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MoCA 2.0 - Ethernet over Coax

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That is a dangerous mind set. Always pull more lines than you think you need. ALWAYS! I can't begin to tell you how many times you pull just what you need only to find out that you need just one more. Materials are cheap and the labor doesn't change if you pull one, two or more lines. If you need one, pull two. If you need two, pull four. If you have a line that fails or a need that you didn't anticipate, you're covered.

The likelihood of a LAN cable failing is extremely low. Plus if it does, it really isn't hard to re-pull it using the old wire.

The cheapest I found CAT 6 plenum rated cable is $0.30/ft (if you buy 1000ft) which isn't breaking the bank, but it isn't cheap. Certainly not if you're doubling what you really need.

Again, I'm curious to know what people are running where they need more than a gigabit of bandwidth simultaneously in one room? Almost no one has gigabit internet yet and most gaming consoles don't come anywhere near that speed so the only thing I can see is if you were copying huge files between multiple computers where you would actually saturate a single line. That scenario can't come up too often.

Plus, if you're using a switch you can never run out of ports so that comment doesn't make sense. If you think you need 3 then buy an 8 port switch. If you need more than 8, then I could see running more than one line, but can't imagine a scenario (in a home) where someone has 8 devices hard wired in one room and is operating them all at once.

Edit: Also, if you're using Cat6 that supports 10Gb bandwidth so you could always get a higher speed router and switch when the time comes.
 
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Got this all setup tonight...I would call it a success.

1. Test case: Both MOCA 2.0 devices connected by a coax...file transfer

Baseline - TX Move.jpg

Transfer Rate: 92.8 Mega BYTES per Second


2. Everything connected and running through the Coax cabling on my house:

--intall rate.png

Transfer Rate: 64.2 Mega BYTES per second


I still have some more tweaking to do, but 640 Mbps per second is not bad!!!!


Edit: The devices are pretty small too...smaller than the size of my hand.
 
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Got the speed up to 800 Mbps (sustained)...funny story behind this...

I noticed the other day that one of my cable boxes (I have 2 in the house) was on my network. Just sitting there, with an IP address...not doing anything. This cable box was not connecting to the main DVR for recorded shows. I put a spare 1005 MHz low pass filter in-line with this cable box and WAM, the speed jumped up.

It must be that the cable box has MoCA 2.0 in it as well...but not "turbo" mode (the adapters I referenced are bonded and turbo). MoCA will run at the speed of the slowest device on the cable "network".

MoCA 2.0 allows for different frequency bands, so when I put the low pass filter in-line with the cable box, it started talking with the main cable box on a sub 1 GHz frequency, and the 2 adapters upped their speed.

So, not quite 1 Gbps...but 0.8 Gbps is very close.

Still going to do some more tweaking (I think there is another splitter in-line that I haven't found yet.)

:thup:
 
800 Mbps would be about the max for gigabit. Ethernet has a 25% overhead so.....
 
Added project Status Summary to Original Post!


And, after about 4.5 months, these units are still going strong...with NO ISSUES!!!
 
JrClocker, thanks for the diagram on your setup. I am attempting a similar setup at the punch box in my home. please look over these steps and advise as I am not getting an internet connection to my access point (ie: Asus wireless router in AP mode) (1) I have the main Coax from my ISP going directly into my punch box where all the coax's from the home come into. (2) main coax is going into my cable modem with a LPF (although Moto SB6141 already has a built-in LPF, might this be overkill?) (3) Cat cable from Cable modem is going into Actiontec ECB6200 MOCA, (4) "Coax in" from Actiontec Moca is going to a BAMF SB-2003 3-WAY SPLITTER, that splitter goes out onto 3 coax's that go throughout the house, (5) one of those coax's goes to my main Asus wireless router (of which I'm getting a successful internet connection, clocking over 240Mbps on down stream) , (6) and another coax goes to a 2nd asus wireless router in AP mode which is connected by the following, coax out of the wall into another actiontec moca, out of actiontec moca and into a switch, out of the switch and into the main wan port on the asus AP point. **This is where the issue is, I am not picking up an internet signal into the ASUS AP.*** Any suggestions would be helpful, thank you.
 
Here are my thoughts

- are you sure you have power connected to everything? Silly question, but I have lost time troubleshooting when I haven't plugged it in!

- are both lights on each of the MoCA devices lit? One light is for the MoCA connection, the other is for Ethernet connection.

- if you already have one router working and not the second, I would try plugging in a laptop into the Ethernet jack in place of the second router. If it gets an IP address and good connection speed, then it's your router/AP connection that's not setup right.

- if you are using the second router as an access point, make sure you have the Ethernet cable plugged into the "switch" connection and not the solitary cable modem connection. If it's an access point, you don't want it acting like a router...just a switch with a wireless connection.
- have you followed the cable lines through the house to make sure you don't have a dopy extra splitter or cable amp in the chain? I had a couple I needed to find and upgrade. If the splitters don't have at least 1.5 GHz bandwidth (preferred 2) they will attenuate the single too much. If the amp is not bidirectional and/or enough bandwidth it will attenuate the signal. If there are splitters/amps they won't be in the wall, they will be in the attic/ceiling along the main cable runs.

A diagram or picture will help!


 
Here are my thoughts

- are you sure you have power connected to everything? Silly question, but I have lost time troubleshooting when I haven't plugged it in!

- are both lights on each of the MoCA devices lit? One light is for the MoCA connection, the other is for Ethernet connection.

- if you already have one router working and not the second, I would try plugging in a laptop into the Ethernet jack in place of the second router. If it gets an IP address and good connection speed, then it's your router/AP connection that's not setup right.

- if you are using the second router as an access point, make sure you have the Ethernet cable plugged into the "switch" connection and not the solitary cable modem connection. If it's an access point, you don't want it acting like a router...just a switch with a wireless connection.
- have you followed the cable lines through the house to make sure you don't have a dopy extra splitter or cable amp in the chain? I had a couple I needed to find and upgrade. If the splitters don't have at least 1.5 GHz bandwidth (preferred 2) they will attenuate the single too much. If the amp is not bidirectional and/or enough bandwidth it will attenuate the signal. If there are splitters/amps they won't be in the wall, they will be in the attic/ceiling along the main cable runs.

A diagram or picture will help!

Yes, there is power to everything, and Yes both sets of green LED's are Lit on both of the MOCA's. One other thing I failed to mention earlier is that by connecting the 2nd Asus router as an AP to my main Main Asus router (through one of the switch ports) I am able to access it's GUI through my main Asus router settings, that is how I was able to switch it over to an AP. Thing is, that while connected as I mentioned earlier, it's not coming up on my network, even after assigning it it's own IP address using it's MAC access through DHCP.
 
If all of the lights are on and you can access, it is definitely a network configuration issue. As long as you have the lights on, then the MoCA devices appear to the network as a regular Ethernet cable connection. To verify this, plug a device (non-router or switch) and verify that this device gets an IP address and can communicate.

OK - so you have 2 routers...1 as a router and the other as an access point. You should have them connected like this:

Cable Modem --> router (uplink connection)
Router (switch connection) --> MoCA --> house cable
House cable --> MoCA
MoCA --> access point (switch connection)

It's important that the MoCA connection for the access point going into the switch connection, not the "uplink" port like you did with the cable modem. (Connecting to the uplink port is valid, but this will put the devices "down stream" of the access point on a different subnet, and you will have to enable all port forwarding options on the access point...not the most ideal.)

It's important that the DCHP server is turned off for the access point (2 DHCP servers on the same subnet can cause chaos.)

If you are assigning a static IP to the access point (recommended) make sure that the address is reserved for the access point's MAC address on the router, and that the IP address is in the "address pool" for the router's DHCP.

Verify that the router and access point are on the same subnet...like 192.168.0.X. If the number before the X is different (like 192.168.1.X and 192.168.0.X) then you have 2 subnets and don't have the network configured properly.

Verify that your access point and router have different IP addresses.

Also, verify that the access point is in access point mode. When I did mine, I followed the directions but they didn't quiet work...I had to disable an additional setting on the access point router to get full functionality. I don't remember what it was, but after I figured it out I backed up the settings because it was a pain!

If you have a separate switch (I think you said this) make sure that the switch's DHCP server is turned off. Also, my switch requires that the "upstream" network connection to be on a specific port. Also, assign a static IP address that is different than the access point.


 
If all of the lights are on and you can access, it is definitely a network configuration issue. As long as you have the lights on, then the MoCA devices appear to the network as a regular Ethernet cable connection. To verify this, plug a device (non-router or switch) and verify that this device gets an IP address and can communicate.

OK - so you have 2 routers...1 as a router and the other as an access point. You should have them connected like this:

Cable Modem --> router (uplink connection)
Router (switch connection) --> MoCA --> house cable
House cable --> MoCA
MoCA --> access point (switch connection)

It's important that the MoCA connection for the access point going into the switch connection, not the "uplink" port like you did with the cable modem. (Connecting to the uplink port is valid, but this will put the devices "down stream" of the access point on a different subnet, and you will have to enable all port forwarding options on the access point...not the most ideal.)

It's important that the DCHP server is turned off for the access point (2 DHCP servers on the same subnet can cause chaos.)

If you are assigning a static IP to the access point (recommended) make sure that the address is reserved for the access point's MAC address on the router, and that the IP address is in the "address pool" for the router's DHCP.

Verify that the router and access point are on the same subnet...like 192.168.0.X. If the number before the X is different (like 192.168.1.X and 192.168.0.X) then you have 2 subnets and don't have the network configured properly.

Verify that your access point and router have different IP addresses.

Also, verify that the access point is in access point mode. When I did mine, I followed the directions but they didn't quiet work...I had to disable an additional setting on the access point router to get full functionality. I don't remember what it was, but after I figured it out I backed up the settings because it was a pain!

If you have a separate switch (I think you said this) make sure that the switch's DHCP server is turned off. Also, my switch requires that the "upstream" network connection to be on a specific port. Also, assign a static IP address that is different than the access point.

Great, thank you - I now believe what the issue is, I am coming straight from my punch box with my cable modem through a moca over to the main wireless router, and you mention to go from cable modem to wireless router to Moca, hence the AP needs to receive the internet signal directly from the main wireless router. I'll give it a go and report back, THNAKS!!!
 
Success! It's all up and running., will be adding 2 more MOCA's throughout the home, thanks again [emoji1360]


 
Sweet...I'm glad you got it working!

I have 4 of these MoCA units in my house. Pretty painless after the initial install...just plug and let them run.

One thing I did do was to put each of the MoCA units on a UPS power supply.


 
Very nice having them on a UPS, will have to get those, I did notice that when running a Speedtest I've lost some down stream even after changing channels to not overlap the main router and AP. I have both units on the same SSIDs, Both are dual band, 2.5 and 5G, Any suggestions ?


 
So - I just passed my 2 year anniversary on this solution. Everything has been working 100% flawlessly.

Still very impressed with these guys!
 
That's great to hear. I've been watching these for a while and I think I ran into your review of them from a link on the snbforums. Are you still getting the same throughput through them 2 years later?
 
I just added 2 more MoCA 2.0 adapters into my network...one for my daughter's room and one for my stepson's room.

My stepson is in awe of his "non-lagging Fortnite" as he is now convinced that wired is better than wireless (as I have been trying to tell him...but what do I know?)

The original devices I purchased in 2016 work flawlessly with the devices I just recently purchased. A bit of splitter change out (and a lot of swearing as I was attempting to locate the appropriate cable line)...and POOF! 1 Gbps connection speed through all MoCA 2.0 devices back to my main server.

These MoCA 2.0 devices (Actiontec in my case) are really fantastic. They hit a solid use case:

- Don't feel like running Ethernet cabling around your house?
- Do you have existing Cable TV runs in your house?
- No problem, use those now useless Cable TV runs (thank you streaming TV) as network cables!

I'm really impressed with this stuff! My OCD had me bunding and sorting cables. The cables do not terminate in a wiring closet, but in the attic over my garage. Maybe a future project will be to create a wiring closet...who knows...
 
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