Actiontec MI424WR - a cheap MoCA bridge for all! - Page 27

Good morning

We are getting ready to add a couple of more MoCA adapters in the next few days. We live in a new home and apparently the coax outlets in the bedrooms (where we're adding MoCA adapters) are not terminated.
Comcast tech is coming Saturday to terminate two coax outlets.

I'm a novice at best with this stuff. I'm curious as to what "terminating" these outlets involves? Basically I want to make sure that after this is done, I can just plug the MoCA adapters in and we're good to go. I'm just unclear on what terminating is and how these outlets tie into our coax "network" throughout the house.

Hopefully that made sense.

I've read a bit about using a PoE filter and how that can increase MoCA network efficiency. Although our current system seems to work reliably, I was thinking of getting one of these filters. Has anyone purchased one of these? If so, where can they be had at, and secondly, where exactly would this filter be placed?

I *think* this is how our network is laid out now.
Basement
Coax outlet => Antronix splitter => 1 line from split to Moxi HD-DVR
2nd line => MoCA adapter (netgear) => Motorola Docsis 3.0 Modem => DLink DIR-655 wireless router

Upstairs living room
(already terminated) coax outlet => MoCA adapter => Moxi Mate

Master bedroom
(to be terminated) coax outlet => MoCA adapter => Moxi Mate

Craft room (across hall from master)
(to be terminated) coax outlet => MoCA adapter => switch or wireless repeater

Would this type of network benefit from the PoE filter?
Thanks for taking a look at this and your thoughts, opinions, etc.

Skid

Actually, the terminating cap is a 75 ohm resistor that is gentler than shorting out the connection but still reduces the current available at the other jacks.

As xnappo says, if you're going to plug into that jack, you're going to be taking off the terminating cap anyway, so it makes no difference to you, since it won't be attached!

xnappo,
Thank you for the reply!
So should I even bother to have a Comcast tech come out for the two bedroom coax outlets? If I read your reply correctly... these two outlets should already be "hot" and I can just proceed with installing the MoCA adapters without needing Comcast to provide a truck roll to the house, or any "button pressing", or anything on their end?

My assumption was that they (Comcast) had to come out to terminate (I read..activate) before we could use those outlets for ANYTHING. We're talking just a straight coax run into a tv set, MoCA, etc.

Just to trying to be crystal clear. Obviously I wouldn't want to pay for a truck roll if it isn't necessary.

Thanks again,
Jeff

After reading this I cannot even be considered a novice. So I do need the truck roll from Comcast to take off the terminating cap? Is this something that I can do? Is it behind the coax wall faceplate?

I know I'm sounding quite stupid, but I really do appreciate the help.

Skid

The terminating cap is just screwed into the end of the jack where you would otherwise screw in your own cable. You would simply unscrew it to plug your own cable in. It's kind of like the plastic things that parents plug into ac outlets to keep their kids from sticking anything in.

You don't need them to come out either to put it on or take it off!

not sure what amazon page you're seeing that on - i didn't see anything that low at the website.

Idle query: Are MoCa boxes from different manufacturers interoperable? My setup uses a pair of Verizon FiOs Actiontecs - would a Netgear box integrate into that system if I wanted to expand to a third location and couldn't find an Actiontec?

So the SAT output is going to your Modem and router?! I have to check mine to see if I have it set up that way...

He says he's using a splitter, not diplexer, so neither terminal is a SAT output: both get the same thing:

"Coax outlet => Antronix splitter => 1 line from split to Moxi HD-DVR
2nd line => MoCA adapter (netgear) => Motorola Docsis 3.0 Modem => DLink DIR-655 wireless router"

If you use a diplexer, the SAT output should go to the MoCa box.

I read it but I was not familiar with "antronix" brand so I took "splitter" as to mean a diplexer (my 'bad').

xnappo, your last sentence has me confused. Maybe I don't know how the coax network operates. After today's posts and replies, I assume that the coax network is connected... for instance behind the sheetrock, through the studs and such that each coax outlet is connected to each other. AND since that is the case, there is no need for a Comcast technician to come out to the house to do anything. I suppose my confusion with your last sentence is after the splitter at PoE, what is the "them" that you are leaving completely unconnected?

Thanks for your patience and knowledge.

Jeff

I noticed this as well yesterday xnappo and had to jump on it. I have already received shipping confirmation with tracking # from I believe... Adams Cable Co.

Summer 2010 I believe we paid $180 for the first pair of Netgear MoCA adapters.

Jeff

Philnick,
After reading many blogs, reviews, etc. I believe MoCA devices are interoperable. There MAY be an issue between specs. Example MoCA 1.0 to 1.1 or 2.0, but I'm not 100% certain of that. But from what I've read at least, MoCA devices should be interoperable. I was thinking of incorporating an Actiontec to use it as my PoE MoCA adapter AND wireless router. I believe at that time when I was reading this thread there may have been issues using the Actiontec's as both at the same time. I just decided that for my level of networking, I would pay the extra $$ and just go with separates (Netgear MoCA & DLink wireless router)

Sorry for going on and on.

Jeff

Wryker,
Just going off memory here, but I *think* that my split after PoE is as such:
1 coax line going into a Moxi HD-DVR
1 coax line giong into a MoCA => Docsis 3.0 modem => wireless router

Please note this is from memory. It would not surprise me at all if I pulled out the computer desk and it wasn't that way.

I was originally concerned that I was using a splitter instead of diplexer. Still not sure of the difference, but our MoCA network has been pretty darn solid for about a year and a half.

The exception being sometimes we lose wireless internet connectivity and the Moxi Mate upstairs loses its connection to the network. I still haven't figured out what or why, but I'm thinking it's either a router issue or possibly the MoCA adapters conflicting somehow with the router on channel assignments. At this point I haven't been knowledgable enough to track this down and fix it.

Jeff

From what I've seen here, the concern about using the wifi router aspect of the Actiontec related to it having a small routing table, making it unsuitable to being the master router on a large network (at least early on - I don't know whether that's changed).

Turning off the DHCP server in the Actiontec and using it simply as a bridge, with another router managing the network, does not require also turning off the Actiontec's wifi access point - that gets managed by the master router as well.

That's the way several of us here have gone, with no apparent problem. In my case the master router is an old Linksys WRT54G router connected directly to my Comcast cable modem.

Sorry for all the posts but this stuff is extremely interesting.
I think it's starting to sink in.
At the time we purchased our house there were a bunch of cat5/6 cables just hanging loosely outside.

My assumption now is that each one of these cables runs to each room with a coax outlet.

When we signed up with Comcast the tech came out and put what I would describe as a junction box on the outside of the house where all these loose cables were.

If the above assumption is correct, is it also safe to assume that each of those cables and outlets they are running to are also "hot"?

Jeff

That certainly makes sense. I thought there was some reason that I decided not to try an Actiontec. Maybe something concerning power supplies on earlier versions as well. My memory is getting so crummy. If those Netgear adapters weren't so cheap, I would have to try out the Actiontec as I would like to extend our wireless network upstairs.

Jeff

Yes, there were a lot of posts about bad power supplies on the earliest (Rev.A) Actiontecs. My Verizon FiOs Actiontecs are Rev C and D, I believe.

My FiOs boxes were even cheaper - $30 each - from an Amazon Marketplace listing that turned out to be a California hippie bookstore that even threw in a pair of ethernet cables. (I did have to find and download the manuals.)

Amen to that! I had to use a telephoto lens standing down in the garden to take a picture of the underside of the junction box outside my window in order to follow the paths of all the loops of cable in the box to figure out which cable went where - a saga recounted above!

I agree. Even getting the great deal on the Netgears, I've still pumped in $265 for 4 boxes that ONLY do MoCA. If I had to do it over again the Actiontecs would be the way to go IMO.

Thanks again xnappo.

Jeff

Interesting. I'm considering adding boxes with Netgears or standalone Actiontecs because of the built-in diplexer. See above - real MoCa diplexers are impossible to buy.

My Verizon FiOs Actiontecs have only one coax connector, configurable through the menus as either a WAN (for use as a FiOs cable modem) or LAN connection (the way we use it, as an ethernet bridge connection).

There's no way they could have a built-in diplexer.

Without a pass-through connector, to paraphrase the old Roach Motel ads, "RF checks in but it doesn't check out."

That's why I'm using external RCA satellite diplexers (which are a buck apiece), which are working fine for now.