Any way to network via your coaxial cable in your home?

[her209]

Since most homes have coax drops to almost every room in the house, wouldn't it make sense to make networking equipment to uses that instead of power line (which doesn't work too well from what I've heard) or pulling cat 5e/6 cable?

 

[ScottMac]

Actiontec makes some HPNA /over coax transceivers, and there are a variety of MOCA transceivers available.

Which you choose may depend on whether you want to integrate with your ISP delivery method (CableTV tends to do MOCA, U-Verse uses HPNA ...)

 

[Emulex]

it works okay as long as you have decent wiring and don't try to bridge 8 wires with a cheap tap.

incompatible with satellite since it backfeeds signal and power - always.

 

[Googer]

Since most homes have coax drops to almost every room in the house, wouldn't it make sense to make networking equipment to uses that instead of power line (which doesn't work too well from what I've heard) or pulling cat 5e/6 cable?

Very old networking equipment used to work on coax. Those were the 10mb/s days before we used thin (telephone like) cat5 wire.

 

[drebo]

The AT&T UVerse STBs will allow you to get ethernet over your home coax.

 

[her209]

The AT&T UVerse STBs will allow you to get ethernet over your home coax.

If I'm understanding you correctly, the set top boxes (STB) have a coaxial and Ethernet connection, correct? I could then connect two set top boxes to the coaxial connections in the rooms I want and connect a host/switch to the Ethernet port of the STB and it will bridge the two?

If that's the case, then I'm wondering if I could do the same thing using two 2-wire 3800HGV-B residential gateways thereby getting built in switches and wireless on each end.

:hmm:

 

[gsaldivar]

Very old networking equipment used to work on coax. Those were the 10mb/s days before we used thin (telephone like) cat5 wire.

Yes, 10Base2 uses coax (god I hated that stuff), but I'm pretty sure it would require a dedicated coax cable (one that is not already being used to carry video signals).

Here is a discussion I found on this topic.

 

[drebo]

If I'm understanding you correctly, the set top boxes (STB) have a coaxial and Ethernet connection, correct? I could then connect two set top boxes to the coaxial connections in the rooms I want and connect a host/switch to the Ethernet port of the STB and it will bridge the two?

If that's the case, then I'm wondering if I could do the same thing using two 2-wire 3800HGV-B residential gateways thereby getting built in switches and wireless on each end.

:hmm:

Probably not. I do not believe the signalling works that way. Though it could be worth a try if you have two lying around.

 

[ScottMac]

The AT&T UVerse STBs will allow you to get ethernet over your home coax.

That is not a supported configuration. It does work OK for low bandwidth stuff on the UTP, but any serious load interferes with the IPTV stream.

 

[ScottMac]

If I'm understanding you correctly, the set top boxes (STB) have a coaxial and Ethernet connection, correct? I could then connect two set top boxes to the coaxial connections in the rooms I want and connect a host/switch to the Ethernet port of the STB and it will bridge the two?

If that's the case, then I'm wondering if I could do the same thing using two 2-wire 3800HGV-B residential gateways thereby getting built in switches and wireless on each end.

:hmm:

No.

While it would work (as long as you kept the traffic on the LAN side of each box), AT&T only provides one RG per account. Adding a bootleg second RG could cause "undesirable side effects"

The ActionTek bridges work pretty well, give 'em a shot.

 

[ScottMac]

Yes, 10Base2 uses coax (god I hated that stuff), but I'm pretty sure it would require a dedicated coax cable (one that is not already being used to carry video signals).

Here is a discussion I found on this topic.

That's correct, and, video (and TV-related stuff, including U-verse) use RG11 / RG6 / RG 59 (or similar) which is 50 Ohm cable ... Ethernet of the 10BASE2 or 10BASE5 uses 50 Ohm coax (RG8 / RG58-like).

 

[her209]

No.

While it would work (as long as you kept the traffic on the LAN side of each box), AT&T only provides one RG per account. Adding a bootleg second RG could cause "undesirable side effects"

The ActionTek bridges work pretty well, give 'em a shot.

The ActionTec and similar devices are way expensive, around $150-200 for two devices.

The residential gateways are going for around $70-80 for two used on eBay.

When you say "as long as you kept the traffic on the LAN side of each box", I'm assuming you mean as long as I don't use the RGs as routers?

 

[her209]

That's correct, and, video (and TV-related stuff, including U-verse) use RG11 / RG6 / RG 59 (or similar) which is 50 Ohm cable ... Ethernet of the 10BASE2 or 10BASE5 uses 50 Ohm coax (RG8 / RG58-like).

Oh I see. So when the AT&T technician comes out to do the U-verse installation, they'll run a 50-ohm coaxial line (assuming you don't want an Ethernet line) from the RG to the TV for the set top box? I'm reading that the typical coaxial installations are 75-ohm.

 

[drebo]

Oh I see. So when the AT&T technician comes out to do the U-verse installation, they'll run a 50-ohm coaxial line (assuming you don't want an Ethernet line) from the RG to the TV for the set top box? I'm reading that the typical coaxial installations are 75-ohm.

No, they'll install RG6.

HPNA and MoCa (the two common methods of doing ethernet over coax) are not the same as 10Base2 or thinnet or thicknet.

 

[mosco]

When I had Fios I used a moto nim100 that I got on ebay for less than 50 bucks on ebay. You have to just watch ebay for them to get the good deals.

I had no issues streaming 1080p rips, although I only had 1 3 way splitter in my system.

 

[ScottMac]

Oh I see. So when the AT&T technician comes out to do the U-verse installation, they'll run a 50-ohm coaxial line (assuming you don't want an Ethernet line) from the RG to the TV for the set top box? I'm reading that the typical coaxial installations are 75-ohm.

They are 75 ohm, and Ethernet coax is 50-52 ohm.

I got distracted during an edit and made the stupid mistake.

 

[Vincent]

I have 3 Actiontec MI424WR bridges that I'm using as MOCA devices. They report 200mbps links with each other and work better than wireless for connecting my living room HTPC to my file server.

I bought them from eBay for $30-40 apiece. There is a long thread on avsforum about using these bridges for MOCA networking.

The only problem is that on one drop I have a Comcast DTA that no longer functions if the Actiontec is also connected there. I might fiddle with the frequencies used by the Actiontec bridges to try to resolve this problem, but have not had time yet.

 

[bobdole369]

Ummm 10base-2 ??

Doesn't anybody else remember massive coax thinnet networks in school? This was how it used to be done.

HPNA/Coax is how its done currently.

 

[ScottMac]

Ummm 10base-2 ??

Doesn't anybody else remember massive coax thinnet networks in school? This was how it used to be done.

HPNA/Coax is how its done currently.

I wrestled my share of yellow garden hose, and punctured myself many times with a vampire tap ... BTDT, Got Shirt (10Base5) also done my share of ThinNet stuff, from replacing (no kidding) (customer-installed) Radio Shack stranded rg58 with certified Ethernet thin coax to replacing (customer-installed) twist-on connectors.

I set my share of Arcnet NIC switches
Gen'd my share of Novell disk sets (360K floppies)
blah blah blah ... sucks to get old, fer sher ... but don't let anyone tell you about
the good old days of networking;" everything was manual, and everything the customers touched turned to an overnight fix.

 

[Eug]

My sis had the foresight in the 1990s to wire up her new house for networking. The contractors thought she was crazy, since of course nobody would need a big computer network at home.

Too bad she installed coax.

 

[Modelworks]

Ummm 10base-2 ??

Doesn't anybody else remember massive coax thinnet networks in school? This was how it used to be done.

HPNA/Coax is how its done currently.

I remember it and still have an ISA network card with the BNC connector .

I wish they had never left coax for ethernet. It was easier to work with and the tabs never broke off the connector The problem was the cost of transceivers at the time made increasing speeds too costly.

 

[Modelworks]

My sis had the foresight in the 1990s to wire up her new house for networking. The contractors thought she was crazy, since of course nobody would need a big computer network at home.

Too bad she installed coax.

ouch

 

[Modelworks]

The only problem is that on one drop I have a Comcast DTA that no longer functions if the Actiontec is also connected there. I might fiddle with the frequencies used by the Actiontec bridges to try to resolve this problem, but have not had time yet.

You need to get the data from each device and find out what frequencies each are using. Then put notch filters on the cables that block all the frequencies except the ones that you need. You can actually have satellite service, cable internet, moca all on one cable if you can map out what frequencies each are using and filter it accordingly.

 

[Emulex]

comcast digital uses alot of the band though.

plus with SDV it gets even more complicated

 

[Eug]

Is there any issue with analogue or digital cable signal degradation at all with HPNA over coax? Most of my house... BUT not all... is now wired with Gigabit Ethernet. I've added wireless and powerline networking for the remaining stuff, but HomePNA would be another solution to give me nearly instant networking everywhere in the house, with the stability of HPNA over coax. My VDSL2 modem (CELLPipe 7130) actually already includes HPNA over coax for free, so I'd just need the client adapter(s).

And what about digital/analogue cable signal amplifiers? Do they affect moca performance significantly? Would I need to replace all my splitters?