Will MoCA Do What I Want?

[iwmtv]

Hello to all. I've also been recently looking into a solution that would let me get rid of my wired ethernet from my main pc/HD media server, to my HTPC which is on the other side of the room. Currently I have a wired ethernet dragging across the middle of my living room which is both an eyesore and of course a tripping hazard.

I was looking into getting a wireless solution but after reading up here on SNB I realize that there is no trouble free solution for HD streaming via wireless.

I then came across the Moca reviews and am looking into these.

What I'm wondering is will there be a loss of throughput anywhere in my proposed setup. Everything would be wired, nothing will be connecting wirelessly.

Would download speed and throughput take a hit on my primary PC? Also is there a recommended splitter to use for this situation?

I've created a diagram here: Moca Diagram

 

[thiggins]

You're going to need to connect a LAN port on the WNDR3700 to the left-hand
MoCA bridge's Ethernet.

Why the Buffalo WHR-G54S? All you need there is a switch.

What is your Internet up and download speed?

MoCA is going to give you, best case, around 70 Mbps for a single connection. This is slower than a 100 Mbps Ethernet connection.

 

[iwmtv]

Thanks for the help Tim. I updated the diagram to add the Lan connection from the Moca to the WNDR3700.

Moca Diagram

Well the Buffalo is there because that's what I'm using currently as my router and I figure I'd just use it on the other side. I got a good deal on the WNDR3700 so that's on its way.

What's the best way to measure internet upload and download speed?

Using a newsreader, my download speed is a solid/consistent ~1.22 MiB/s (NetMeter).

Streaming from my Primary PC to the HTPC (via the Buffalo router) is showing a peak upload of 12 MiB/s for one 1080p mkv video file using Netmeter.

According to Speakeasy:
download speed is 9889 kbps
upload speed is 496kbps

 

[thiggins]

Sounds like you have a 10 Mbps down / 500 Kbps up service. MoCA should be more than fast enough to keep up with that.

Shut off the DHCP server on one of the routers and then you can just use its LAN ports as a switch. You don't need two routers.

Make sure your splitter is rated for up to 2 GHz, since MoCA uses frequencies above 1 GHz.

 

[iwmtv]

Thanks Tim, going to look into the Moca kit. I may pick up a WNHDE5111 bridge first since they're much cheaper than the Moca kit to see how good or bad the setup would be.

I have a D-Link DGS-2205 switch hanging around so I'll replace the Buffalo with that if/when I get Moca per your suggestion.

I have the splitter that's in the diagram, Monster 2GHz but it's a four-way splitter, I wonder if there is any signal loss from those two extra unused connectors.

Thanks so much for your help.

 

[thiggins]

There's no "extra" signal loss from the two unused connectors on the splitter.

Wireless isn't going to provide throughput as consistent as the MoCA bridges.

 

[iwmtv]

Thanks Tim, Netgear Moca kit is on its way. Just got my WNDR3700 today. Looking forward to setting everything up.

 

[iwmtv]

Well I got my WNDR3700 and my MCAB1001 MoCA Kit.

Everything is setup but the two Netgear MoCA devices don't seem to communicate.

Should the MoCA adapter connected to the router show up as an attached device? Nothing shows in the router.

I put each device on Config and ran the MCA1001 Utility on both MoCA units. I set them to channel 29 and MoCA D Band and it didn't work. The default settings (SCAN; MoCA D Band) also didn't work.

Not sure what to do or what I'm missing at this point. Any advice?

 

[thiggins]

1) Put the devices back to their defaults.

2) Set them up side by side and connect them with a short piece of coax. Connect a computer to one and the other to a router port. Your computer should connect just like it was connected with an Ethernet cable.
If this doesn't work, move the coax to the other connectors or try other combinations until your get a working connection.

See this thread for another person's journey to a proper MoCA connection!

 

[iwmtv]

Updated the diagram although it's not much different. Thanks for the tips, read that thread as well. I'm going to try some tests hopefully tonight.

MoCa Setup

 

[jds62f]

I hooked up one of these over the weekend for the similar purpose of HD streaming to my PS3.

Overall I think MoCa is a very nice solution. I got everything working in a small amount of time. During regular streaming (ie playing at 1x speed) the transmission topped out @ 50Mbps and I noticed no dropped frames or problems on a 720p 1hr broadcast recording.

Where I did notice problems was trying to fast forward or rewind. When doing this, the media server was sending upward of 150Mbps which obviously choked (and at least on my PS3, resulted in network transmission errors).

In the end, I think I'm going to return it not because I wasn't mostly satisfied, but because if I can work up the gumption I can have ten times the performance at half the cost with gigabit ethernet.

 

[iwmtv]

1) Put the devices back to their defaults.

2) Set them up side by side and connect them with a short piece of coax. Connect a computer to one and the other to a router port. Your computer should connect just like it was connected with an Ethernet cable.
If this doesn't work, move the coax to the other connectors or try other combinations until your get a working connection.

See this thread for another person's journey to a proper MoCA connection!

So good news bad news. After resetting both devices and setting up the MoCA kits side by side, I was able to test the connection

But after putting them back into my setup, it was a no go. I tried all possible combination's with the connectors on the cable modem side and on the switch side.

MoCA Setup

Maybe it's the splitter? I believe this is the actual splitter that I have:2 Gigahertz Low-loss Rf Splitters for Tv & Satellite Mkii

I guess I'll look into buying a new splitter and if that doesn't work then I'll have to return the setup or sell it, I may be past the return date.

 

[thiggins]

That splitter should be fine unless it's broken.

Let's break this down piece by piece. Does the cable modem and router work with
the coax signal going through the splitter and one of the MoCA boxes?

 

[iwmtv]

That splitter should be fine unless it's broken.

Let's break this down piece by piece. Does the cable modem and router work with
the coax signal going through the splitter and one of the MoCA boxes?

It does, and in addition the cable modem and router work even when I swap the coax in and coax out connections between the MoCA box and the cable modem.
In fact at this very moment the cable modem signal is being passed through the MoCA box to the router. I just can't seem to get this MoCA box to communicate with the other one.

MoCA Setup

 

[thiggins]

1) Try swapping the two Moca boxes, to check whether the other box properly passes the coax signal to the cable modem.

2) Try another port on the splitter.

3) Try connecting the cable service input to one of the splitter outputs and connect the second MoCA adapter to the splitter input.

 

[iwmtv]

1) Try swapping the two Moca boxes, to check whether the other box properly passes the coax signal to the cable modem.

2) Try another port on the splitter.

3) Try connecting the cable service input to one of the splitter outputs and connect the second MoCA adapter to the splitter input.

So I swapped the boxes and it started working. I don't know why I didn't try that after doing so many combinations for the connectors you'd think I would've tried that too.

I wonder why switching the boxes worked?

I am still not sure about the throughput/speed. Using Netmeter, I transferred a 2GB file back and forth between the primary PC and the HTPC (connected to the other MoCA box) and this was the result:

Peak Upload:11.88 MiB/s
Peak Download: 11.79 MiB/s

Should the speeds be faster? The coax cable run just between the MoCA boxes is ~80ft.

Also, I decided to try step 3) that was suggested as well. I connected the main cable line to one of the outputs on the splitter, connected the second MoCA box to a splitter input and left the other MoCA box connected to a splitter output. This also worked and after using Netmeter, I was getting the same results in terms of file transfer speeds using that same file between PCs.

Thank you Tim for all your help, I was happy to have it working at last, now just the speed tests...




Also, just to do another test. After swapping the boxes and having them working, I decided to switch the connectors on the MoCA box connected to the cable modem and router for the heck of it. This time switching the connectors did not work.


did not work (swapped boxes)
cable line --> MoCA Output
MoCA Input --> cable modem

 

[thiggins]

I don't know why switching the boxes worked, unless there is some marginal gain condition for one box vs. the other.

Anyway, you're up and running! 12 MiB/s over 90 Mbps, which is pretty good and certainly enough for HD streaming.

 

[iwmtv]

Thanks Tim for your help. It certainly is good enough for streaming and it's been nice not having an ethernet cable run across my living room. If I need something requiring greater bandwidth/throughput, I'll look into running ethernet via cable molding.

 

[edavid]

There's no "extra" signal loss from the two unused connectors on the splitter.

Actually, that's not correct. There will be extra signal loss over using a 2 way splitter.

Also, if the unused splitter ports aren't terminated, there will be reflections degrading the signal on the coax.