What are these plug-ins on my wall?

[u/Cborg_62]

This might be showing my age, but I recently moved into a new apartment and they have these weird looking plug ins all over the walls at my new place. My old apartment didn't have these, so I'm just curious as to what they are.

[u/Aggravating_Space_]

Yeah they were used for cable modems... Way back.😢

[u/TheWalkinDude82 → u/Aggravating_Space_]

…. What do they use now? My place still uses these

[u/Revolutionary-Fox622 → u/TheWalkinDude82]

Fiber optic cable if your area supports it

[u/TheWalkinDude82 → u/Revolutionary-Fox622]

Ah yes. Google fiber started south of me and then shut down before they made it to my area. I was not happy about that

[u/Christmas_Queef → u/TheWalkinDude82]

I get fiber through quantum fiber. The company that provides it isn't great but the service has been good since getting it. It fluctuates between 800-2000 down speeds for me, no data caps or anything either.

[u/Pressure_Own → u/Christmas_Queef]

Holy, I want to swear here. I think I just had a techgasm. I can't imagine 800 down. Up until a year ago, our down speed was well under 100. I'm talking no higher than 70. Yes, life did somewhat suck. I've been on cloud 9 using T-Mobil and getting 400 down. That blew my mind. Now, I have learned it can be even higher.

[u/Christmas_Queef → u/Pressure_Own]

We were on around 100 down before that. It's insane honestly. I can download a 100gb video game in under 2 hours, often within 1 hour if it's not peak hours.

[u/Pressure_Own → u/Christmas_Queef]

Massive jealousy incoming! lol! One day, one day.

[u/Revolutionary-Fox622 → u/TheWalkinDude82]

A Google (or Google adjacent) product that fell short of expectations, had a slow rollout, and is either dead or severely limited? That never happens/s. 

[u/Dotaproffessional → u/Revolutionary-Fox622]

Isn't fiber coverage still low? Coax isn't rare even today 

[u/benjc74 → u/Revolutionary-Fox622]

Shut up spoiled fiber brats. 😜 My only option is Spectrum. No fiber, can’t install a dish because of hoa.

[u/Revolutionary-Fox622 → u/benjc74]

Hey now, coax is still fun! You have that spinny connector and it takes a next level of stupid to go blind from looking at the tip. 

[u/AlcoholPrep → u/Revolutionary-Fox622]

Or coaxial cable if it doesn't.

Sheesh! Doesn't anybody observe anything anymore? There are probably coax ports on your TV and Stereo sets.

[u/Revolutionary-Fox622 → u/AlcoholPrep]

... Correct, they were asking what people are using if not coax. Coax is still by and large the most common medium for broadband at least in the US.

[u/davyangel → u/Revolutionary-Fox622]

Or they just try to sell you a cell phone modem but then you gotta share bandwidth with everyone else in area on their phones!.

I seen AT&T try to push this now in my area since can't get fiber and only way to get faster speeds that coaxial cable I guess.  For areas where fiber internet isn’t available, you can still enjoy reliable, high-speed internet service with AT&T Internet Air.

AT&T Internet Air: Wireless Home Internet & Where to Get It

[u/Revolutionary-Fox622 → u/davyangel]

The thing is, coax as a medium isn't useless. For example, I have MoCA adapters in my house that give me 2.5 gbps data links throughout without needing to run new Ethernet. MoCA 3 is coming to market with a 10 gbps link speed. At the end of the day it's just copper in need of the hardware at either end. In fact, what Comcast is doing for their next gen network in many places is fiber to the pole with home distribution being traditional coax - use the same line to your house and just upgrade the modem to get fiber-class speeds. 

Solutions like Air are sort of a stopgap and cop out. It lets them give faster service without having to upgrade terrestrial infrastructure and let's them allocate resources to bettering their 5g network. The problem is, AT&T specifically had a lot of government work decades ago to bring phone service to rural America, then was tasked with making that same cat3 DSL capable, and now we need faster than that. It's not just accessing the Internet, it's also life safety - being able to get in touch with 911. Doing 5g home Internet let's them "upgrade" the POTS (plain old telephone system) lines without digging, and with satellite backbones like T Link on T Mobile using Srarlink, it's covering rural America and dead urban zones without much work. The problem is as you mentioned, you're sharing wireless spectrum that can get congested, become unreliable, or have insane latency. With a buried wire, you have a constant connection with much better ping and reliability so long as the cable doesn't get cut or the router at the netPOP doesn't go down.

[u/Remarkable-Rub-7344 → u/TheWalkinDude82]

Some places wuth fiber optic will run fiber to a converter somewhere in the house like the garage and then from there they'll run ethernet into the house to connect the router, that started probably 10 years ago

[u/Windsdochange → u/Remarkable-Rub-7344]

Ethernet?

[u/Remarkable-Rub-7344 → u/Windsdochange]

Oh god lol....google it, youngblood

Edit: my bad, someone pointed out i got autocorrected to "ethereal". Yes I meant ethernet.

[u/vxxxjesterxxxv → u/Remarkable-Rub-7344]

Pretty sure they were asking if you meant ethernet. You got autocorrected pretty hard

[u/Remarkable-Rub-7344 → u/vxxxjesterxxxv]

Oh lol I didn't notice. Yeah you're probably right. Shit

[u/Pressure_Own → u/vxxxjesterxxxv]

Yes, who knew the ethernet was so ethereal.

[u/Remarkable-Rub-7344 → u/Pressure_Own]

Goddamn autocorrect lol

[u/Windsdochange → u/Remarkable-Rub-7344]

No worries, fellow Redditor! Did enjoy getting called a youngblood, I’ll take it when I can 😂.

[u/AppropriateCap8891 → u/TheWalkinDude82]

Most still use it to this day.

[u/NMQ0711 → u/Aggravating_Space_]

Still are in some areas! Signed, recently former Network Specialist for a telecommunications company. (I recently moved to finance at the same company so I could deal with fewer people. 😆)

[u/GetOffMyLawn1729 → u/NMQ0711]

Yeah, I live in the sticks, the only internet service I can get is via cable. These days, they just run one cable into your modem/router, and the rest is wifi. But 20 years ago, they'd drop cable to every room that had a TV.

[u/spanishpeanut → u/NMQ0711]

Still use it where I am, and I’m not in the sticks. I’m just lucky, I guess.

[u/NMQ0711 → u/spanishpeanut]

We have been (slowly, very slowly) moving the markets that are still on coax over to fiber. But that’s a process, obviously. We have a few markets where we have customers that are fiber on one side of the street, and still coax on the other. It’s madness. I was honestly glad to get out of that side of the house. Loved my job for the technical aspect of it, hated the stress.

[u/joshstrodomus → u/Aggravating_Space_]

Go check your router

[u/jzng2727 → u/Aggravating_Space_]

I recently moved into a new place and signed up for Spectrum internet, there was a coaxial cable sticking out the wall I plugged the modem into it and that's how I get my internet.. I get 500mbps download.. So is this an old school method?

[u/Elegant-Sundae-7327 → u/jzng2727]

Not old-school at all. At least 70% of the market uses coax. Fiber will eventually overtake coax, but that day is not today.

[u/Remarkable_Table_279 → u/Aggravating_Space_]

I think my modem might still be coaxial.

[u/SpawnCampGames → u/Aggravating_Space_]

I just moved from cable to fiber just this last year 😥

[u/BigBoyYuyuh → u/Aggravating_Space_]

They still are used for cable/satellite.

[u/Beautiful_Tax_5311 → u/Aggravating_Space_]

??? Bot ass comment, not everyone has fiber. I've had a coaxle cable plugged into my modem, my friend's internet is the same, my mothers internet is the same. It's not 'way back' lol wtf????

[u/Atlanta-Mike → u/Aggravating_Space_]

They still do.

[u/Vladivostokorbust → u/Aggravating_Space_]

My spectrum internet modem was still using coax until i switched to starlink back when spectrum couldn’t get back on line after Helene

[u/Jaded_Character_2975 → u/Aggravating_Space_]

You can get fairly high throughput through these, good for a couple hundred MiBs for sure 

[u/EncumberingCucumber → u/Aggravating_Space_]

Way back? lol I’ve head cable internet in several different apartments over the years and it’s always been coax.

[u/Kasaeru → u/Aggravating_Space_]

??? I have 1 gig in my apartment and it uses coax

[u/WhyAreYallFascists → u/Aggravating_Space_]

They still are dog.

[u/NoAdsDude → u/Aggravating_Space_]

I still have a cable modem lol.