Moca newbie advice

[pwn-br]

Hi all,

I recently learned about this forum and have been diving into it and learning more about networking since. Thank you for such a depth (and breadth!) of awesome information.

I come, at this time, to seek help. I live in a 3 story, 2800 sqft home. We currently have CenturyLink fiber and are just using the default provided router for Wifi. As you can expect the wifi is very sloppy and keeps dropping every now and then (I'm pretty sure it is the router). I have considered running ethernet cables to all floors to install access points and provide wired connection to some devices (namely the video game, TV and NAS), but this wouldn't be too straightforward given the setup and the age of the home (and my limited funds at the moment). I have also considered a new and beefed up router, but I would really prefer a wire setup because I can use it for the NAS+media.

While browsing through this forum I learned about Moca and was really excited/intrigued because the house has coaxial outlets in every floor. I read more about Moca and it does seem to be suitable for what I need, but I wanted to ask for your expertise first. Please see the image below for a diagram of my current setup (in black) and my idea for improvement (in red). It looks... too simple! I might be missing something completely and/or just not understanding the technology.

Am I missing something here? Would this work or would there be a better setup?

For the coax, there's a wire coming from the utility pole that goes to a 2-split and then two wires go into the house (one for the first floor) and another, I believe, to the basement. There's a room on the second floor with a coax outlet and I have no idea where the wire for that is coming from (or if it works - perhaps there's a split in the wire that goes to the basement somewhere in the wall).

For the Moca adapters, I was planning in getting three of the screenbeam, connecting one to the router via ethernet and then to the coax outlet in the first floor. One the basement and second floor I would connect the coax outlet to the adapter and the ethernet to an AP.

Thanks for the help!

 

[OzarkEdge]

Hi all,

I recently learned about this forum and have been diving into it and learning more about networking since. Thank you for such a depth (and breadth!) of awesome information.

I come, at this time, to seek help. I live in a 3 story, 2800 sqft home. We currently have CenturyLink fiber and are just using the default provided router for Wifi. As you can expect the wifi is very sloppy and keeps dropping every now and then (I'm pretty sure it is the router). I have considered running ethernet cables to all floors to install access points and provide wired connection to some devices (namely the video game, TV and NAS), but this wouldn't be too straightforward given the setup and the age of the home (and my limited funds at the moment). I have also considered a new and beefed up router, but I would really prefer a wire setup because I can use it for the NAS+media.

While browsing through this forum I learned about Moca and was really excited/intrigued because the house has coaxial outlets in every floor. I read more about Moca and it does seem to be suitable for what I need, but I wanted to ask for your expertise first. Please see the image below for a diagram of my current setup (in black) and my idea for improvement (in red). It looks... too simple! I might be missing something completely and/or just not understanding the technology.

View attachment 44706

Am I missing something here? Would this work or would there be a better setup?

For the coax, there's a wire coming from the utility pole that goes to a 2-split and then two wires go into the house (one for the first floor) and another, I believe, to the basement. There's a room on the second floor with a coax outlet and I have no idea where the wire for that is coming from (or if it works - perhaps there's a split in the wire that goes to the basement somewhere in the wall).

For the Moca adapters, I was planning in getting three of the screenbeam, connecting one to the router via ethernet and then to the coax outlet in the first floor. One the basement and second floor I would connect the coax outlet to the adapter and the ethernet to an AP.

Thanks for the help!

I would fix/improve/upgrade your existing network first before extending it with MoCA segments and APs. Then decide what needs to be done where to extend LAN/WLAN coverage. One, maybe two good APs (including the wireless router AP) can cover 3x?=2800sf. Too much WiFi is not a good thing. Save the MoCA project for last.

Given the fiber ISP and no other services, you don't need nor want the top utility/coax connection. Is your existing coax cabling being used for anything like cable/OTA/satellite TV or cable Internet?

Before adding MoCA, you should investigate/confirm/repair your coax cabling and disconnect/remove unnecessary elements to keep it clean and simple (coax is a multipoint waveguide for radio... like WiFi confined to a cable... it needs to be in good repair and bonded to the building Earth Ground at the demarc). Splitters must be rated for MoCA frequencies up to 1675MHz or higher. Open connections on active coax should be terminated. Each element inserted into coax will attenuate/weaken the signal, so minimize these insertions/losses.

If cable Internet is your backup ISP, it may eventually not coexist with faster MoCA that uses some of the same frequencies, so ideally you would want to keep cable ISP coax separate from LAN/MoCA coax.

Moderator should move this discussion to the MoCA subforum... MoCA not wireless.

OE