Actiontec MI424WR - a cheap MoCA bridge for all! - Page 3

Thanks xnappo. I may just use cat5 for now. After buying a Belkin 1Gb ethernet over powerline and only getting 2-40Mb at best I am a little nervous about manufacturer claims.

Ya, that does help. So I should be able to get back with my 150 foot RG59 cable run. Thanks.

It should work fine with no problems. Just make sure you don't have amps in the way. I get very fast pings (sub 5 ms generally) to all my devices (20 total, including 5 actiontec MoCA routers) and throughput of about 70% of the theoretical max of the 100Mb lan. Maybe it could go faster, but I haven't tested it extensively yet.

Interesting thing about an amp that I used (a regular inexpensive Antronix). At one point, unthinkingly I put it between the modem and the rest of the network. And everything CONTINUED TO WORK! The light stayed on and all of the devices on the network were able to acces the internet and I was able to ping everything just fine. That, even with a very low return path on the amp. Then, I had to change the power supply out on the unit connected to the modem. I knew what was going to happen. Sure enough, once I disconnected and reconnected the power, the network wouldn't come back up. So, I removed the amp and the network went active again.

Very weird, and I still can't figure out why it worked for a while with the amp in place.

This does sound interesting enough to try... but what about security? Won't this leave your network open for anyone to come in through the cable wireing??

That's great! Thanks. Now, how is that done? That would probably be useful to have in the steps in the first post.

I'll also add that it's my understanding the MoCA cannot go backwards through an amplifier, even one that is bidirectional WRT to cable modems, VOD, etc. So if you have an amplified splitter at your main drop, it should protect you against access by systems outside your home.

See post # 11

http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/sho...d.php?t=426963

Typically that's true. Although, like I said a few posts up, mine did work briefly for some strange reason.

The return path for amplifiers is only around 42 Mhz, which is WAY lower than the 1000+ Mhz require for MoCA.

Also, if you want to run at different channels, you may want to consider splitters that go higher than the typical cable company 1000 Mhz.

Ethernet used to be routed over coax, but they stopped when they went above 10Mb networks. Obviously it wasn't due to bandwidth issues because coax has much higher bandwidth than even cat7 and can run over much longer distances and is less susceptible to interference and is more secure to eavesdropping. So why did they go away from Coax? From what I have read it was due to twisted pair being cheaper and easier to install and not as many issues with impedance matching and stubs. Is there any other reason?

That statement confuses me.. if that is true, then how do you expect any data (like the connection you want to have between the two moca boxes) to go through at all? In order for moca (or any network) to be useful, you need to be able to send as well as receive. Am I missing something? Sorry if I ask the silly questions but I'm fairly new to this technology.

If you want to prevent the signal from travelling from your house back into the cableco network, put an amplifier before the splitter at the point where the cable enters your house. This in essence isolates your home from the rest of the cable network (as it pertains to MoCA). The cable wiring inside your home (which is all interconnected in the vast majority of cases) acts as the network wiring.

Ahh.. sorry.. nevermind then.. as I'm in an apt building and don't have access to the main coax line.

Your best bet then is to use the privacy setting xnappo outlined.

I'm looking at your post- you said that the amp was between the cable modem and the rest of the coax. Was the amp between the MoCA bridges? The MoCA bridges wouldn't connect to the cable modem via coax-they'd connect to whatever bridge was near the cable modem/router, which would be connected via ethernet to a LAN port on your router, which is connected to the cable modem via its WAN port. Or am I misunderstanding what you wrote?

F

I had the amplifier on the cable between the Actiontec bridge connected to my router (which is connected to the cable modem) and the other bridges. Literally that would have been the only path of communicationt between my primary Actiontec and the other bridges. And the amp was sitting in-between.

Basically, in my office, the cable comes in and is split between the cable modem, the actiontec and a TV. I had the amp installed at the point where the cable came into the room and before the 3-way split.

I wanted to experiment a little more with that phenomenon, but my network is working so fast and flawlessly that I don't want to jinx myself.

I am still on the fence between MoCa and just biting the bullet and cutting holes in walls and running ethernet.

I have probably a really stupid set of questions, so bear with me.

I use TWC as a provider for both cable TV and internet. Coax comes in from the ground and is split into 4 places outside the house, 1 going downstairs, and 3 going upstairs. For this purpose, 2 of the upstairs splits are irrevelant as I don't need them for MoCa purposes (already have ethernet in those two rooms). I want to run the MoCa between the 1 downstairs and 1 upstairs. Will that work? They are clearly split before they come into the house.

I do have an amplifier, but would set it up as upstairs->MoCa->splitter->cable modem/cable box, and downstairs->MoCa->amplifier->cable box(es).

I could potentially run the amplifier before the outside splitter, but it would be difficult as it needs power and there is no outlet anywhere around.

Also, we are running 3 cable boxes downstairs, and 3 upstairs, as well as the cable modem. All but 1 are HD, and 1 is a DVR. Would adding MoCa be too much of load?

Thanks!!

Thanks! We have a 2300 sq ft house (not including 2 car garage) that was built about 4 years ago. Cable quality should be fine, I would think?

It's a trivial exercise to move the amp to before the splitter into the house, we checked it out tonight, so that may be the next step. It should help anyhow as our upstairs HD cable box seems to be very unhappy with its signal strength lately and the amp is currently only on the downstairs tvs.

So late last night I received my Actiontech MoCa box... followed the instructions in this thread and got it working... My Fios router is upstairs on the far end of my house and the device so far where I have tested is on the other end of the house going through 3 splitters... So far using my netbook I was able to push it to 50Mbs transfering 3 concurrent files. What is weird is that transferring only 1 file I could only get 20Mbs - which does not make any sense.. again its a netbook and can be constrained by many factors... I also tested my XBOX360 through media center and I get full bars in the network tuning test - HDTV. My upload and download match my fios 20Mbs down 5Mbs up.. so no issues for internet.

Tonight if I have a chance I will hook it up to my HTPC (in my bed room) which is the farthest run in my house (over 200m not that I have a big house but my FIOS Internet router in my office is on a different run then the cable to my bedroom where my HTPC is located.

So far I am very pleased with the results (other then XBOX360 performance with media center.. still sucks) so far for the money, distance and comparison to Wireless N WOW what a difference!!!!

I might buy another unit just in case!!!

The triplexer muxes/demuxes the signals. So, you don't have the signals traveling and colliding through the cable at the same time.

Weird that only a single file is traveling that slowly.

I noticed a simialr issue when passing data from an older and slower 10/100 adapter equipped PC that I use as a music/video server to a Gigabit adapter equipped HTPC. I could only get about 25 Mbps throughput. When I went Gigabit to Gigabit eqipped PCs, I saw faster speeds (75 Mbps). Maybe it's a coincidence. But, I'm not sure. So, I'm getting ready to put a gigabit adapter into the slow machine and see if it makes a difference.

The machines I used for testing are also on different runs. Plus, from one machine to another, they go through three splitters and a tap.

It's been basically flawless.

I was also thinking about buying extras, but internet speeds are increasing so rapidly that I'm not sure these will be fast enough in another two years or so. Presently I have a 50/10 service for which this is fine. But, if it ever goes faster than 75 Mbps, then my MoCA devices won't be able to handle it anymore.

Well.... I went back and did some tests... So for the most part it worked and it was the netbook limitation.. I was able to stream up to 65 Mb/s using JPerf.. and this was a a real far run with 2 splitters in between... with it bursting to 80 Mb/s Unfortunately for some reason I was not able to stream my high def movies even though I only need about 50 Mb/s. Doesnt make much sense... but I am no expert with MoCA... This sucks.. I was hoping to not have to run cat 6.. but since im running wire I might as run the good stuff... Dont get me wrong for streaming movies, pictures and even DVDs it was fine... just had an issue with High Def (blurays)... Thanks for your help.. I will use the unit until I run the ethernet in my house.. then I will ebay it...

I agree... which is why it doesnt make sense... I tried MPC-HC, Windows Media Player, Media Center.. they all exhibited the same stuttering issue.. not too bad but its not like my wired Gigabit/100 Mb... When I ran the test seems the Jitter was not registering and there is always jitter.. Bandwidth is not the only factor that can affect streaming media unfortunately... I also noticed I did not have any errors... So I am very amazed... I have the bandwidth but something else is a foot... keep in mind the machine I tested this with I have wired also to my Gigabit network switch... I wanted to make an apples to apples comparison... Gigabit link... No issues.. streams perfectly on all players all moves (H.264 and VC1)... MoCA.. H.264 is a little choppy and VC1 is unwatchable - VC1 has a much higher bandwidth requirement... all on the same machine streaming from the same server.. Network is definitely the issue... but what I dont know yet.. Watching DVD is fine...

We need MoCA expert on this... OR I need something to proritize the packets.. keep in mind the channel I am using is the same channel that all my STBs are one... maybe I will try unplugging them all and see if they are interferring... Hmmmmmmmm I know there is QoS on my main router... I wonder if the QoS is hindering the routing of packets... Im welcome to ideas...

Are you streaming to a netbook? They haven't a whole lot of processing power to spare, if it's doing the decode in software entirely then that plus the overhead of getting data over the network may be just a hair too much. If it plays fine from local storage on the netbook then it just may be that you're so close to maxing out the processor time just playing the video there isn't enough to handle network IO. Considering the differences in transferring 1 vs several files I suspect the network drivers / hardware on the netbook may be your limitation.


Really not going to be a problem. Assuming even if you had a 50mbit FiOS connection, fully saturated with a slew of DVRs doing VOD/PPV at once, you'd still have over 50mbit in raw bandwidth left in MoCA - MoCA can handle more data than the 100Base-T Ethernet a MoCA bridge would be limited to.