Multi-gigabit (multi-gig) connections are becoming more common on networking devices to support higher speeds than the Gigabit connections that were previously the fastest connection type used by most consumer modems and routers. Multi-gig connections can be useful when connecting your router to your modem for a WAN (Internet) connection, and when connecting bandwidth-hungry client devces to your router for a local area network (LAN) connection.
Depending on the type of connection you are setting up and whether your devices have Multi-Gig Ethernet ports available, you might have multiple options for setting up your multi-gig connection. For more information about Multi-Gig Ethernet, see What are Multi-Gig Ethernet and 2.5G Multi-Gig Ethernet ports?
Internet connection
If you have multi-gig Internet service, you might want to connect your modem to your router with a multi-gig connection to ensure that your client devices have access to all of the bandwidth that you pay for. For more information about multi-gig Internet, see What is multi-gig Internet?
- If your modem and your router both have Multi-Gig Ethernet ports, you can connect a single Ethernet cable to each device's Multi-Gig Ethernet port to create a multi-gig connection. We recommend this option if your devices support it. If your router has a dedicated multi-gig Internet port, no configuration is required, but routers with 2.5G or 5G Multi-Gig Ethernet ports might require additional setup. For more information, see How do I set up the 2.5G or 5G Multi-Gig Ethernet port for an Internet connection on my NETGEAR Nighthawk router?
- If your modem and your router both support Internet Ethernet port aggregation, you can connect two Ethernet cables to the aggregated Gigabit Ethernet ports to create a multi-gig connection. For more information, see the following articles:
LAN connection
If you have a very bandwidth-hungry client device, you might want to connect your client device to your router with a multi-gig connection to give it access to as much bandwidth as possible.
- If your router and your client device both have Multi-Gig Ethernet ports, you can connect a single Ethernet cable to each device's Multi-Gig Ethernet port to create a multi-gig connection. As long as your NETGEAR router has a free Multi-Gig Ethernet port that isn't used for your Internet connection, no additional router configuration is required. However, you might have to perform additional configuration on your client device; check the information from your device's manufacturer for more information.
- If your router and your client device both support LAN Ethernet port aggregation, you can connect two Ethernet cables to the aggregated Gigabit Ethernet ports to create a multi-gig connection. For more information, see How do I set up LAN Ethernet port aggregation on my NETGEAR Nighthawk router?