When will we replace 8P8C/RJ45 plugs by something small and nice? Compare USB Type-C

[virtuality]

- First, these buggers (8P8C) always break on me. And I mean ALWAYS.

- Second, I'd rather see something smaller, so perhaps they don't (have to) drop the idea of a wired network connector entirely from contemporary thin & light notebooks.

 

[Carson Dyle]

They break? How?

There are USB to RJ-45 adapters. With USB 3.0 you can get full gigabit speeds. USB 2.0 maxes out (in theory) at about 480 Mbps.

 

[imagoon]

They will get replaced when someone wants to get rid of the nearly 30 years of compatibility they enjoy now.

The thought of a smaller connector brings back memories of the old PCMCIA Ethernet adapters that were constantly broken. Mean while, other than breaking a tab here and there and the really really rare breaking of a socket, RJ45 has worked great for me.

 

[azazel1024]

Yeah, no complaints on RJ45 for me. A smaller connection would likely mean not being able to roll your own cables, which is an issue both for a lot of people and lots and lots of organizations. That plus the fact that you are rather limited in how small you can make it, the 23-25AWG wires of cat5-6a are rather larger than the typical wires in a USB cable (often 28-32AWG), so the connector is generally going to have to be a fair amount larger as a minimum requirement.

RJ45 isn't tiny, but it also isn't that huge either. My laptop has a nice compact port. You'll see a number of them around, the bottom hinges down on a spring so it makes the port roughly half the size when closed, which is only something like 10mm or so. My ultrabook ain't super duper thin, but it still well under an inch. I think something like .8in with lid.

Really, there is only so small and light you can make a laptop before it just makes no sense anymore and I think roughly the range we are talking now is it. They aren't too heavy for fatigue nor too thick to fit in a bag resonably, heavy enough to balance the weight of the screen or if using a touch screen, you aren't tipping it off your lap with a casual touch.

If you wanted to say tablets...well, hinged RJ-45 port like you see on some ultrabooks, or if you need thinner, USB to ethernet adapter (it is what I use on my T100, a USB3 to gigabit adapter. Works great, though I really only use it when my tablet is docked with the keyboard, but I have verified functionality when using a micro USB to USB adapter to plug it in).

 

[azazel1024]

They break? How?

There are USB to RJ-45 adapters. With USB 3.0 you can get full gigabit speeds. USB 2.0 maxes out (in theory) at about 480 Mbps.

Well...in fairness you can bend the prongs on the port if you try. I have never done this on a device, but my daughter bent a couple on an RJ45 keystone jack in my kitchen and it took me a bit to figure out why my laptop was only getting 100mbps speeds instead of gigabit. Finally looked in the port and...3 bent prongs. Sigh. Course, $2 replacement and 3 minutes is all it took to fix that.

I guess if you stick pencils in your RJ45 ports like my daughter did if could be a problem.

 

[nickbits]

Sounds OK to me but USB Type A plugs are the worst thing ever!!!

 

[virtuality]

Be the first to review this item

Edimax? Is this a good brand for these adapters? I am kind of suspicious, since I could not really locate any USB to Ethernet adapter with a consistent, say 4.5 star or egg rating on Amazon or NewEgg.

Yes, the tabs always break in the family. Not me break them they are just broken.

 

[azazel1024]

I had/have the Plugable USB3 Gigabit adapter and it worked great. Then disappeared when my wife rearranged the drawer it was in. Hasn't turned up in 8 weeks. I got an Anker USB3 gigabit adapter after that (its the white one with the Realtek chipset, everyone else uses ASIX or an ASIX clone in theirs) and it works wonders. Its even better than the Plugable adapter was.

The only caution there is, a few people seem to have issues with it. I haven't had any in extensive use of it, and it was the cheapest adapter on Amazon.

 

[virtuality]

I was - again - searching for the same thing and found my own post. Is it just me or not anyone wants to replace RJ45 plugs? On whichever notebook with whatever cable I am, they don't connect. In fact, they always disconnect and I'm not happy.

Yes, you can say use Wi-Fi, I say read http://www.cringely.com/2015/08/21/googles-onhub-router-may-save-wifi-from-itself/

Maybe can we just replace RJ45 with USB-C as well (besides everything else)?

You suggested these ugly dongles. But can we have a solution like from SO-HO routers USB-C cables come out and connect to the USB-C port on my laptop and voila: I have stable, wired Internet?

 

[JackMDS]

I have few the USB 2 rated as 100 Mb/sec. (SMC, D-Link, Linksys) from yesteryears.

They are in a Drawer for years, the USB rating is Not relevant, all 3 were sold as Ethernet 100 Mb/sec. while their real LAN performance was about 30 Mb/sec.

I did not try the USB 3.0 version, and not even incline to.

 

[Fardringle]

The only times I've ever had an RJ-45 port break was when someone abused it repeatedly. And even if you went with a smaller connection, we still need the cable size to accommodate the wires so it really wouldn't fix anything regarding the size of the cables. Something like USB-C wouldn't really work well either since ethernet cables have that clip for a reason -to keep the cord plugged in in places like under desks or behind cabinets where they can be easily pulled/kicked loose.

 

[imagoon]

I was - again - searching for the same thing and found my own post. Is it just me or not anyone wants to replace RJ45 plugs? On whichever notebook with whatever cable I am, they don't connect. In fact, they always disconnect and I'm not happy.

Yes, you can say use Wi-Fi, I say read http://www.cringely.com/2015/08/21/googles-onhub-router-may-save-wifi-from-itself/

Maybe can we just replace RJ45 with USB-C as well (besides everything else)?

You suggested these ugly dongles. But can we have a solution like from SO-HO routers USB-C cables come out and connect to the USB-C port on my laptop and voila: I have stable, wired Internet?

I still don't see why you would want this. Reusing USB-C would cause confusion issues since it is the same connector as... you guessed it... USB. Additionally the USB wiring design and and specification isn't compatible with the Ethernet standards, it is also is much easier to break than the RJ45/8P8C connectors. See post #4 of this very thread. That 1 is just as relevant now as it was when he posted it.

 

[MrTeal]

To be fair to the OP, breaking the locking tabs on 8P8C modular plugs is really easy to do, especially if you're trying to fish that cable out of a bunch of others.

You'll see RJ-45 get phased out eventually on performance gear as people switch to higher bandwidth interconnects. You might be waiting quite awhile though; 10GBase-T already runs on copper and 40GBase-T on Cat 8 is in the works.

 

[imagoon]

To be fair to the OP, breaking the locking tabs on 8P8C modular plugs is really easy to do, especially if you're trying to fish that cable out of a bunch of others.

You'll see RJ-45 get phased out eventually on performance gear as people switch to higher bandwidth interconnects. You might be waiting quite awhile though; 10GBase-T already runs on copper and 40GBase-T on Cat 8 is in the works.

Breaking the tab off has been "solved" for decades with snag free cables. Example: http://fulsan.en.hisupplier.com/pro...ug-24awg-F-UTP-Cat6-Patch-Cord-Lan-Cable.html

Most people with broken tab issues are the people that go dirt cheap on cables and get bootless or roll their own.

The next standard is already out there. It is called IEC 61-76-3-110. It is still an "RJ45" style package however.

 

[sdifox]

Never.

 

[VirtualLarry]

- First, these buggers (8P8C) always break on me. And I mean ALWAYS.

Hint: You're doing it wrong.

 

[azazel1024]

Hint: You're doing it wrong.

Very much. In my >>>20 years of networking, I've had tabs break on me, maybe 3 or 4 times and mostly when I was a teenager and horribly impatient. I've never had a port break on me.

I did have a connector pin break inside a wall port once...because my 3 year old was digging in it with a pen.

Those are my only fails.

On USB3 GbE adapters, I've used two. One didn't work well, the other works great. I get full 1Gbps speeds (minus overhead).

 

[chucky2]

While I'm now just a home user mainly, I'd actually go the other way OP: The RJ45 plug to me is a pretty great design.

1.) The locking connector for any expected type of load/shock works really well, providing a nice and secure physical connection.

2.) The connector is not too big, nor is it too small.

3.) It can't be plugged in wrong, thus limiting user error.

4.) CAT-6/+ supports some pretty high data speeds.

For something of such an old physical design, I think they did a pretty damn good job, and don't really see a need for it to go away. Heck, I even use them for phone jacks - instead of running shit CAT-3 and an RJ-11 jack, I just run the 5e with a 5e jack, that way if I need to re-purpose, it's a matter of flipping a jumper in the comm box (when I finally get it up and done).

 

[virtuality]

Guys,

I am sorry, you are right. All the Ethernet cables around me are hand-me-down, crappy, 3rd class or lower items.

Except this one:

It has a great head, but will be a little bit short. I was looking for a similar one all over Amazon.com (I don't want to ship from China) or Amarozn Germany but haven't found this design. Where can I buy this, but longer? Cat6 is the way to go now, right?

 

[ksec]

RJ45 is a very decent design and works really well. Personally I have never seen one that breaks, but the cable will get loses due to badly cramped.

With wireless speed exceeding wired, it is likely RJ45, or whatever replaces it will stay in the back end or connecting to other stationary router / AP only.
Quantenna will have a 802.11ac wave 3 that offers up to 10Gbps total capacity.
( 8T8R with 160Mhz and 1024 QAM ). We may see a few top range router using that next year. By 2017 - 2018 we have 802.11ax which promise up to 15Gbps using 4T4R and 30Gbps using 8T8R.

As we all know with wireless speed those are total capacity numbers and we normally take a 50% hit for interference or other obstacle. So we are talking about single devices with real life transfer speed of 2T2R 1Gbps+ and total of 5-6 Gbps by 2020.

Unless you are doing some huge Video Editing at home there will be very little need to have you devices physically wired.

P.S - I am more interested in the perfect scenario of 802.11ax of 10Gbps+, how are we going to solve the bottleneck in wired speed. NBASE-T only goes up to 5Gbps for CAT6.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I would hate to see them get changed, that means I need to reterminate my entire network. There is no reason to change connectors just for the sake of change.

The nice thing about RJ45 and similar connectors is that they are field repairable/terminatable and rather simple and cheap.

 

[XavierMace]

Guys,

I am sorry, you are right. All the Ethernet cables around me are hand-me-down, crappy, 3rd class or lower items.

Except this one:

It has a great head, but will be a little bit short. I was looking for a similar one all over Amazon.com (I don't want to ship from China) or Amarozn Germany but haven't found this design. Where can I buy this, but longer? Cat6 is the way to go now, right?

I don't know if this is an option in Germany, but....

http://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=102&cp_id=10232&cs_id=1023203&p_id=9795&seq=1&format=2

I've bought around 50 of those cables in various lengths. I love them.

 

[virtuality]

@imagoon @XavierMace

Thanks for your recommendations! Those still look average to me, similar looks for a similar price already broke on me. The best is the implementation by APC (I linked), though the image is small to see the details and the actual cable is short as well.

Here's the problem: I have 3 older ThinkPads here from various years, I tried their Ethernet ports with various Ethernet cables, all combinations ended up being lose, the end of the story the little thing is breaking off. What's wrong here?

 

[sdifox]

@imagoon @XavierMace

Thanks for your recommendations! Those still look average to me, similar looks for a similar price already broke on me. The best is the implementation by APC (I linked), though the image is small to see the details and the actual cable is short as well.

Here's the problem: I have 3 older ThinkPads here from various years, I tried their Ethernet ports with various Ethernet cables, all combinations ended up being lose, the end of the story the little thing is breaking off. What's wrong here?

I have never encountered that. The socket is pretty much indestructible.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Guys,

I am sorry, you are right. All the Ethernet cables around me are hand-me-down, crappy, 3rd class or lower items.

Except this one:

It has a great head, but will be a little bit short. I was looking for a similar one all over Amazon.com (I don't want to ship from China) or Amarozn Germany but haven't found this design. Where can I buy this, but longer? Cat6 is the way to go now, right?

Check your local electrical supply stores, they tend to have much cheaper and much higher quality cables here in the US. I never buy them from larger retailers because a 14ft cable that I pay $3-4 at my local supplier for retails for $10-15 there and are usually of inferior build quality