cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/63691946
Looking for advice on setting up a new whole home network and the direction to take of MoCA over existing cabling vs running new Ethernet Cat6A:
Recently in a new space that has an existing HomeConnect CSMAPDU9VPI with coax cables run throughout the home, which seems like a great candidate to just use MoCA and get up and running faster:
But I am also interested in “future proofing” the network setup and replacing the coax cables that are already run with Cat6A Ethernet, all connecting to a central 10G switch / homelab setup.
Is it worth the effort to re-run all of the cables and swap out the wall plates or just go with the simple thing an run with a MoCA setup? I’d really prefer to not spend on one setup with the plan to update in the future, but maybe that’s the compromise solution to get setup and running sooner.
The CSMAPDU9VPI is currently completely isolated from the cable line to the modem (picture above is old and shows a cable connected to the IN port, this cable is no longer connected) so I don’t think I have to worry about interference with my DOCSIS 3.1 service / modem.
Pros of MoCA:
-Easy to implement
-Don’t have to run new lines
-Reliable
-Up to 2.5gbps
Cons:
-Each run needs an moderately expensive adapter on either side, which also needs power
-Cable management at the endpoints can get messy
If you have one or two endpoints where you can tuck away some boxes, MoCA’s probably fine. If you want to wire up every room in your house, buy a roll of cat-6 and bite the bullet
Other con: Unless you have a new home with pristine wires, the speeds of MoCa can vary anywhere from 2.5Gpbs to 6Mps. It also gets very tricky if you have still cable TV in your home because many of the set top boxes use MoCa and they directly interfere with using it for internet (though you can sometimes get it working with filters, my experience was poor). MoCa is still far better than something like Powerline adapters, which are another option for not having to run new cables/lines.
On my coax network, which is also completely isolated from any TV or internet signals, I was not getting the advertised 2.5gbps and I was getting about 4ms of latency, and they would very occasionally disconnect. I don’t know if that’s typical or if my MoCA adapters were bad.
Even if they’re all working perfectly, unlike on switched networks like Ethernet, the signal between device A and device B also uses bandwidth on the connection to device C. I don’t know if there’s some trick with different channels to lessen this effect, but there’s no switch in your MoCA network and all cables will carry all data destined for any endpoint at the same time.
I ended up replacing the most heavily used MoCA link with essentially this exact setup, including replacing the included 1gbps modules with 10gbps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2FbzCyiNr4 Besides being over 4x faster, I don’t need to deal with ensuring that latency sensitive wireless devices are connecting to the access point on the same side of the MoCA link as the other device.