Can I use a MoCA adapter to wire ethernet to rooms?

[jamesman8]

Hi everybody,

I have a few questions about the way that FiOS is set up.

Because I already have coaxial cables in every room in my house, It would be much cheaper and efficient for us to buy a bunch of adapters and set up ethernet that way, instead of physically wiring ethernet lines through the walls with a network switch.

I talked to a support assistant, said it was possible, but was still a bit confused.

Here are my questions :

1. Is an Actiontec Adapter preferrable(or any electronic adapter) or can I use some cheap 15 dollar one?

2. Will I still be able to access the router through the adapter (as in when I connect it to a computer)

3. Will my IP stay the same? (is the IP stored in the modem?)

4. Will the speeds be affected?

Thanks guys.

[Capricorn1]

I haven't actually done this, so some size chunk of salt applies, but I've been researching this because I would like to use this to get Ethernet upstairs without running Ethernet cable. What you have already figured out: MoCA adapters are one kind of what's known as "media adapters." That is, they convert from something like 100 or 1000Base-T using RJ45 connectors to analog RF signals standard coax cable and back. Certain frequency ranges are used for transmitting and receiving data with those further broken down into "channels." It's much like wireless networking where the RF medium is coax rather than wireless airwaves.

Exactly what you can use to convert from xBase-T to coax and back depends on what else you use the coax for. If you don't have FiOS TV and the coax is completely unused otherwise, you can use any MoCA adapters you wish. That said, there are many versions of MoCA standards like 1.1, 2.0, 2.1 and the newer 2.5. (There are also 1.0 [very old] and 2.0 and 2.1 "bonded" versions. Bonded uses a pair of frequency ranges [aka "channels"] to double the bandwidth.) As you might guess, the bigger the number, the faster the throughput supported. You just need to make sure the adapters you use talk the same MoCA standard. There is something to be said for getting them all from the same company as well. MoCA is a standard, but it's hard to nail everything down.

In my case, I also have FiOS TV over the coax, so I have to use certain MoCA adapters in order to not have interference with the frequency range that the TV signals are transmitted on. I do not, however, use a Verizon router of any sort; the Motorola NIM 100 I have converts Ethernet from my router to coax. That goes upstairs to a Motorola set-top box (STB). That (ancient) equipment uses MoCA 1.0 for data transmission, which maxes out at 100 Mb/s. I assume the STB has some sort of built-in converter/adapter since it does both TV and video on demand.

If you do have FiOS TV and a Verizon-supplied router, most likely your coax coming from your ONT (the box that converts from fiber to Ethernet, coax and telephone) is hooked up to a splitter that feeds both the router and the rest of your coax cable system. If not, your coax would likely go (without being split) into your router or they may have run Ethernet from the ONT to the router. (It depends on what you ask for and what speed of FiOS service you have.) If your coax is not connected to the router via sharing a coax connection then you can use MoCA adapters of any kind to convert a LAN port on the Verizon router to coax and then at the other end (or ends) from coax back to Ethernet.

The Verizon Actiontec MI424WR routers support MoCA 1.1, which maxes out at 175 Mb/s. The newer FiOS Quantum routers support MoCA 2.0, which has a theoretical maximum of 500 Mb/s. In addition to data transmission, bandwidth is set aside for TV signals and is generally on the lower frequency ranges. Most of the devices you will find on the Internet are 1.1 or 2.0 devices and may or may not support bonding. Again, just make sure what you get supports the same version of the standard. The Multimedia over Coax Alliance web site has a lot more details on all of this.

As far as your (publicly-visible) External IP address, it would remain the same, which if you have residential service will change periodically anyway. The internal IP addresses used by devices inside your house would still be handed out from the DHCP server built into the Verizon router. That won't change, though if devices that were connected wirelessly before connect via Ethernet (using the MoCA bridge to the router), they may not (will probably not) get the same IP address they were using. If you've set up rules in your router, you may have to change the target IPs (or reserve IPs for certain devices, but that's a whole other explanation).

[jamesman8]

Hey, thanks for the response.

Due to the complexity of what appears to be far more difficult and expensive then running ethernet, ill probably go with a gigabit network switch and just run ethernet throughout the house.

[CRobGauth]

Couple of comments

1) media adapters are not the same as moca adapters. Media adapters work more at the electrical level. Moca adapters follow a specific standards that use a certain frequency to communicate.

2) all data communications to stb via coax uses moca.

3) all  moca adapters of a given specification use the same frequency range. So it doesn't matter if you have TV or not.

[Capricorn1]

Oops. Got the wrong term. MoCA adapters are a type of media converter not media adapter.