Will MoCA work for me?

[Sparxxx]

Hi guys

I am planing on buying two ZYXEL HLA4205 MoCA adapters so I can use MoCA in my partment but not sure if it will work.
Basically all I want to achieve is to connect my office with my living room, so nothing fancy.
The building I am living in has 5 floors and I saw that the main splitter (6 way) is in the basement.
- Do I need to use a POE filter on it? Where should I put it?
- will my neighboars be able to "see" my network since all of us use the same splitter?
- will I somehow disturb their signal with my MoCA if I don't put the POE filter?

I n the house I have a 3 plug outlet (Radio, TV and Modem). The TV is connected with an antenna cable to the TV plug, that's it. I guess I will have to connect the MoCA on the modem plug, right?

The cable marked with red is the "IN" from my provider (UPC) and the blue cable is me (goes to my apartment)

 

[Sparxxx]

Yes, it will. Just got the adapters, connected them and boom ~950mbps. Perfect and cheap.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Hi guys

I am planing on buying two ZYXEL HLA4205 MoCA adapters so I can use MoCA in my partment but not sure if it will work.
Basically all I want to achieve is to connect my office with my living room, so nothing fancy.
The building I am living in has 5 floors and I saw that the main splitter (6 way) is in the basement.
- Do I need to use a POE filter on it? Where should I put it?
- will my neighboars be able to "see" my network since all of us use the same splitter?
- will I somehow disturb their signal with my MoCA if I don't put the POE filter?

I n the house I have a 3 plug outlet (Radio, TV and Modem). The TV is connected with an antenna cable to the TV plug, that's it. I guess I will have to connect the MoCA on the modem plug, right?

The cable marked with red is the "IN" from my provider (UPC) and the blue cable is me (goes to my apartment)

Since you are using MOCA you need to use a MOCA filter. MOCA and POE are not the same.

If the splitter shown is in your apartment and/or all the legs coming out of the splitter run to locations in your apartment then the MOCA filter should be connected between the spliter and the cable marked in red. If some of the legs off the splitter go to other apartments then you will need to put the filter where it will prevent your MOCA from backfeeding other apartments.

 

[Sparxxx]

Thanks... I have a MoCA PoE filter (Point of Entry)...
The splitter shown is not in my apartment, it's in the basement of the building where my apartment is. Now the question is where do I need to plug in the MoCA filter? Should I put it on the blue cable (that one goes to my apartment). Or on the red one (that one is the entry to the splitter for ALL apartments).

 

[CaptainSTX]

Thanks... I have a MoCA PoE filter (Point of Entry)...
The splitter shown is not in my apartment, it's in the basement of the building where my apartment is. Now the question is where do I need to plug in the MoCA filter? Should I put it on the blue cable (that one goes to my apartment). Or on the red one (that one is the entry to the splitter for ALL apartments).

If you filter in the basement it will block people elsewhere in neighborhood from receiving your traffic but not people in your building.

 

[Sparxxx]

Yes. but again this happens if I put it on the red marked cable?
If I put in on the blue marked cable will it also block my neighbors to receive my traffic?

 

[krkaufman]

Yes. but again this happens if I put it on the red marked cable?
If I put in on the blue marked cable will it also block my neighbors to receive my traffic?

Yes, installing a MoCA filter on the splitter output to which the "blue" cable is connected will secure your MoCA signals (prevent them from reaching other apartments or the wider neighborhood, assuming that line ONLY connects to your apartment), but it is unknown whether installing the MoCA filter on that output would also disrupt MoCA communications between your Office and Living Room, since we don't have knowledge of how those two rooms interconnect via coax. (i.e. Installing the MoCA filter on the "blue" line's output would be problematic if your other room(s) also connect via that 6-way splitter.)

One downside of installing the MoCA filter on that splitter in the basement is that it is unsecured, so anyone wanting access to your LAN could simply remove the filter (at a convenient time when you might not notice). Ideally, you would find a secured location where the filter could be installed, but much depends on how your rooms interconnect. The "PoE" MoCA filter needs to be upstream of whatever split allows your two rooms to communicate, but ideally as close to the input of that split as possible and in a secured location.


edit: p.s. You may want to take a look at this PDF from Cisco...

MoCA Installation and Troubleshooting Reference Guide​

... specifically, pages 17 & 18 that discuss multi-dwelling buildings. See attached:

​

The "solution" on page 18 demonstrates how an apartment/condo *should* be wired, assuming a MoCA-compatible splitter is used, while page 17 may depict how it currently *is* wired -- noting that the splitter in the page 17 diagram may also be a MoCA-hostile splitter or amplifier, further complicating connectivity.

 

[Sparxxx]

Thanks! I just installed the MoCA PoE filter on the blue cable output and everything seems to be working fine. TV signal is still there and the MoCA throughput is still 1gbps :
As to someone removing the PoE filter I highly doubt it. I know my neighbors. None of them are technically skilled to even understand what that splitter is yet alone touch it! .