Comment on Lemmings, please give us your info dump.
notthebees@reddthat.com 6 days agoHow would I setup MoCA in a house when it has a really large splitter?
Comment on Lemmings, please give us your info dump.
notthebees@reddthat.com 6 days agoHow would I setup MoCA in a house when it has a really large splitter?
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 6 days ago
The size of the splitter isn’t super important, though if there’s enough branches the signal may degrade to the point of not working, so it can be a problem. I would break out the splitter, as in, buy a couple of new splitters, MoCA compatible, and put half the connections on one, half on the other, then use a MoCA blocking splitter to join them to the upstream coax. This will prevent the two halves from talking to eachother and from talking to anyone outside your home. Then use two MoCA connections, one on each coax “segment”.
It will cost more to do it this way, but you’ll get a better, more reliable connection, no matter where you connect.
Since you would need all the gear for the split that you would for the single node, I would say, buy one node for the “head” end first and test if it works, if not, plan for the split idea. Also be mindful that MoCA is a different frequency than cable TV, so not all TV splitters will bridge MoCA connections. You can look up the frequencies in use, they’re all published on Wikipedia. There’s also different coax splitters for cable vs satellite, etc so it gets a bit nuanced. The supported frequencies should be on the label of any coax splitters. Make sure they all include the MoCA frequencies.
Good luck.
notthebees@reddthat.com 6 days ago
Will keep that in mind. The original application was for my friends place but they’re moving. Lease ends next month and they’re not renewing. My moca setup was for my router and now it’s a cat 8 cable. (I have fiber)
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 14 hours ago
That’s fair. I feel a little called out, rightly so.
What you want to do is look at the MoCA frequencies, which is ~450-1625mhz or so and see if your splitters include that range. If so, you’re golden, if not, there’s a good chance your MoCA signal will be attenuated by the splitter. Each splitter will cut the power by the number of connected branches, so 2 branches will be half power per branch, 4 will be a quarter. Etc. MoCA can handle some loss, but too much and it will fall over. There are splitters that you can buy that specifically include MoCA frequencies, some that don’t, and they’re will be some that specifically block it. The last type is good for separating MoCA segments, or at service entry points so you don’t end up sharing your network with neighbors.
Each splitter will have a label that specifies what frequencies it’s been tested with and that are validated to work. It should be printed on the splitter. If it’s not, throw it out and buy something that’s not in disrepair.
To clarify what’s going on a bit, the coax is just an antenna line, with no antenna. It can handle many different frequencies of transmissions. Like with the radio in your car, you can “tune into” different radio stations. The other radio stations on air don’t interfere with the one you’re listening to and vice versa. It’s the same idea with coax. Some frequencies are used to send cable TV, others are used for Internet (otherwise known as DOCSIS) and some are used for MoCA. All coax handling gear will support and be tested for some frequencies, and unless otherwise stated, anything outside of that range will be unknown. Most cable splitters support cable TV and DOCSIS frequencies primarily. There are different coax splitters for satellite, which uses all different frequencies, and there’s others that support much broader frequency ranges. Some can connect a wide spectrum but are only validated for a small part of what they can carry.
Your mileage may vary, and it’s really up to what you have and what the manufacturer did with the design of that specific splitter.
I’m sorry the answer isn’t more straight forward.
notthebees@reddthat.com 14 hours ago
Every single time I looked for an article I got confused. Explaining it like “coax is just an antenna” was the gap in my knowledge.