Even if you’ve got one of the newest and fastest Wi-Fi 7 routers, a wire can still outperform it with the right hardware. Running Ethernet, or even fiber, around your home is one of the best ways to get fast and reliable internet in every room. And if you haven’t finished construction yet, or have easy access to a crawlspace, it could be a lot cheaper too. Mesh systems are very clever, and some of the newest models with Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 can be very fast as well. If running wires is expensive or just labor-intensive, a mesh could still be the better solution for many.

How is your house constructed?

If you’re building a new home, and it’s not finished yet, it’s a good idea to run some Ethernet before the builders close up the walls. Ethernet is fairly cheap when bought in bulk, and wiring your home before you finish the walls and paint can save you a lot of hassle later. It will also give you a lot more flexibility with where you install the wall plate, so you can keep your setup as clean as possible.

If your house is already built, you can still run Ethernet fairly easily if you’ve got access to the crawl space or attic. After that, it’s up to you whether you bother with coming through the wall, or just straight through the floor. Your home may also have some existing conduit for other wires, which you can use to pull your cable.

If you’re renting or just can’t drill and run cables, some of the best Ethernet cables are made flat and can run along the base of your walls. Your runs are more limited since you don’t want to be running Ethernet across doorways, but if you can adjust the router or run the cable under some carpet, you can still wire your home without drilling or cutting drywall.

How important is speed?

Wi-Fi, especially Wi-Fi 7, has gotten very fast with multi-gigabit speeds over 5GHz and 6GHz, but it’s not without its challenges. For example, 6GHz Wi-Fi represents the biggest speed improvement, and its coverage falls short of 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi. Even so, for someone who mainly browses the web or watches streamed content, the best mesh systems will offer plenty of speed.

If you want the best network speeds possible in every room, however, wired is still the way to go with readily available Ethernet switches running at up to 10Gbps. You could also run fiber with a compatible switch to get even higher speeds down the road if you need them. Ethernet will not need to deal with any wireless congestion and doesn’t need to share resources with other devices, so it can have lower latency and more consistent speeds, making it the superior choice.

Do you have cable lines?

If running Ethernet in your home is anything but easy, you may still have some options. A lot of homes from the past few decades are wired with coaxial cables for cable TV. With a MoCa adapter, you can use this wiring as Ethernet, and the speeds aren’t half bad with many MoCa adapters supporting up to 2.5Gbps. Naturally, adding adapters increases cost, but it’s still cheaper than a mesh node. Plus, if you’re just streaming for your TV, you can put those cables back to good use.

Last and, in many cases, least, power line adapters can use the power lines in your home to transmit an Ethernet signal. While these have also gotten quicker over the years, electrical wiring isn’t really designed with data transfer in mind and can be inconsistent if your connection runs through a fuse box, or has something that creates a lot of electrical noise on the same circuit. So this method is certainly not ideal.

Your wired network can work with your mesh

If you want the best of both worlds, you can use your home Ethernet wiring with a mesh system to improve the connection quality. Most mesh systems will find the best possible connection back to the main router, and if it's available, that’s usually Ethernet. Using a wired backhaul more often than not will help to improve speed, and it also frees up wireless capacity for your connected devices.

If you get the right mesh nodes, you may even end up with extra Ethernet ports, which can be very handy for something like a home office. The TP-Link Archer BE800, for example, has multi-gig Ethernet built in with Easy Mesh support, so you can expand it later with other EasyMesh routers, like another BE800 or something cheaper.

Whether you want to use it with your mesh or just want extra performance for a few devices, wiring your home with Ethernet is a great way to make sure that you have plenty of solid connection options for years to come.