Forget CAT5e/6 cabling, went the MOCA route and here is my experience (Long Post)

[drebo]

Yup. I knew about the U-Verse thing and I've heard statements from XBOX 360 owners that were amazed to find they could simply plug their XBOX 360 into the U-Verse converter box and go online.

I'm guessing it's not quite the same as the scenario I suggested.

With U-Verse, there is a device that acts as your home gateway. If I understand correctly, it connects to your home coax cable splitwork and the U-Verse set-top boxes get video over IP. Because the STB already uses an IP connection, it's trivial for engineers to add a functional ethernet jack.

With most cable converters, IP traffic would have to share the same cord with other types of transmissions (QAM cable). With U-Verse, it's all IP anyway. It would work even if you only had a single U-Verse set-top box.

If this works with the new cable boxes from Cisco/ScientificAtlanta, I'm sure it would require at least two converter boxes. One STB would connect to the XBOX 360 with a network cord, and one in another room would have a network cord going to the LAN port on a router or modem.

I don't know if I'll ever have a chance to test it. I don't use any converter at home. I just have an HDHomeRun Prime tuner (cableCARD) connected to my network and I use Windows Media Center.

The "Home Gateway" is just another router with an HPNA bridge built in to it. If the cable STBs have MOCA bridges built in to them, you don't need the other one. You'd have one STB where your router is plugged in to ethernet and then over coax, it'd send both the MOCA and the TV signal to the other STBs which would demux the MOCA from the TV signal.

You're overcomplicating the setup. MOCA is a simple bridge, that's all. It doesn't have any real logic or programming or anything like that.

 

[Ichinisan]

MOCA Adapters are purely layer 1 / layer 2 devices. They "see each other" and build a bus network on the cable wire. Not unlike thinnet. There isn't any "testing" as long as they can connect to each other, they transfer data. So yes you get 1 and plug it in at your router, plug in others anywhere else on the network and you have functioning MOCA Ethernet to TP Ethernet.

Yeah. That is how I understand it. However, I'm concerned that the MOCA capability of the two converter boxes will need to be activated by pairing or associating them somehow. I'm not sure if they'll "just find each other." Is there some kind of initial pairing to make sure people don't unintentionally network their devices with an entire building?

 

[Ichinisan]

The "Home Gateway" is just another router with an HPNA bridge built in to it. If the cable STBs have MOCA bridges built in to them, you don't need the other one. You'd have one STB where your router is plugged in to ethernet and then over coax, it'd send both the MOCA and the TV signal to the other STBs which would demux the MOCA from the TV signal.

You're overcomplicating the setup. MOCA is a simple bridge, that's all. It doesn't have any real logic or programming or anything like that.

I don't think I "over-complicated it" at all. What you said is exactly what I said.

2 STBs.

1 connects to LAN port on a router
1 connects to a client device (Roku/XBOX/PS3/etc).
Boxes are linked to each other through home coax splitwork.

 

[imagoon]

Yeah. That is how I understand it. However, I'm concerned that the MOCA capability of the two converter boxes will need to be activated by pairing or associating them somehow. I'm not sure if they'll "just find each other." Is there some kind of initial pairing to make sure people don't unintentionally network their devices with an entire building?

Default on most adapter is disabled / connect to anything. You can set a password / encryption key. In MOCA there is no "master/slave" or anything. They all connect to each other just like bus Thinnet Ethernet. You can have 25 of them and they will by default connect to each other and send data between each other.

--edit--

Units like NETGEAR MCAB1001 are called bridges because they have a "cable in" and "cable out" + Ethernet port and more or less become an all in one injector and cable filter in one to keep the signal from leaking in to the cable plant.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanw...tgear-moca-coax-ethernet-adapter-kit-reviewed

Gives you real example of how simple those things really are.

 

[Ichinisan]

Think I found the CM I want:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/video/ps8611/ps8675/ps8686/7018341.pdf

Makes things even simpler!

...except I'd have to give up my router w/ CFW to get that simplicity. Wireless is dual-band, but not simultaneous.

 

[Darr247]

Think I found the CM I want:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/video/ps8611/ps8675/ps8686/7018341.pdf

Makes things even simpler!

...except I'd have to give up my router w/ CFW to get that simplicity. Wireless is dual-band, but not simultaneous.

Well, that router's wireless section is 2.4GHz only.
G and N don't really count as 'dual-band' per se.

 

[Ichinisan]

Well, that router's wireless section is 2.4GHz only.
G and N don't really count as 'dual-band' per se.

Yeah. I do know the difference. I guess I read some bad info somewhere that indicated 5ghz was supported.

Anyway, I got a great deal on a refurbished Apple AirPort Extreme 5th gen (latest) last Black Friday.

 

[kevnich2]

How did this post get revived? Almost a year old lol