MOCA vs EoP

[SaurusX]

I recently bought a newly built house and unfortunately the builder didn't see fit to install Ethernet. Doing my own Ethernet drops appears to be extremely difficult from a logistical standpoint so I'm exploring other options.

Does anyone have experience with MOCA (Multimedia over Coax) versus EoP (Ethernet over Powerline)? From a bit of research online it would appear that MOCA has the edge in reliability and speed. That latter feature is important as I plan to be streaming high definition video from the clear QAM cable feed to my Windows Media Center computer.

Anyway, my mind is nearly set on MOCA, so I'm just looking for a thumbs up from other people who have had experience with it. But is there anything about it that I need to be cautious about or keep in mind? Thanks!

 

[Binky]

I use a mix of both. Moca is superior but I seem to have some locations where Moca doesn't work for me. I use powerline in those locations but those are primarily utility locations like a sprinkler controller. For all audio-video locations, I strongly suggest Moca.

Be sure to throw a one-way filter at the initial cable input location (if you are connected).

 

[Lemieux66]

I recommended the Actiontec moca adapters to someone for extending connectivity out to detached garage that already had a coax drop. They were happy with the speed and reliability of the connection. The only thing I would like to see is gigabit interfaces instead of fast ethernet. That way you could get a bit faster data rates.

If you have a 802.11ac router or AP it might make more sense to go with a wireless bridge as that would have the potential to provide data rates faster than 100Mbit.

 

[azazel1024]

What do you need for bandwidth? Most powerline is 1.1, which is going to be limited to 170Mbps at best. Most of the MoCA 1.1 stuff has only fast ethernet ports, which means 100Mbps (call it 90Mbps with overhead). Powerline stuff generally has gigabit ports, but power wiring is noisy as heck. Under ideal circumstances some of the newer adapters in a pretty clean setup pretty close to each other I've seen hit ~260Mbps. Under most TYPICAL setups one might use that, you are only going to hit 70-120Mbps...so it might be close to a wash between the two technologies right now.

You could always use both if you really needed to get more bandwidth. Setup some stuff with powerline and some stuff on MoCA (they are both shared mediums, which means everyone uses the same bandwidth, just like wireless).

 

[brshoemak]

Another thought, although it's not directly answering your question.

I'm assuming your builder ran phone lines to each room in your house. Most builders these days tend to use UTP (CAT5/5E/et al.) for these runs. If you don't rely on landlines you can re-purpose those runs and convert them from phone jacks to network jacks. Some builders even use RJ45 keystone jacks instead of RJ11 for phone service.

You'd need to replace any RJ11 jacks with RJ45 jacks and connect the individual runs into a patch panel and connect to a switch, but it's not hard at all. If you still want a landline for peace of mind you can just connect an old wired phone to the now-unused phone line.

It might be an option if you really want to go the wired route. I was in the same boat as you when we bought our house, but I was able to re-purpose those runs and now I have gigabit in every room (plus wireless obviously).

 

[kevnich2]

Actually, most builders that I know of don't even know or aren't familiar with what a data jack or network jack is but if you tell them, I want two phone jacks in every room, the wiring they use now is all cat5e or even cat6 so that's gets it done. My house specs called for two phone jacks in every room and after I took possession, I just rewired each jack with the proper ends and since all were home run, I put a patch panel in the closet and voila.

Although I ended up running my own wiring to several spots in the ceiling and installed unifi WAP's so we're hardly using any of the wired data jacks, but they are there if I need them. That's another option for you as well, easier and cheaper than running to several walls in each room. I have three access points in the ceiling at various parts of the house and achieve excellent coverage no matter where we're at.

 

[azazel1024]

Most houses aren't built more recently then the mid 2000's though. However, yes, most houses newer than mid-2000s do use UTP instead of PoTS or Cat3 (technically I know that is UTP) wiring for phone these days, the switch over wasn't until the mid-2000's though.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

UTP is nothing more than Unshielded Twisted Pair, which is said for both CAT3 (common POTS cabling) and CAT5/5e/6 (Ethernet). So please drop the UTP rubbish.

Logistically, I would like to know why running your own cable on your brand new tract home is not an option. My two-story on full basement employed a bottom-up approach for the first floor, and a top-down from the attic for the second floor.

You also have the option, I suppose, to just run wireless with an all-home in-home VPN server.

 

[SaurusX]

Thanks for the suggestion of the using the phone lines. However, I guess the builder (DR Horton, BTW) came to the conclusion that not many people use landlines any more and only installed 3 connection points. One in the master bedroom, one in the kitchen, and one at the control panel for the security system.

To answer another question, I'm going to need the bandwidth for at least two high definition broadcast channels being streamed at one time. So a minimum of around 48Mbps if they're using the full spectrum (I know most are not). This is to be able to use an HD Homerun with dual tuners to my Windows Media Center computer. I know it may be silly to trust the specs on the box, but the Actiontec MOCA adapters claim to be capable of 270Mbps, which would definitely be sufficient.

 

[Emulex]

U-verse receivers bridge moca and homepna to their cat5 ports. It creates a 128meg bridges over the RG6 wired in the house covering all 3 levels here. It works great as long as you realize the 128megabit limit is rather half-duplex per segment! Cheap way to not have to deal with overcrowded wifi or power bricks nuking EOP traffic!