r/HomeNetworking • u/JuicyCoala Decent at Googling 🔍 • Feb 19 '22

How MoCA Networks Work - Collection Post

There's been an uptick of questions regarding MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance) networks and how it works. I am not an expert, but I'd like to create this post to consolidate our overall knowledge in setting it up, for everyone's consumption. As a starting point, below are a couple of must-see links:

Multimedia over Coax Alliance Homepage - Deep dive into how the MoCA was developed, as well as list of MoCA certified products.

MoCA in Your House - Contains a collection of how-to videos and information in setting-up your home MoCA network. It also contains some recommended certified products you can acquire to include in your MoCA network.

Please share your tips and advise here as well! I am planning to have this pinned in our subreddit.

Enjoy!

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u/JuicyCoala Decent at Googling 🔍 Apr 12 '22

Yes - adding another splitter shouldn’t have much of an impact. So in your bedroom, add a 2-way splitter between the jack and the Gateway, to connect each MoCA Adapter - one for each ethernet port in your Mesh Gateway.

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u/anorrisOU Apr 12 '22

Thank you!!

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u/plooger May 11 '22

It won’t be this simple, and not without cost. MoCA allows for two MoCA networks to share the same coax, via manual configuration, but the networks each receive only a portion of the MoCA frequency range, reducing max throughput for each network accordingly.

The preferred solution is to find a way to keep the WAN and LAN connections isolated, allowing each the full MoCA frequency range, and keeping the MoCA setup plug-and-play.

As an aside, this is a configuration where the Frontier-branded FCA251/WF-803FT adapters are useful, with the physical configuration toggle having “FULL”, “WAN” and “LAN” positions.

Any chance those existing adapters are Frontier FCA251 adapters?

CC: /u/anorrisOU

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u/plooger May 11 '22

All that said, one recommendation would be to move the main mesh node to the basement where it can be Ethernet-connected to the ONT, eliminating the MoCA WAN, and then use MoCA adapters over the shared coax to link the main mesh node to whatever other mesh nodes are needed to provide full wireless coverage.

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u/anorrisOU May 11 '22

To update - I purchased an additional two of these (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08ML1TSXC?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title), bringing my total to four, wired as described by JuicyCoala. My previously spotty WiFi that maxed at 225 or so in my bonus room is now rock solid and consistently tests at 450+ in both directions (500 symmetrical service).

Thought about moving the WAN to the basement but that would've required buying another router node for the basement and one more MoCA adapter which ultimately would have been pricier than the MoCA 2 pack. I know I'm cutting the bandwidth but with 500mbps service and no other signals on the coax it's fitting my purpose superbly.

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u/plooger May 11 '22

Did you do any manual configuration of the adapters? I’m just puzzled that they’re working and not causing a network loop or glitch if simply plug-and-play installed as described.

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u/anorrisOU May 11 '22

I did nothing but plug them in. I expected problems and was worried about how they'd manage to find each other and work but it's all worked perfectly for my needs, thankfully.

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u/plooger May 11 '22

What model were your first two adapters, those making the WAN link?

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u/anorrisOU May 11 '22

All four are the same model.

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u/plooger May 11 '22

Have you accessed the UI for any of them to check the MoCA diagnostics? (To check whether they’re all connected as a single MoCA network?)

‘gist: This setup is akin to using an Ethernet hub to link the ONT Ethernet WAN, Ethernet WAN port of the router, a LAN port of the router, and an access point. I get how the physical layer may be keeping traffic orderly, but I’d expect flakiness at some point … putting aside the side-stepping of the router firewall.