MoCA Setup - Internet only, personal router

[Shifting_Memory]

Hi all

The Intro

I’m moving into a new home in october and I think that fios is going to be my best bet. My wife and I work from home, doing a lot of zoom calls, so we want to make sure we have a solid internet connection. We don’t need a home phone line or a TV plan, so we’ll be getting internet only. I also have a pretty decent personal router already (asus RT-AX3000) and so I don’t feel like I need to rent a router from verizon.

The Situation
The new home is not wired for ethernet, but has coax throughout. It is a three story tall (+basement) row home. Our home office is on the second floor. I assume that when the verizon ONT gets installed, it’ll be in my basement. However, I’m also assuming that I’m going to want to position my router in a more central location for better wifi coverage.

I’ve been reading all the MoCA threads here that I can, and they've been super helpful thus far. I am feeling pretty good about my plan, but am just hoping someone here can help me confirm that I have things planned out correctly.

The Plan

1. buy a wired router and at least two MoCA 2.0 adapters
2. connect the ONT (in the basement) via an ethernet cable to the wired router
3. connect the wired router to the 1st MoCA device
4. connect the 1st MoCA device to a coax port in the basement
5. in the 2nd floor home office - connect the 2nd MoCA to the coax port
6. connect the 2nd moca to wifi router via ethernet

The Questions

A) Will these steps lead to a wifi network with internet connectivity coming out of my 2nd floor wifi router?

B) Do we need anything special for the basement router? Just a router with a WAN port?
C) I saw one of the other threads suggested changing the frequency of the MoCA adapters, but I think that was due to that person also needing to send TV signals over the coax. I assume that the MoCA adapters should be fairly plug and play for me since I am not getting TV service, right?
D) if we get the 400/400 fios service from verizon, MoCA 2.0 should give us access to that full bandwidth over our coax ports, right?

Thanks in advance!

[Cang_Household · Accepted solution]

MoCA 2.0 unbonded has a throughput of 500Mbps, which is more than enough for your purpose, but you will be capped at 500Mbps if you were to upgrade your plan in the future.

I recommend buying MoCA adapters of at least bonded MoCA 2.0 or even better MoCA 2.5. Verizon ECB5240M is bonded MoCA 2.0 and costs $55 each. goCoax 2.5 and Actiontec ECB6250 are MoCA 2.5, but more expensive. There are also MoCA 2.5 to Ethernet 2500Mbps adapters, but slightly overkill for your purpose.

Near the ONT, you really need a plain router with firewall and NAT.  Off the shelf consumer routers come with switched LAN ports, wireless access points, and other extraneous features. If you have an old laptop or old desktop, you can repurpose it as a router with only two Ethernet interfaces.

[Shifting_Memory]

Thanks for the tips on the adapters. I found a good deal on the goCoax 2.5s so will go with those.

Regarding the router next to the ONT, I was originally thinking I could find a cheap wired router but after a little searching the only wired routers with WAN ports I could find were commercial grade. I found my old wireless router though, and I should be able to set that up in the basement, disable its wireless broadcast, and set up my newer router upstairs as an AP with its wireless enabled

[Cang_Household]

Routers with only two Ethernet interfaces are largely for enterprise purposes. Residential routers, or rather combos that are jack of all trades (master of none), always include extraneous features.

Make sure your old router has a NAT throughput of at least 880Mbps, otherwise it would bottleneck your speed.