this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2026
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I've mentioned plenty of times under ideal conditions. If the condition is as you say (where there is known massive interference) I'd say that's a good indicator to either 1. figure out what the interference is and whether it's possible to mitigate it or 2. Switch to a hard link. This is very much the right tool for the right place problem.
For a majority of users wireless is definitely sufficient and that they can tolerate a reasonable amount of disconnects/drops/latency spikes. I'm not saying for every scenario wireless is a good substitute, but it can definitely handle certain scenarios good enough for home users for a fraction of the cost.
Besides, if I'm not having any major sources of interference now but somehow that develops later, that's no different than getting a congested link at peek hours, or a faulty switch somewhere along the path 2 years down the line. It's just another form of network disruption, those can develop in the same way in hard links.
Side note: I've done work over ssh and webapps with a constant 200-500ms latency and periodic disconnects for prolonged (months) periods of time. It is absolutely usable though a bit slow. I've even played PvP in MMOs (SWTOR, ESO) with those network stats back in the day and still managed to do well enough. People overestimate the quality of Internet service they need all the time.
Under ideal conditions or any conditions a wireless connection can never equal a hard link. End of story. You keep trying to convince me what you said had merit when Its clear I don't think it does. Unless you live in a dessert you are exposed to constant interference including congestion brought about by simply sharing that single link aka the wireless spectrum you operate at with everyone else nearby. Whereas If you have a fiber link back to the switch and the line isn't oversold you wont have congestion problem on your last mile. The last mile of your connection is shared with everyone whereas mine currently isn't being shared with anyone or more to the point I get what I pay for with little worry someone is gonna install a shitty appliance and start knocking my internet out.
You're still missing my point. What type of application are you running at home that requires that level of SLA? If you are somehow running something that has that type of reliability/QoS constraints, how can you guarantee that your residential ISP with a fiber connection isn't oversubscribing the links, causing the same sorts of periodic service disruption outside of the end user's control?
I see no reasonable situation where user experience for home applications would degrade over wireless any more than bgp policy misconfigurations or congested links would. Especially when Spectrum drops packets to NTT almost every Monday night.
As a side note, high frequency trading uses shortwave instead of fiber for transferring data due to latency reasons. There is nothing saying wireless is always worse in latency than fiber. But that's no longer in the realm of home use, so I don't really think it matters.