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MoCA available. alternative to 802.11n/HomePlug

post #1 of 13
4/22/09 at 8:36am
Thread Starter 
Netgear and Dlink both released Moca (something like media over coaxial).
Long time coming really. It uses existing coaxial in your house to adapt with ethernet. It should be a lot better than RJ-11 or power because the bandwidth of coaxial is really high and the cables are almost always high quality, plus you can make it closed circuit if necessary.

The theoretical max is 270Mbps, though I'm not sure of the actual. Considering the theoretical max of even 802.11n is about 75mbps, and from what I read, MoCA is a lot closer to it's theoretical.. I'm not sure if cable modem use hinders performance, but it seems like it operates outside of normal frequencies used by cable companies and it does have a rather HIGH frequency range!

http://www.dlink.com/products/resour...Specifications

I found the Netgear one for sale for $175 a pair. The D-Link for about the same price.

They just announced both of these this week. I imagine Linksys may hobble along here eventually..
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post #2 of 13
4/22/09 at 9:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by hceuterpe View Post

Netgear and Dlink both released Moca (something like media over coaxial).
Long time coming really. It uses existing coaxial in your house to adapt with ethernet. It should be a lot better than RJ-11 or power because the bandwidth of coaxial is really high and the cables are almost always high quality, plus you can make it closed circuit if necessary.

The theoretical max is 270Mbps, though I'm not sure of the actual. Considering the theoretical max of even 802.11n is about 75mbps, and from what I read, MoCA is a lot closer to it's theoretical.. I'm not sure if cable modem use hinders performance, but it seems like it operates outside of normal frequencies used by cable companies and it does have a rather HIGH frequency range!

http://www.dlink.com/products/resour...Specifications

I found the Netgear one for sale for $175 a pair. The D-Link for about the same price.

They just announced both of these this week. I imagine Linksys may hobble along here eventually..


Verizon FIOS uses MOCA for their media DVRs. Bandwidth must be high to do what they are capable of.
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post #3 of 13
4/22/09 at 10:33am
I have had 5 of these adapters running for about two weeks now. I have a 3-story townhouse, and previously was using HomePlug AV for networking with moderate success (up to 45 Mbps actual throughput from my home office to all rooms, but room-to-room performance varied quite a bit). I have coax drops in each room, but in daisy-chained topology (with splitters at each drop), so my setup is a good torture-test for MoCA. I should also add that I put 10dB attenuators on each MoCA adapter so that it would work with some other signals being carried on the coax (these MoCA adapters apparently output up to +3 dBm which was drowning out the other signaling).

The results: from any room to any other room, I get 90+ Mbps actual throughput, except for communication between the two endpoints of the coax daisy chain, where the performance drops to about 60 Mbps. Looking at network performance in Windows, there is much less variation in throughput than I saw with the powerline adapters. With multiple streams in different rooms going, I get around 120 Mbps total throughput on the coax.

Note that the MoCA adapters only have 10/100 connections; the 270 Mbps number is just the theoretical channel capacity. I am very pleased with these results - for me it is a big step up from HomePlug AV, at least in my home.
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post #4 of 13
4/22/09 at 10:48am
That's great to hear!
I've had pretty good success with Homeplug AV (using a pair of Zyxel PLA-400) from my office, where the main router is located, to the family room at the HTPC; but it's great to get even more alternatives besides wireless.
I'll be tracking this one for sure.
Thanks for the link.

CFC
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post #5 of 13
4/22/09 at 12:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hceuterpe View Post

I found the Netgear one for sale for $175 a pair. The D-Link for about the same price.

ActionTec MI424WR routers with a MOCA bridge routinely sell for around $20 on eBay. It's a little overkill for just a network bridge, but it's actually a pretty powerful router (minus the small NAT table). If rather have more then what I need plus $135 then just what I need for $135 more.
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post #6 of 13
4/22/09 at 1:52pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cdru View Post

ActionTec MI424WR routers with a MOCA bridge routinely sell for around $20 on eBay. It's a little overkill for just a network bridge, but it's actually a pretty powerful router (minus the small NAT table). If rather have more then what I need plus $135 then just what I need for $135 more.

Haha, don't you mean $200?

Also to get the 90+ Mbps speeds, what have you been testing them as? Do you have cable modem service?
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post #7 of 13
4/22/09 at 2:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hceuterpe View Post

Also to get the 90+ Mbps speeds, what have you been testing them as? Do you have cable modem service?

I was transferring files between a NAS and a PC. Actually, what I saw was over 9% utilization on my GigE interface while doing the transfers - I suppose it's a bit inaccurate to call that 90 Mbps throughput since there is some traffic in the direction opposite the file transfer (ACKs for data), but that should be a small discrepancy.
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post #8 of 13
4/25/09 at 6:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cdru View Post

ActionTec MI424WR routers with a MOCA bridge routinely sell for around $20 on eBay. It's a little overkill for just a network bridge, but it's actually a pretty powerful router (minus the small NAT table). If rather have more then what I need plus $135 then just what I need for $135 more.

So two of these and I'm set??

http://cgi.ebay.com/Actiontec-MI424W...3%3A1|294%3A50
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post #9 of 13
4/27/09 at 1:03pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by fphredd View Post

So two of these and I'm set??

http://cgi.ebay.com/Actiontec-MI424W...3%3A1|294%3A50

Btw, Verizon FIOS uses devices like this for their last leg support, IIRC. Coax is cheaper than fiber and is taken advantage of due to it existing already in homes. It's actually sorta like a router-embedded cable modem. This WON'T work for you.
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post #10 of 13
4/27/09 at 4:23pm
Not sure I get it.

Can't use these, but I can use the moca routers made for this purpose???

(Have the FIOS router, understand how Verizon uses them, just trying to see if I could save $100+ with 2 from ebay--this is for somone else's house-not a FIOS customer).

Tried powerlines, but old wiring with LOTS of stuff plugged in caused too much stuttering. Figured I'd try moca before pulling cat cable through the house.

thnx
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post #11 of 13
4/27/09 at 7:46pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by fphredd View Post

Not sure I get it.

Can't use these, but I can use the moca routers made for this purpose???

(Have the FIOS router, understand how Verizon uses them, just trying to see if I could save $100+ with 2 from ebay--this is for somone else's house-not a FIOS customer).

Tried powerlines, but old wiring with LOTS of stuff plugged in caused too much stuttering. Figured I'd try moca before pulling cat cable through the house.

thnx

I don't see what's not to get: Using two Actiontec routers WILL NOT WORK as coax bridges in your house.
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post #12 of 13
4/27/09 at 8:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hceuterpe View Post

I don't see what's not to get: Using two Actiontec routers WILL NOT WORK as coax bridges in your house.

Down boy...thought i might get an explanation as i enjoy information. Didn't mean for my lack of knowledge to be such an insult to you...guess i'm left to lurk in ignorance from here on in.
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post #13 of 13
5/9/09 at 7:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by hceuterpe View Post

I don't see what's not to get: Using two Actiontec routers WILL NOT WORK as coax bridges in your house.

Really?

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/sh...=9683#post9683

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r176...network-bridge
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