I had a head scratching issue I was presented with when trying to extend a wireless network for a friend onto a second floor of his home. The initial concern was the wireless router, which was located downstairs, would provide a weak wireless signal to his desktop computer. The desktop computer was his media server and needed as much bandwidth as possible to provide the highest quality stream possible. I first thought about using a second router. The challenge was bridging the router with the downstairs one. The signal would not be optimal like a wired connection would provide. Since the room upstairs that housed the desktop computer did not have an active coaxial port for internet I dreaded having him pay Comcast an exorbitant amount of money to make this happen for him. I set out to find a low cost, user friendly solution that didn't require ripping open walls and installing new ethernet cable.
Hello Hello, MoCA
After doing some research I discovered a product by Actiontec called a MoCA Network Adapter which is designed for cable broadband subscribers and makes it easy and affordable to add a wired internet connection through the home's existing coaxial cable setup. I purchased a set (you need 2, one on the front end and one on the back end) from Amazon. At the time it was $119.99 but you can currently get them for $84.00 for the pair.
The setup could not have been easier. The plug n play units come with everything you need including the MoCA adapters themselves, two ethernet cables, two coaxial cables, and one coaxial splitter. There are four simple steps in order to get your MoCA setup rocking and rolling:
- Plug an Ethernet cable into the Ethernet port of the adapter and into an Ethernet port of the device to be connected to the network.
Plug a coaxial cable into the coax "in" port of the adapter, and into the coax wall port nearest to the device to be connected to the network. (We had to use the 2-way splitter since we needed to hook up both the router and the DVR box.)
Plug the power cable into the Power port on the back of the adapter, and into an electrical wall socket.
Make sure the coax and Ethernet lights on the adapter are both illuminated solid green.
There you have it. Four simple steps and you now have wired ethernet in any room you want as long as you add a MoCA adapter in each room that requires connectivity. The best thing about this setup is their is zero loss in terms of bandwidth. Since the adapters are powered you can experience up to 270Mbps. On a 50MB Comcast line we were testing we were able to experience maximum speeds at 60 Mb/s down and 11 Mb/s up. The Actiontec adapters support any device that has an ethernet port including Blu-ray, XBOX and PS3/4. For our installation I actually chose to connect the front end adapter to a five port gigabit ethernet switch to provide multiple ethernet ports in that upstairs room.
Grab a pair or single units over on Amazon.