MoCA Explained - How Cable TV Wiring Can Extend Your Home Network Better than Power Line!

VIDEO INDEX:
00:00 - Intro
02:11 - How MoCA Works
02:42 - MoCA Co-Exists with Cable Modems
03:43 - My Moca Network
04:02 - Moca Filter Location
06:08 - Network Speed Test
07:10 - Splitter Recommendations
09:25 - MoCA Interoperability
10:23 - Conclusion

Subscribe to my email lists!

Join the Facebook group to connect with me and other viewers!

Want to help the channel? Start a Member subscription or give a one time tip!

or contribute via Venmo!

Follow me on Facebook!

Follow me on Twitter!

Catch my longer interviews and wrap-ups in audio form on my podcast!

[ThemGrayJackel]

I have learned more about Moca from this video than my 4 hours of internet research on the topic.

[kusucks]

Second thing worth mentioning: if you have relied on your ISP to handle your coax up until now, your outlets may not be connected at the common point. If you are pulling your hair out troubleshooting why you're not getting a connection, check your "cable box" on the outside of your home where the line comes in and you may find all your other outlets unplugged. This is to prevent problems from splits that Lon discussed in the video. If you only have one device (your internet modem, no TV), your ISP likely opted to bypass everything else and just get that one cable outlet working with a good signal and zero/minimal splits.

[marksalamon]

MoCA worked perfectly for me, in an especially demanding situation. We have 2 completely separate houses on the same property, but they share a single cable system. The MoCA boxes I was using were able to send the Internet signal from the modem in the main house through the coax cable to a receiver in the cottage. The MoCA boxes always functioned without a glitch, and they enabled us to save money each month on the bill from our Internet Service Provider. Those savings paid for the purchase price of the MoCA boxes very quickly, and we continued to save money each month for several more years using this system.

[RobbbbC]

MoCa has worked fantastically well in my home. Basically, our full gigabit service to the furthest corner of our home. I'd had zero luck with powerline before, even in the same room.

[sinisterpisces]

Thank you for your continued coverage of this technology.

Some of us--renters in the United States, for instance--just can't re-wire our homes, even if we wanted to. But there's a really good chance there's a coax connection wherever you want an ethernet wire to emerge from the wall.

And especially for non-enthusiasts and those who don't even have access to 1 gigabit internet service, 2.5GbE is more than enough. 10GbE internal wiring is excellent to have but absolutely overkill for most home users, especially vs. the expense (and again, that assumes you even have permission to re-wire your home).

[smfmotors]

Been using moca off and on since 2009. It's been a life saver for numerous dead spots that even new mesh systems have not been able to resolve! Great info and tech!!

[kusucks]

One thing worth mentioning is that your existing cable modem from your ISP may already be acting as a MoCA gateway. You could either leverage this and bypass the need for the "main" one by the modem, or consider that if you want to use your own separate MoCA hardware, you may need to put a MoCA filter behind your modem to avoid having two conflicting gateways/networks

[fans]

I really appreciate how your channel covers technology that doesn't get as much of a spotlight as it should. You cover the weird stuff that most people ignore, and you've really helped me solve a number of issues over the years.

[brad]

I have to thank you for your coverage of this Lon. I wouldn’t know about it if it wasn’t for you and it’s truly been a lifesaver. MoCA is essentially the only thing I’ve ever bought that has been 100% zero compromises. I set it up day one (about 4 years ago) and haven’t touched it even once since. Truly one of the few products that I would gladly pay many times over for.

[mowcowbell]

I've been using the same ActionTek MOCA units since 2017, and they still work perfectly. I love being able to get gigabit ethernet in every room of my house that has a coax cable jack. Looks like ActionTek is now called ScreenBeam (?). I am a bit envious of your internet speed... I'm getting 935Mbps down and 942Mbps up on my AT&T fiber in OKC.

[victor]

I love moca. Learned about it from you when we moved into our house 2 years ago it allowed me to get the network up and running quickly. Wired back haul to mesh routers, wired connection for tv streaming boxes. Wired connection for work and gaming PCs. And then i could slowly learn how to terminate all the cat5e phone jacks to rj45 and ran ethernet to the entertainment stand myself. Now i have no use for moca but they were critical in not having to rush the wiring work.

[TechTimeWithEric]

I bought the Actiontek kit based on your videos back in ....2017? I've since moved and didn't think I would still need it, but since my mom's Fire TV stick was having a hard time connecting I set it back up and had no issues since.

[josephvetter]

Before I had a TiVo that could do MoCa natively, I used a set of cheap (less than $20 for a 2 pack!) DECA converters to use a segment of unused coax to connect a TiVo mini to a base model Roamio. I bring this up to highlight that, even if you don't have cable or cable TV service, you can certainly reuse the coax that exists in your house.

[vampmike]

Only one thing to add... MoCA has 2 different devices. 1 is make for cable like what Lon showed and there is one for satellite. If you have that then get the one for the satellite because it will not work if you have the one made for cable. Great job Lon. I watch you a lot. 😊

[bobbyhendrix]

We have been using MoCo for a few years now and it has worked great! I did us a Klein Tools VDV512-101 Explorer 2 Coax Tester Kit that I purchased from Amazon to assist with the setup.

[j-tafrapper]

I have been researching for a week now and made a lot of rabbit holes of information your video was exactly what I was looking for! You got a like and a subscribe for such high level content. Thank you for sharing the knowledge!

[jeffmiller]

Have had great luck with MoCA! The only thing I have noticed is that the latency is much longer than CAT 6. I still get great bandwidth, though!

[segaboy]

I'm so glad I get the chance to be first in the comments on this one. ALL the Gocoax units have a big bug where they disconnect for 10-30 seconds at a time. Messages about this are abundant on their support forum and they've gone unanswered for over 2 years. My entire Moca network is affected. I see this issue with my Steam Link, which completely falls on its face because it can't buffer ahead like streaming video, and also in my office where I need to maintain a VPN connection for remote work.

I would love you you to test this and help shine a light on Gocoax and their substandard support.

[SnakyDeano]

Thanks for the video. This is great tech and a good refresher before i setup in my home. At about the 4:51 mark when showing your splitter, i realized that you can probably improve your internet connection. Look into picking up an offset splitter or mix and match as needed to send more of the signal to your modem and Host cable box. And cap off that un-used out port (you might be getting ingress there). IF your using a cable modem that is. Sorry if i missed that if so.

[kumarp]

I first got Verizon FIOS installed in 2008 and their Gateways have always supported MoCA. Makes it dead simple to add WiFi extenders.