Noob MoCA configuration question

[Zman]

This is a total NOOB question but for whatever reason, I simply cannot wrap my head around it so I turn to the experts here...

Right now, I do wireless throughout my house and now I want to do MoCA throughout the house. I have a MoCA enabled cable/modem and router. I do NOT have cable tv subscription (but CATV is wired through the house). I only use the cable from TimeWarner for internet only. Here is what I cannot wrap my head around. Another challenge is I have NO IDEA as to the entry point from the street, I am assuming it is direct, but I cannot confirm that. All I know is that I have a single connected internet cable in my office that gets me internet (see...NOOB here... lol).

My current setup (via text form from left to right)...Works well but want to clear dead spots and improve connectivity and throughput.

Internet from Street >>> Cable Modem/Router >>> Wireless to Room 1
>>> Wireless to Room 2
>>> Wireless to Room 3
>>> Wireless for mobile users

What I WANT is the following:

Internet from Street >>> Cable Modem/Router >>> Wireless for mobile users (no change required)
>>> MoCA adapter to Room 1
>>> MoCA adapter to Room 2
>>> MoCA adapter to Room 3

I get the terminating use of the MoCA adapters in the downstream rooms (1-3). Ie, I would take CATV nub >>> MoCA Adapter >>> Ethernet >> Device

What I cant get through my pea brain is how to get the signal to the CATV house wiring AFTER the router via a MoCA adapter?!?!

Specifically, I would THINK I would need....
Internet from street >>> Cable Modem/Router >>> Ethernet cable >>> MoCA adapter >>> COAX to rest of house...

The connection from the street to the cable modem is the ONLY cable connection in the room (I have no idea how the house is wired). So here is the question, how do I get the internet signal from my Cable Modem/Router to the rest of the house if there isnt another CATV connection available in the room since it is being consumed by the INCOMING connection from the street? Make sense? I am reading that MOCA is BiDirectional and can live on the same cable, but I just cant figure out the splitters/filters required to make it happen... Do I literally loop it back into the same incoming line? That just doesnt make sense to me..

I'm sure I am over thinking this...but any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[JWadle]

This is a total NOOB question but for whatever reason, I simply cannot wrap my head around it so I turn to the experts here...

Right now, I do wireless throughout my house and now I want to do MoCA throughout the house. I have a MoCA enabled cable/modem and router. I do NOT have cable tv subscription (but CATV is wired through the house). I only use the cable from TimeWarner for internet only. Here is what I cannot wrap my head around. Another challenge is I have NO IDEA as to the entry point from the street, I am assuming it is direct, but I cannot confirm that. All I know is that I have a single connected internet cable in my office that gets me internet (see...NOOB here... lol).

My current setup (via text form from left to right)...Works well but want to clear dead spots and improve connectivity and throughput.

Internet from Street >>> Cable Modem/Router >>> Wireless to Room 1
>>> Wireless to Room 2
>>> Wireless to Room 3
>>> Wireless for mobile users

What I WANT is the following:

Internet from Street >>> Cable Modem/Router >>> Wireless for mobile users (no change required)
>>> MoCA adapter to Room 1
>>> MoCA adapter to Room 2
>>> MoCA adapter to Room 3

I get the terminating use of the MoCA adapters in the downstream rooms (1-3). Ie, I would take CATV nub >>> MoCA Adapter >>> Ethernet >> Device

What I cant get through my pea brain is how to get the signal to the CATV house wiring AFTER the router via a MoCA adapter?!?!

Specifically, I would THINK I would need....
Internet from street >>> Cable Modem/Router >>> Ethernet cable >>> MoCA adapter >>> COAX to rest of house...

The connection from the street to the cable modem is the ONLY cable connection in the room (I have no idea how the house is wired). So here is the question, how do I get the internet signal from my Cable Modem/Router to the rest of the house if there isnt another CATV connection available in the room since it is being consumed by the INCOMING connection from the street? Make sense? I am reading that MOCA is BiDirectional and can live on the same cable, but I just cant figure out the splitters/filters required to make it happen... Do I literally loop it back into the same incoming line? That just doesnt make sense to me..

I'm sure I am over thinking this...but any help would be greatly appreciated.

Depending on the MoCA adapter you have at the Internet/modem location, there are two possibilities:

(1) If your MoCA adapter has a coax input only, like the Actiontec ECB2500C or ECB6000, the wiring is as shown in Option #1 below:

(2) If your MoCA adapter has a coax input and output (usually labelled TV/STB), such as the Actiontec ECB6200, the wiring is as shown in Option #2 below.

The modem and router can, of course, be a single device.

 

[Zman]

so there is a "loop" of sorts and that is because, from my understanding, MoCA is bi-directional. My MoCA adapter is Actiontec 2.0 ECB6000K02 . Single coax single ethernet. The only thing different with my actual box is my modem/router are one unit. Thus I am combining the modem/router boxes in Option #1 above.

Is the splitter a standard splitter or does the 5-1675 MHz mean something.

In addition, the MoCA adapter should send the signal BACK through the same cable in line and send the signal to the other CATV outlets correct? In fact now that I look at it, #2 is just as simple and I can get one of those as well from Actiontec.

Essentially, the cable IN to the house with the internet can also carry the traffic "out" from the router to the rest of the house because of the bidirectional nature of MoCA. The only way this wouldnt work is if this is indeed a DEDICATED line for Internet only. I doubt that is the case because I can see the coax cable was passed through the shared wall from a room that didnt have a TV by the previous owner. Fingers crossed!

THANK YOU! Love this site/forum. You folks are great! Please confirm my understanding.

 

[abailey]

You really need to find where the splitter is for all your coax. It is usually either outside on the side of the house, in the attic, or in the basement. There are two reasons for this. First, any coax splitters really need to be 2000 MHz or higher. Second, you really need to put a filter on your incoming coax line to make sure neighbors can't jump on your coax network. Not sure what you mean by bi-directional. MOCA can send and receive signals.....

 

[Zman]

You really need to find where the splitter is for all your coax. It is usually either outside on the side of the house, in the attic, or in the basement. There are two reasons for this. First, any coax splitters really need to be 2000 MHz or higher. Second, you really need to put a filter on your incoming coax line to make sure neighbors can't jump on your coax network. Not sure what you mean by bi-directional. MOCA can send and receive signals.....

I hear ya...but I cannot share what I dont have. I went to the street, went to the box, single cable going into the wall and poof! I went into the attic, there are NO CATV cables running. So the splitters are in the wall.

I have purchased a filter, so assuming my situation, where would you recommend I place it?

What I mean by bi-directional (i guess using is incorrectly) the signals can be sent over the same receiving lines to the other COAX outlets.

Thanks for the continued assistance...

 

[abailey]

In your situation your not going to be able to use a filter unless you can put it in the box at the street. I have never heard of splitters in the walls. That is a terrible idea. What if an end or splitter goes bad? Is there a crawl space under your house?

 

[JWadle]

You

so there is a "loop" of sorts and that is because, from my understanding, MoCA is bi-directional. My MoCA adapter is Actiontec 2.0 ECB6000K02 . Single coax single ethernet. The only thing different with my actual box is my modem/router are one unit. Thus I am combining the modem/router boxes in Option #1 above.

Is the splitter a standard splitter or does the 5-1675 MHz mean something.

In addition, the MoCA adapter should send the signal BACK through the same cable in line and send the signal to the other CATV outlets correct? In fact now that I look at it, #2 is just as simple and I can get one of those as well from Actiontec.

Essentially, the cable IN to the house with the internet can also carry the traffic "out" from the router to the rest of the house because of the bidirectional nature of MoCA. The only way this wouldnt work is if this is indeed a DEDICATED line for Internet only. I doubt that is the case because I can see the coax cable was passed through the shared wall from a room that didnt have a TV by the previous owner. Fingers crossed!

THANK YOU! Love this site/forum. You folks are great! Please confirm my understanding.

Your assumptions are correct.

In order to accommodate MoCA 2.0 signals, all splitters must carry frequencies up to 1675MHz. Many splitters only go up to 1000MHz.

Also, make sure you have a MoCA filter on the Internet entry point into your home.

 

[Zman]

Regarding the splitter. The only splitter that exists is a 5x1000 Mhz splitter in the room. I will remove that one and put in the MoCA splitter when it arrives. In addition, I will put the filter at the single connection in the TW box since it is a pass through... that is the only way I can be sure it is covering the home rather than a single run of cable. That will be the last thing I install once we find out if the rest of the cable outlets in the home are hot or simply dead because of bad splitters, construction or a lazy tech over the years.

@abailey thank you for your patience and feeling my pain! I looked at the street and saw three wires going from the TW box into the home. I then found out that two of them have been cut (with no connectors at all!). We havent had cable since we moved into the home and only had TW for internet. There is no crawlspace, homes here in Texas are concrete pier/beam construction...so no basements. Yep...this stuff is buried in the wall.

So we will find out very quickly if the rest of the home CATV outlets are "hot" or only the single drop in my office. If this doesnt work, I will use the old DirecTV cable that exists (and I installed) on the outside of the house. I know EXACTLY the downstream locations of that cable and how it is split and will have total control (but I want to try the internal wiring first).

Any other thoughts? I get the hardware on Monday so I will follow up then regardless...Planning on using Option #1 above to see if it works and then figure out where the heck I can put the filter to protect the home.

Thanks again everyone. All y'all are awesome!

 

[Zman]

WORKING LIKE A BOSS!

I turned off my wireless, plugged in my laptop to a lan connection via the MoCA connection and got 200MB download (my paid speed is up to 220 with TW) so I am considering this one hell of a success. In the end, here is what I found/learned.

I have three separate cables going into my house. I later discovered by moving furniture, that I have three COAX connections. I have no splitters in the house prior to this. They are dedicated lines with the only splitter NOW in the POE to the house.

I recycled the 5x1002 splitter above from TW that takes the POE and splits the signal to all of the COAX jacks. I saw that immediately, the MoCA devices were live, but not carrying traffic, but my internet was working. I install the filter before the splitter an VOILA! Presto Bango I am cooking with GAS!

I used the #1 diagram above. I put an old wireless router, turned it into an AccessPoint and have 100% coverage (as well as a 4-port switch on the back). Plenty of bandwidth on the backplane for what I am doing.

Thanks to everyone who helped here. @abailey @JWadle especially.