to rely on other entities such as Apple/Google/Microsoft/Dropbox/etc to serve our content if we had decent upload bandwidth at home.
- pixl97 5y ago
  I mean in 1980 how often did you need 128kb ISDN? A hunter gatherer would have told you they have no use for a spaceship, yet modern society uses them do deploy satellites of all kinds. Just because you dont have a need doesnt mean that needs dont exist.
  - denysvitali 5y ago
    I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that as of today, I personally think it's useless. Sure, being 10Gbps-ready is already awesome, but it feels like buying a 16k TV today. For some niche use cases it might make sense, but until this technology is mainstream and makes sense it would take a while
chrisandchris 5y ago
The last time i streamed 4K video while gaming on my PS4 during a work related video calls was just a couple days ago. Joke aside. I get your point, but how many people do you have to have on a single 1 Gbit line to saturdate it? Some things will get faster for sure (like downloading large files, if the other side is fast enough), but I feel like most of the time it's driving a Ferrari within a city.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 5y ago
  > it's driving a Ferrari within a city. Given that this article is about Zurich... that's a very apt analogy.
  - xiphias2 5y ago
    I have taken over quite a lot of Ferraris in Zurich by a bicycle on the bicycle road when I was living there, it was always fun :)

zepearl 5y ago

I assume that you got from Swisscom a new router? If yes, does it have an active fan? If yes, is it usually active? Thx

denysvitali 5y ago
I kept my Internet Box 3 (IB3): the 10Gbps doesn't need a new router, just a new SFP module (sent free of charge) :) If you want you can get a IB4 and forget about the replacement module (it should have the module directly soldered onto the board AFAIK). Anyways, both routers are fanless from what I know (and can hear). https://www.swisscom.ch/content/dam/assets/b2c/products/internet/help/pdf/ib3_ib4_a_quick_xgs-pon-kit1105335212-21web.pdf https://www.swisscom.ch/content/dam/assets/b2c/products/inte...

nix23 5y ago

>Reaching a 10Gbps peak is highly unlikely True because the customer router has just one 2.5G and four 1G ports....thank you swisscom...but hey like you said the upgrade from 1G to "shared" ~10G was free.

denysvitali 5y ago
That's true for IB3, but IB4 has a 10Gbps port, fyi