Use my own router with Ont-coax-moca-router

My new house is currently wired up with all coax connections and the Ont is in an inconvenient location for my wireless router. Without running Ethernet cables, is it possible to run from the Ont via existing Coax into MoCa device then ethernet into my own router or is running new Ethernet lines my only option? A few people have asked a similar question previously, but the answers have not been very clear.

For further clarification I will be using this for internet only service at 100/100 Mbps.

Accepted answers

lasagna

If you have no STB's and aren't using the coax for MoCA LAN, then you can absolutely run a pair of bridges between the ONT and your router's WAN port. I did this for the longest time to get from the basement where the Ethernet terminated and my home office where I had my own router. Only difference being that I connected the coax in a manner that made the run between locations point to point.

All comments

lasagna

Yes, but not in the way you're thinking.

You have two coax based networks to deal with -- one being the WAN (internet facing) and one being the LAN (inside your house). All of the MoCA bridges you purchase online are configured to seek out and find the operating MoCA LAN frequency and bind to the LAN network inside your home. Some can be reconfigured to use a different frequency (so you can have multiple isolated LAN segments in your home) and may even be able to be configured to run on the WAN frequency -- although I've not personnally found one that can do so. Most have no configuration interface, so they are "LAN only".

The issue in using your own router is that you need to get both the LAN and WAN networks to that router and fed into the two different sides.

What you could do ...

If it's possible to get an isolated Coax run from the ONT to the router location, you could feed the output of the ONT ethernet interface into a MoCA bridge, run on the isolated Coax run to the router location, and then another bridge back to ethernet and connect it to the WAN interface of the router. Then using another bridge, connect the LAN side of the router to a non-isolated (part of the rest of the house cable plant) coax connection.

More complicated, but if you can locate one of the ActionTec models that let you choose and configure the frequencies you use, you could do the same as above with a common cable plant -- backhauling the WAN on one pair of frequencies and putting the LAN on the other. The risk here is that any of the other bridges you use will need to also be configured to seek and find ONLY the LAN side of the network (you can force this by putting a key on the WAN side pair of the bridges which will keep the other non-programmed MoCA bridges from finding it.

Perhaps easiest if you're not following all of this ...

Place a router near the ONT itself. Take the ethernet feed from the ONT into the router. Using a MoCA bridge, connect the LAN side of the router to the house cable plant (this can be done with a simple splitter if you have FiOS TV since you aren't using the LAN side of the CoAX for anything. Disable WiFi on this router if it's too far from anything to be useful. Install a second router elsewhere in your home and put it in Access Point mode -- connect it to the cable plant use a MoCA bridge. This will give that Access Point router a path to the primary router near the ONT as well as paths for any other locations connected via a bridge.

If this is all still too confusing ...

Use the router Vz supplies -- it has both MoCA WAN and LAN capabilities already in it and since you're running 100mb, they can provision you for internet over MoCA (although the Tech may insist on wanting ethernet, it's not needed).

zuputoto

So, I don't plan on using any coax connections for the LAN side of the connection. There will be a few Ethernet connections at the router with the remainder running off the wireless. Would this be possible? Effectively turning my entire coax system into a WAN network. Isn't that what older ONT setups are effectively doing anyway? This is assuming I could find a Moca that works with WAN connections.

lasagna

So you have no STB's? The STB's use the LAN side of the network over the Coax. This is the piece you need to preserve and keep separate from however you are choosing to move the WAN side of the connection.

There is a post on this subject (talks about ActionTec Bonded 2.0 usage) that diagrams how to do this using two different frequencies.

Conceptually, if you can make an adapter run in the frequency range of the WAN side and use the same key, you could do this without using another adapter at the ONT side of the connection. In my case, it was easiest to use a home run link between the ONT and the router location since I don't have TV in the office where the router is located.

zuputoto

Yeah, internet only so no STB's. I found a device that can do a WAN signal over coax from Arris that was used in conjunction with older frontier routers, but I might have found a way to get Ethernet run to a reasonably central location anyway then it leaves the coax open for LAN connections if needed in the future.