Ethernet over MOCA adapters

[ryanjoachim]

I just bought a house, and can't afford to wire it yet (Home Insurance requires a licensed electrician to do it).

I have my computer and my media server that I need to wire, but they're going to be on separate floors. I'm planning on having my modem and wireless router on the ground floor, connected to my media server.

 

That leaves my personal PC upstairs, with a wireless AC adapter. I'm not positive of the strength of signal my router will be able to manage upstairs, so I need to look at alternatives. And since I have a coax jack in my bedroom, I was thinking a MOCA adapter might work. Does anyone have any experience with Ethernet over MOCA adapters?

[Rheinwasser]

nope, wont work.

you would have to lay ethernet or do buy homeplugs.

 

but wireless ac isnt that bad either.

or just put all devices on one floor.

[Altecice]

if you are using skirting board/carpet just run a cat5/6 under it?

[TheKDub]

You could try using powerline, just plug the adapters into a regular outlet, sync them together, plug a ethernet cable connecting your router to one, then the other to another device.

[tomsliwowski]

When I had FIOS I used MoCA to hook up a wired PC in the basement to the router on the 2nd floor. I used a spare Actiontec MI424 router that I had from my previous house with all the routing features turned off. It worked fine for web browsing and transferring data to/from my server. I've since gotten rid of the PC and do everything over the 5GHz 802.11n or 802.11ac spectrum. 

 

If you don't want to bother with wireless then this is a viable solution. You can also try doing the Powerline thing but depending on your wiring it may not work that well. Keep in mind MoCA and Powerline can have somewhat weird issues but in my experience the MoCA ones were far more straightforward to figure out and fix.

[ryanjoachim]

The wife isn't going to let me tear up carpet or even skirt board to lay wire myself, which is why I have to wait on the electrician.

 

I'm confused as to why some of you are saying it straight-up just won't work...everything I've read shows it to be a pretty simple process. I hook one adapter to the coax downstairs, connect it to my modem (it has a passthrough) and my router. Then put the other adapter upstairs and connect it to the coax and my computer.

 

Is this incorrect?

[ryanjoachim]

When I had FIOS I used MoCA to hook up a wired PC in the basement to the router on the 2nd floor. I used a spare Actiontec MI424 router that I had from my previous house with all the routing features turned off. It worked fine for web browsing and transferring data to/from my server. I've since gotten rid of the PC and do everything over the 5GHz 802.11n or 802.11ac spectrum. 

 

If you don't want to bother with wireless then this is a viable solution. You can also try doing the Powerline thing but depending on your wiring it may not work that well. Keep in mind MoCA and Powerline can have somewhat weird issues but in my experience the MoCA ones were far more straightforward to figure out and fix.

I have serious issues with performance on the 5GHz band (huge packet loss, lag spikes, etc), which makes it difficult to get a strong signal across different levels. What has been your experience with signal strength?

[simson0606]

i don't have any experience myself, but when i look at this: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-set-up-a-coax-MoCA-network/#step0

it seems really easy

[tomsliwowski]

The wife isn't going to let me tear up carpet or even skirt board to lay wire myself, which is why I have to wait on the electrician.

 

I'm confused as to why some of you are saying it straight-up just won't work...everything I've read shows it to be a pretty simple process. I hook one adapter to the coax downstairs, connect it to my modem (it has a passthrough) and my router. Then put the other adapter upstairs and connect it to the coax and my computer.

 

Is this incorrect?

 

That is correct. MoCA networking is surprisingly simple. Not sure why people here are against it.

 

I have serious issues with performance on the 5GHz band (huge packet loss, lag spikes, etc), which makes it difficult to get a strong signal across different levels. What has been your experience with signal strength?

 

Personally I've not had any issues with packet loss or lag on the 5GHz spectrum. Mostly I think it's due to the combination of hardware I'm using and the environment. My house is mostly wood and plaster which seems to work significantly better for radio waves than newer construction which uses aluminum studs in the drywall. 

 

I used to have a 4th generation Apple Airport Extreme which did well enough with getting data to the back yard, 1st floor and 2nd floor but would not do so well in the basement. I've been running an Netgear Nighthawk (R7000) with DD-WRT since April which results in about 90% signal strength in the basement and close to full strength on the 1st floor, 2nd floor and back yard.

[ryanjoachim]

That is correct. MoCA networking is surprisingly simple. Not sure why people here are against it.

 

 

Personally I've not had any issues with packet loss or lag on the 5GHz spectrum. Mostly I think it's due to the combination of hardware I'm using and the environment. My house is mostly wood and plaster which seems to work significantly better for radio waves than newer construction which uses aluminum studs in the drywall. 

 

I used to have a 4th generation Apple Airport Extreme which did well enough with getting data to the back yard, 1st floor and 2nd floor but would not do so well in the basement. I've been running an Netgear Nighthawk (R7000) with DD-WRT since April which results in about 90% signal strength in the basement and close to full strength on the 1st floor, 2nd floor and back yard.

Do you use any wireless ac adapters? I'm using an Edimax AC USB 3.0 adapter, but I'm not entirely impressed with it.

[AMICLG]

nope, wont work.

you would have to lay ethernet or do buy homeplugs.

 

but wireless ac isnt that bad either.

or just put all devices on one floor.

Do you even know what MoCA adapters are, Verizon has one (sometimes more) built into they're B/GPON ONTs so if you use the router that Verizon gives you your internet,tv,phone all go over MoCA but is limited to 100Mbps do to the 1.0 revision devices only having a 10/100Mbps port but store bought devices are only going to get a solid 25Mbps but that's still enough to steam video so it would work. The problem is that they're $100 a pair and powerline adapters are only $50 for a good pair (usually perform much better too) so it's really a matter of price to performance.

[tomsliwowski]

Do you use any wireless ac adapters? I'm using an Edimax AC USB 3.0 adapter, but I'm not entirely impressed with it.

 

I don't use any external wireless adapters.

 

I have an LG G2 using AC as well as my Gigabyte P34G laptop that I've upgraded from the stock wifi card to an Intel AC-7260. Both get great reception pretty much everywhere in the house using the 5GHz AC band.