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I just got my 1 gbps fiber for my huge server. I found that with 125 MB/s network’s capacity, you hit hardware limitations very quickly, HDD in particular. Before going beyond 1 gig, you should ask yourself if you really need more, as you will need to upgrade everything to high specs, from hard drives, cards, cables, router, vpn, to finally notice your network stays close to 5 % usage most of the time, and that the 8Gbps advertised are only reached using a speed test, only at 4 in the morning, and that your expensive upgrade is in reality barely used.

A good router is expensive, a good network card with a good transceiver is expensive, and you need to have many, 8Gbps is CPU hungry, SSDs are wearing fast, it’s electric power hungry. This speed comes with a huge investment and heavy running costs.

I will stick with 1 gig for quite sometime I guess, it’s far enough for my heavy usage, I can’t imagine being too restricted to invest hundreds, if not a couple of thousands.

Anyone have experience converting from 1G LAN to 2.5 or even 10?

Going from 1 G to 2.5 G is fairly cheap these days. You can almost certainly use the same cabling, even when you’ve got only Cat.5e cabling. While you can do 10 G over copper, I wouldn’t suggest doing that, since it consumes quite a lot of power compared to both 1 G and 2.5 G. You’d need Cat.6E for reliable 10 G over copper.

The new service includes a WiFi 7 router

I don’t recommend it.

I would shoot for a 4 port 2.5Gbe unmanaged switch with 2 SFP+ ports (6 total ports) for 10G networking. 2.5Gbe is going to be more than enough for any WiFi solution you choose with room to upgrade 10G to WiFi if you wanted to spend a bit more on a higher tier WiFi router still leaving a single SFP+ port for 10G networking from your PC.

Biggest hit for your buck. Gonna set you back $40-50.

but if I ever wanted to get the max out of it, what does that take?

Kind of a lot. At least a top to bottom upgrade, from modem (PON), to 10G networking, to new Ethernet cables, to new 10G network drivers. Looking at a few hundred if you do it right. I also had Optimum’s 8Gbps internet and was never able to even get anywhere near advertised speeds due to network saturation. IMO, the upgrade right now is too expensive to justify the expense for what you get. If you were confident you would be able to max out the connection, that would be a different story. But ultimately it’s gonna be up to you. If you don’t mind dropping a few hundred on upgrades, then go nuts.

Here’s my opinion:

• get 1G WAN - it’s a huge upgrade, and you probably won’t notice going much faster unless you’re downloading/uploading a lot of stuff over the internet; it’s probably substantially cheaper
• consider 2.5G LAN, if it’s not much more expensive than 1G - fast transfers over your LAN are much more likely to be noticed than transfers over the internet
• put in CAT 6 cables at least, since that’s capable of 10G in case you decide you want it; it’s not much more expensive than 5E (1G capable), and then you won’t need to redo it later; or better yet, run fiber everywhere, though that’s more of a pain

Then upgrade anything that’s <1G on your LAN, and leave the rest as-is until you actually need it. Chances are, you won’t, and it’s not worth spending the money. Prices for 2.5G and 10G (and higher) will eventually come down, so put it off until you actually need it and you’ll probably save money in the long run.

In terms of what It takes, I think others gave good insight. Here’s my basic summary:

• expensive router and switch - copper can do 8G, but you’d probably want fiber if there’s a chance your ISP will offer upgrades
• start converting to SFP+, since that’s likely what you’ll want when upgrading things in the long run
• some kind of mesh WiFi network - higher bitrates tend to be at higher frequencies, which have poor penetration; starting out w/ a mesh means it’ll be easier to swap out APs as you increase bitrates/solve signal issues in various rooms
• run lots of cable - the best mesh is one that’s backed by cable

It’s going to be expensive supporting anything over 2.5G in an entire network. Honestly, 1G is probably fine, and you can upgrade things more incrementally as you decide to improve speeds between endpoints (big ones are anything that handles high bitrate video).

Does the new ISP require use of their router or just offer it as an option?

AT&T used to require using their router, which was a pile of hot garbage. I have a Mikrotik Router and managed to mostly cut the AT&T router out but I had to configure my router to use the AT&T router for authentication, at which point the Mikrotik would take over. It was complicated to configure but it worked.