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In a world filled with wireless technologies like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, it's easy to forget that plain old wires still offer the best reliability, latency, and speeds. It's one reason wired headphones are making a comeback , and it's also why you're often better off using Ethernet to connect your fixed network devices.

Ethernet is inexpensive and fast. You can spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars upgrading to a Wi-Fi 7 router or spend single- or double-digit figures installing some CAT6 Ethernet for 10-gigabit-per-second (Gbps) network speeds. It may be an initial hassle to install that Ethernet, but the benefits are numerous, and you're unlikely to need faster speeds for any years to come.

But Ethernet cables don't just carry data. Thanks to an Ethernet standard called Power-over-Ethernet (PoE), it's possible to also send electrical power to operate a device while also communicating with it.…