Check out my MoCA 2.0 Coax over ethernet adapter review - best alternative to Gigabit ethernet

[traderjay]

I know many of us here use their FreeNAS as a media server and if your house does not have ethernet, the next best alternative would be MoCA 2.0 based network adapters. Its the closest thing to Gigabit ethernet w/o having to break walls - http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanw...6200-bonded-moca-2-0-network-adapter-reviewed

Compared to PowerLine networking, MoCa 2.0 based solution is much more superior - http://www.snbforums.com/threads/wi...werline-adapter-tested-with-20-outlets.27762/

 

[DrKK]

MoCA is pretty sweet. Last I knew, however, there were basically no new ethernet-to-MoCA bridges being produced for consumers. Is that no longer the case? Where does one get such equipment?

 

[survive]

Hi DrKK,

I saw some of these earlier here:

https://www.tivo.com/shop/detail/moca

Seems Tivo is using them with some of their new devices.

-Will

 

[DrKK]

Wow!

Well look at that. Sure looks like a Moca-to-Ethernet. I wonder if that thing can liberate me from Verizon's total piece of shit MoCA router that comes with Fios, and not disturb my FiOS television guides/etc.

 

[traderjay]

Hello DrKK - the new MoCA 2.0 ECB6200 adapters is widely available below:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1179502-REG/actiontec_ecb6200k02_bonded_moca_2_0_network.html
http://www.shopactiontec.com/collec...d-moca-2-0-ethernet-to-coax-adapter-twin-pack

I don't know how I can survive browsing/watching media on my HTPC in the living room w/o MoCA adapters :)

 

[traderjay]

Hi DrKK,

I saw some of these earlier here:

https://www.tivo.com/shop/detail/moca

Seems Tivo is using them with some of their new devices.

-Will

This is actually MoCA 1.1 adapter, and the max transfer speed is 100 mbps but it is consistent, still a giant improvement over powerline

 

[ChriZ]

Excuse my ignorance, but I see that the way of connecting two moca devices is a coaxial cable.
If I want to have one device in my living room and one in my bedroom I do have to run a coaxial cable from point a to point b, right?
So why should I prefer a coaxial cable, which is hard if not impossible to route around etc wall corners, and not an Ethernet cable?
What am I missing here?
Can I maybe use them the same way as the powerlines, but instead of the power plug I can use the TV antenna plugs for them?

 

[Ericloewe]

Excuse my ignorance, but I see that the way of connecting two moca devices is a coaxial cable.
If I want to have one device in my living room and one in my bedroom I do have to run a coaxial cable from point a to point b, right?
So why should I prefer a coaxial cable, which is hard if not impossible to route around etc wall corners, and not an Ethernet cable?
What am I missing here?
Can I maybe use them the same way as the powerlines, but instead of the power plug I can use the TV antenna plugs for them?

Nearly anything built in the past decades has coax. Proper twisted pair cabling, not so much.

 

[ChriZ]

You lost me a bit, lolll
By "nearly anything" you mean houses?
/me feels retarded...

 

[traderjay]

Excuse my ignorance, but I see that the way of connecting two moca devices is a coaxial cable.
If I want to have one device in my living room and one in my bedroom I do have to run a coaxial cable from point a to point b, right?
So why should I prefer a coaxial cable, which is hard if not impossible to route around etc wall corners, and not an Ethernet cable?
What am I missing here?
Can I maybe use them the same way as the powerlines, but instead of the power plug I can use the TV antenna plugs for them?

MoCa 2.0 solution is meant for houses that have pre-existing COAX wiring and nearly all houses built in north-america & europe have some sort of coax wiring. If you were to break down walls and install new wiring then obviously CAT6a or even fiber optics would be be way to go!

 

[Ericloewe]

You lost me a bit, lolll
By "nearly anything" you mean houses?
/me feels retarded...

This:

MoCa 2.0 solution is meant for houses that have pre-existing COAX wiring and nearly all houses built in north-america & europe have some sort of coax wiring. If you were to break down walls and install new wiring then obviously CAT6a or even fiber optics would be be way to go!

The most recent local building code mandates a rather robust layout of Cat. 6 (absolute minimum, no Cat. 5e here) plus at least one coax network (two recommended) and provisions for singlemode fiber to at least one, "privileged" location. Everything centrally routed, of course.
Until a couple of years ago, the requirements were a bit more lax, with Cat. 5e being the minimum, but the general layout was similar.

Of course, the vast majority of buildings are built to the pre-2004 standard. It's best summed up as "yeah, do whatever you want, just leave one coax and one RJ11 phone connection in each room". Obviously, nobody ever took the initiative of building proper infrastructure.

 

[nightshade00013]

This:

The most recent local building code mandates a rather robust layout of Cat. 6 (absolute minimum, no Cat. 5e here) plus at least one coax network (two recommended) and provisions for singlemode fiber to at least one, "privileged" location. Everything centrally routed, of course.
Until a couple of years ago, the requirements were a bit more lax, with Cat. 5e being the minimum, but the general layout was similar.

Of course, the vast majority of buildings are built to the pre-2004 standard. It's best summed up as "yeah, do whatever you want, just leave one coax and one RJ11 phone connection in each room". Obviously, nobody ever took the initiative of building proper infrastructure.

That is plain amazing to me. Over here it's you get what you pay for. The apartment I am in has Cat5e in the walls but was terminated to a box setup for handling phone lines, I think the only reason why the Cat5e was ran was because it was a bonded cable that was coax and ethernet. Coax cable comes in but absolutely no landline other than a VOIP through the cable company. On top of it all the only way you could ACTUALLY plug in a regular phone would be to make a cable to adapt from an rj45 to an rj11 as they put the rj45 jacks in the rooms. I pulled the cables from the punchdown blocks and put some rj45's on each one with a switch. my modem, router and switch all sit in the closet and luckily the cables were terminated to some semblance of correct. I think they used the TIA T568A on each keystone and I put the rj45's on as T568B without even thinking. Not a lot of extra cable so I just left it alone when I figured it out later on. The switches make it work anyway.

I was doing some stuff a few years ago and went into a house where the WISP I worked for was supplying service. The issue was that the wireless gateway in an upstairs closet on the north end of the house wasn't strong enough to put a signal to a room on the south end of the house. The only thing installed in the place was a single phone line into a kitchen. No coax at all let alone ethernet.

The owners had the house built, they basically picked a design and what they wanted for materials and colors and didn't even think about anything else. The place was a little outside of town in a new development but there was absolutely no thought put into communications and most of the time that is the way stuff I have seen has been built. I have seen literally brand new houses where the cable company had to punch a hole in a wall and string coax around outside to provide service.

 

[anodos]

That is plain amazing to me. Over here it's you get what you pay for. The apartment I am in has Cat5e in the walls but was terminated to a box setup for handling phone lines, I think the only reason why the Cat5e was ran was because it was a bonded cable that was coax and ethernet. Coax cable comes in but absolutely no landline other than a VOIP through the cable company. On top of it all the only way you could ACTUALLY plug in a regular phone would be to make a cable to adapt from an rj45 to an rj11 as they put the rj45 jacks in the rooms. I pulled the cables from the punchdown blocks and put some rj45's on each one with a switch. my modem, router and switch all sit in the closet and luckily the cables were terminated to some semblance of correct. I think they used the TIA T568A on each keystone and I put the rj45's on as T568B without even thinking. Not a lot of extra cable so I just left it alone when I figured it out later on. The switches make it work anyway.

I was doing some stuff a few years ago and went into a house where the WISP I worked for was supplying service. The issue was that the wireless gateway in an upstairs closet on the north end of the house wasn't strong enough to put a signal to a room on the south end of the house. The only thing installed in the place was a single phone line into a kitchen. No coax at all let alone ethernet.

The owners had the house built, they basically picked a design and what they wanted for materials and colors and didn't even think about anything else. The place was a little outside of town in a new development but there was absolutely no thought put into communications and most of the time that is the way stuff I have seen has been built. I have seen literally brand new houses where the cable company had to punch a hole in a wall and string coax around outside to provide service.

Yep, sounds like Oklahoma ;)

 

[Ericloewe]

That is plain amazing to me. Over here it's you get what you pay for. The apartment I am in has Cat5e in the walls but was terminated to a box setup for handling phone lines, I think the only reason why the Cat5e was ran was because it was a bonded cable that was coax and ethernet. Coax cable comes in but absolutely no landline other than a VOIP through the cable company. On top of it all the only way you could ACTUALLY plug in a regular phone would be to make a cable to adapt from an rj45 to an rj11 as they put the rj45 jacks in the rooms. I pulled the cables from the punchdown blocks and put some rj45's on each one with a switch. my modem, router and switch all sit in the closet and luckily the cables were terminated to some semblance of correct. I think they used the TIA T568A on each keystone and I put the rj45's on as T568B without even thinking. Not a lot of extra cable so I just left it alone when I figured it out later on. The switches make it work anyway.

I was doing some stuff a few years ago and went into a house where the WISP I worked for was supplying service. The issue was that the wireless gateway in an upstairs closet on the north end of the house wasn't strong enough to put a signal to a room on the south end of the house. The only thing installed in the place was a single phone line into a kitchen. No coax at all let alone ethernet.

The owners had the house built, they basically picked a design and what they wanted for materials and colors and didn't even think about anything else. The place was a little outside of town in a new development but there was absolutely no thought put into communications and most of the time that is the way stuff I have seen has been built. I have seen literally brand new houses where the cable company had to punch a hole in a wall and string coax around outside to provide service.

If it makes you feel better, every corner not mentioned in the standard is cut around here. :D

Some examples:

• No specific equipment is prescribed for termination, so the fancy-ass Cat. 6 cable often ends up at 100Mb/s switches if you're lucky, a POTS bridge thingy if you're not.
• The central location where everything is terminated (the so-called ATI) is recommended to be implemented with 19" racks, but in practice is nearly always done with DIN electrical panel rail stuff.

 

[Bidule0hm]

On top of it all the only way you could ACTUALLY plug in a regular phone would be to make a cable to adapt from an rj45 to an rj11 as they put the rj45 jacks in the rooms.

Actually you can put a RJ11 (or RJ13, or RJ14) connector in a RJ45 socket, it has been designed for that. That's also why the central pairs on the RJ45 are connected the way they are.

 

[nightshade00013]

If it makes you feel better, every corner not mentioned in the standard is cut around here. :D

Some examples:

• No specific equipment is prescribed for termination, so the fancy-ass Cat. 6 cable often ends up at 100Mb/s switches if you're lucky, a POTS bridge thingy if you're not.
• The central location where everything is terminated (the so-called ATI) is recommended to be implemented with 19" racks, but in practice is nearly always done with DIN electrical panel rail stuff.

Yeah, it doesn't bother me in any way. If I end up with a house in the future I want to find something I can gut and have everything done correctly.

I actually had a person start to do it right at one point. It was a small house and he put in a cable that included two ethernet and two coax, one ethernet was to be setup for networking and the other used for telephone service I also remember a pair of lines being ran so that an intercom could be put in or used for something else requiring up to 12V dc power

. Everything was going to be terminated to a single cabinet inside with a piece of the same line ran outside to that the cable/phone/satellite companies could make one connection and be done. None of the BS of charging to install per outlet. The cabinet was to be large enough to hold a modem, gateway, a panel for the phone lines and coax splitters along with a small UPS.

I know the lines were ran as I setup but after that I was no longer around to see if everything else was done as I had recommended. More than likely all got put together with some crimp connectors and some splitters with no regard for data.

Actually you can put a RJ11 connector in a RJ45 socket, it has been designed for that. That's also why the central pairs on the RJ45 are connected the way they are.

Really, I stand corrected. Not that anyone here would actually do that. I think most anyone that I have seen with the VOIP modems just have a single cordless phone plugged directly into it in the living room.

 

[anodos]

Yeah, it doesn't bother me in any way. If I end up with a house in the future I want to find something I can gut and have everything done correctly.

I actually had a person start to do it right at one point. It was a small house and he put in a cable that included two ethernet and two coax, one ethernet was to be setup for networking and the other used for telephone service I also remember a pair of lines being ran so that an intercom could be put in or used for something else requiring up to 12V dc power

. Everything was going to be terminated to a single cabinet inside with a piece of the same line ran outside to that the cable/phone/satellite companies could make one connection and be done. None of the BS of charging to install per outlet. The cabinet was to be large enough to hold a modem, gateway, a panel for the phone lines and coax splitters along with a small UPS.

I know the lines were ran as I setup but after that I was no longer around to see if everything else was done as I had recommended. More than likely all got put together with some crimp connectors and some splitters with no regard for data.



Really, I stand corrected. Not that anyone here would actually do that. I think most anyone that I have seen with the VOIP modems just have a single cordless phone plugged directly into it in the living room.

It's common to see digital phone systems (non-voip) run over CAT5e / CAT6. Sometimes a business will plan migration to voip ahead of time. If executed correctly, switching from old-school digital phone system to a VOIP-based one is a matter of switching out handsets and some equipment in a communications closet (and of course all the phone-related voodoo).

 

[DrKK]

Yep, sounds like Oklahoma ;)

Is that comic sans?

 

[anodos]

Is that comic sans?

Yes. It's comic sans. This morning I was in a generous mood and thought to myself, "self, what should I give to the forums today". Then it came to me: "random posts written in comic sans font".

 

[Ericloewe]

Is that comic sans?

I was going to let the first instance slide, but three is too much.

I hereby declare that anodos has finally gone insane, probably due to prolonged exposure to Samba.