Moca Installation Plan Newb Questions

[chuccck]

Hello SNB -

I will be moving into a house in about a month and won't be able to run Cat6 everywhere (rental) so I want to explore the Moca adapters route. Every room is wired for cable. I have some basic questions that I was hoping you guys could help me with. My general plan is that I have an HTPC with a tuner card and to run 2 xbox 360s as windows media centers connected to the network through 3 of the actiontec Moca adapters. There will be be at most 2 of the 3 on the network at the same time.

1. What would the diagram look like for my kind of setup? I am still unsure of where the moca adapters belong in the line from Drop to tv.
   
   
2. do you think the Moca set up can handle my setup? Will I experience any performance issues? I currently run an xbox 360 hardwired to ethernet and experience no problems streaming downloaded videos and live tv.
   
   
3. Will I need to Install A POE filter at the point of entry?
   
   
4. The house used to have satellite and there are a ton dead/cut coax in the house. Is there anyway for me to check which ones are active to the comcast lines and which are dead before the Comcast tech comes out?
   
   
5. There are 6 coax lines in different rooms in the house (i wont use them all) and I could only find one splittler in the attic the short time I was there yesterday (see attached). Obviously, there have to be more splitters. Is that an issue? Will I have to find each of these splitters and change them out? If so what splitters are recommended for a Moca install? Does the first Moca adapter have to be placed before any splitters?
   
   
6. Do I need to pay the Comcast tech to "activate" each line in each room for Moca to work or if I just need the actual TV/Internet service in one place and the rest to act as Moca extenders/adapters can I just "activate" that one coax line?

I know its long and a lot of questions so thank you guys very much for your help in advance.

 

[thiggins]

Most of your questions are answered in other posts. Here are a few tips:
- keep the number of splitters between mica adapters to a minimum
- all splitters must be rated to at least 1.6 GHz. That 900MHz splitter in your picture won't pass the Moca signal
- all coax must be RG6
- there are cable checkers you can buy to test continuity. It is tedious work because it is basically hunt and peck
- ideally, all coax should run directly to a central point. Cascaded splitters will lower your throughput.

 

[chuccck]

Thanks! I did search the forums a bit. but i will try again. How can I tell the difference between rc6 and other grades? Is it ONLY Rc6 or rc6 and higher/lower?

 

[thiggins]

The two coax types you will see are RG6 and RG59.
RG6 has lower loss so won't reduce the Moca signal as much.

The type is usually printed on the cable jacket. It may be very faint.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Cable Types

I think Tim meant RG59 & RG6. If the house was recently wired the cableis probably RG6.

 

[stevech]

RG-6 is larger diameter than RG59.

(RG59 is 75 ohm which is what all TV coax is; RG58 is 50 ohm, used for radio systems).

 

[chuccck]

What about "activating" each coaxial outlet in each room?

 

[thiggins]

There is no "activation" other than making sure it is connected.

 

[chuccck]

i seem to remember paying the stupid comcast tech to "activate" each coax outlet I wanted tv or internet on! evil comcast

 

[stevech]

many years ago, Cable TV companies were responsible for in-house (inside) wiring and they got away with charging on a per-TV connection basis. They can't do that "activation" now, by regulation. Like inside phone wiring you or your contractor/friend do the inside wiring. That hasn't been the case for 15 years or so. The cable co. can charge to activate a DEVICE you get from them, like a set top box or DVR, but not the coax outlets. And you are free to add more.