question on win 8.1 networking symbol, wired ethernet vs wifi

[Soundguy]

Have a tech question for all you computer savy guys.

Wife has a win 8.1 laptop. She's had it off a few weeks and now it is downloading a but load of updates. It has wifi, but she is at her desk and has it plugged in to the cat 5 cable from the router, etc.

Now here's the question.

At ouur house we have the router and it has wifi, so you hav ethe choice of it's wifi or the network cable. our house is long, so wifi is bad in the back rooms so we have a wifi extender. It essentially just makes another wifi network. i have it named like the other network, with a '2' after it. ( and it works great.. good solid signal to the back rooms .. we used to not be able to stream audio back there without pauses.. now solid ).

Anyway. so on win 8.1m when you swipe in from the right of the screen and select the gear i think, that shows your network connection. it shows 3 possible.. but names them all the same ( zyxel is the router name, so it calls them all zyxel ). the one that shows connected has an icon of a computer with what looks like a single line or pole onthe left side of it. is that indicating it is indeed using the ethernet cat 5 cable.

the other 2 connections that do not say connected have the common 4 or 5 lines that look like signal strength.

I figured I could just unplug the cat 5 and see if the network conenction drops.. however.. it has alot of updates and i don't want to jinx anything.

am i thinking correct. the lil pc icon with what looks like an upside down 'broom' really an icon with a computer showing a network cable with fat end.. and my eyes just don't see it good?

thanks

( i liked computers better when things had jumpers and networks were serial or BNC cable. )

 

[dmccarty]

...

am i thinking correct. the lil pc icon with what looks like an upside down 'broom' really an icon with a computer showing a network cable with fat end.. and my eyes just don't see it good?

thanks

( i liked computers better when things had jumpers and networks were serial or BNC cable. )

The upside down "broom" CRT symbol is the network icon on Win 8 and Win 7. Both my systems are hardwired and showing the "broom"

Later,
Dan

 

[Soundguy]

thanks!

 

[davrow]

Icons are not pictures - just not enough pixels. I believe that is (supposed to be) an Ethernet cable and RJ45 connector.

Mine currently shows two Wi-Fi connections available (yes, with signal strength lines) but they are all different names. Not sure how to avoid what you are seeing. Mine show what they (the Wi-Fi connections) were named, not the router name.

 

[drssg]

If your wifi connection is decent, it is probably faster than your ISP download speed. So I wouldn't expect the ethernet cable to download updates any faster than wifi.

I have only seen ethernet make a difference when I'm transferring lots of data between computers in my home.

 

[Soundguy]

We have lots if WiFi devices in the house, so if a device is near a hard wired port I like to use it. 2 tablets, 2 phones, 3-4 laptops and netbooks plus one dedicated WiFi audio stream. The audio and a surface tablet and a phone are mine, the rest I for the wife, work/school, etc. So our WiFi �� network may be a hair busy

 

[boggen]

windows 8.1 has a "resume" function built into the window updates. the only time you do not want to mess with computer, is generally when you go to shut computer down, or when it gets turned on/is restarting. and a message comes up " DO NOT TURN OFF COMPUTER " all other times. it does not matter to windows 8.1 if you unplug/plug in network cable or switch to a different wifi single. or ya loose internet all together. it will simply
resume.

i would skip the RJ-45 / cat5 network cable all together. reduce the wear on the connectors on your computers and like. wires are cheap, replacing the little plug on the devices is not.
wifi is generally faster than any general internet service a home owner has. other words wifi can handle all your internet, you will run out of speed via your ISP (internet service provider) package. before running out of wifi speeds / bandwidth.

the exception as drssg noted, is transferring files between 2 computers at your home, (movies, lots of pictures, etc...) then connecting both to a rj-45/cat5 cables might be advised, if you have a "networked attached storage" (hard drives that connect directly to the network) then maybe a hard line to the router, other wise just stick to wifi. but even then... wifi speeds are generally pretty good. as long as you have a descent connection.

err i take above back... if you have a old wireless router 5 to 7 years old, i would say it is time to upgrade to a newer router / wifi extender. blackfriday is nearing on us. and that is the time to get electronic stuff on the cheap.