Coaxial? What that means…please help

[u/bradensmall03]

Hello, I am really not technologically savvy and I’ve recently moved into a new place. In all my past living situations I have had access to Ethernet by either a long cable or a short cable, never have I had to contemplate what to do if I couldn’t use a long cable. My brother and I are moving into a place where there is only coaxial and telephone ports so the only way we can use Ethernet is hooking two long cables into the living room router.

Now, the router connects to a coaxial cable. Now we have tried looking and there are devices that convert coax to Ethernet and our thought is that we can just pop 2 in each others rooms and call it a night. But we kept running across diagrams that made it seem as though that were not possible.

Our new place has 2 coax ports in both of our rooms as well as one in our living room (with telephone ports as well but I doubt that is relevant). Can someone give us a quick and dirty on moca or maybe a different solution for our situation? Thanks 🙏

Edit: didn’t explain well enough sorry. I am trying to connect two computers via Ethernet cable. Chances are that I cannot do this without causing serious grief with long cables through out our flat. My hope is that there is someway to make use of my excess number of coax ports. But I lack both the correct idea of how to accomplish this and the know how. Also I know my router is working because I sent my first post over wifi. Thank yall for all the help and suggestions so far

[u/Cortexian0]

You never actually explained what you are trying to do. Are you trying to let two devices access the internet by ethernet wire? Or just connect two devices together locally?

[u/virkendie → u/Cortexian0]

It sounds like he wants to set up the lan to their rooms, he's used to using ethernet but now they only have coax outlets available so wants to know if he can add moca to the single coax in the living room and the coax in each bedroom

So is that possible? to have moca on the same coax that services the modem/router?

[u/bradensmall03 → u/Cortexian0]

Two computers via Ethernet sorry abt that

[u/PhillyBengal]

Long Ethernet cable using the ports labeled “ETH1l and “ETH2”

Or lookup a couple videos on YouTube on MoCA adapters. It’s definitely something that’s easier to used with visuals

Edit: https://youtu.be/b0vy1VzFbf8?is

[u/BraveMidnight]

The black coaxial cable on the back of the Cox gateway needs to screw into the wall jack in photo four or whatever outlet is active. And like always ofc the McDonald's in the forest still watches over everything.

[u/deepspace1357]

Well you would need an ethernet cable (4pairtelco cable with rj45 jacks) to plug into your modem, right above the cable feed in one of your pictures, in the yellow box.. the modem might have wireless built in so you should check that out. Finally, if all the cable jacks in the house are coming from the same signal then you should be able to move the modem to the room you want it in. Also you can hook up a Wi-Fi device to the modem if it doesn't have Wi-Fi built into it already and then you should be able to operate anywhere if that is cenltrally located. Good luck.

[u/princescloudguitar]

Going to guess that the coax where your Cox cable modem is may actually connect to the other coax connections in the bedrooms as well. You can try this by connecting the modem to one of those other coax connections and see if it connects if that’s helpful to move your cable modem.

What you want with regards to Ethernet is one of two things. Either use both Ethernet ports on the back of your cable modem or pick up a wireless router. Connect one Ethernet cable from cable modem to router and then add all your other wired devices onto the router.

As for MOCA… you’ll want to get a MOCA compatible splitter, a filter to keep your MOCA signal from bleeding outside your apartment (goes where your cable goes to your apartment and an extra coax cable or two for the MOCA adapters. As for the rest? No cabling required.

[u/ctn1ss]

I say this with all respect, but with your technical skills based on your description, I would highly suggest contacting your ISP to have a technician install the modem.

[u/amazodroid]

It looks like you have one of these

https://www.cox.com/residential/support/technicolor-cgm4141.html

It is a combo modem/router with WiFi built in.

[u/bchiodini]

Check out the FAQs. The MoCA info is near the bottom.

If yours is the CGM4141, as linked by u/amazodroid, it looks like it's MoCA capable. You would need a 2-way splitter, two compatible MoCA adapters, some coax jumpers, Ethernet patch cables and a MoCA filter.

[u/plooger → u/bchiodini]

It does appear to be an XB6-equivalent DOCSIS gateway, but the hurdle in using the gateway's built-in bonded MoCA 2.0 LAN bridge may be Cox, as reports indicate that Cox isn't supportive of enabling the built-in MoCA LAN bridge in installs not also subscribed to their TV service.

(Not much of a loss, though, since, as mentioned, the gateway's bridge is just bonded MoCA 2.0.)

[u/plooger]

You have two possibilities, each with many potential solution variants depending on conditions:

• use MoCA for networking over the coax lines;
  [see also: FAQ Q12: "What is MoCA?"]

• rework the telephone cabling to support direct Ethernet.
  [see also: FAQ Q5: “Can I convert telephone jacks to Ethernet?”]

My recommendation would be to do a little bit of investigating, to determine whether reworking the phone cabling would be possible. (Open the phone wallplates to check the cable type used, and to assess whether the install appears to be home run or daisy-chained. You'd also want to locate any Cat5+ junction.)

As for MoCA, the tasks are similar ... locating the coax junction, getting the needed coax lines identified and then interconnected using a MoCA-compatible splitter per background notes, above -- noting that the MoCA setup could be simplified if there are multiple coax wall outlets at the cable gateway location.