Need help setting up a MOCA network. Cant figure out the TV aerial connections/cables

brimur69

Sorry if this is not in the right section but thought since my issue is TV aerial cable related you guys would have the best input.

As a hobby I like to dabble at home a bit with networking. My network is mostly Unifi but I am having a hard time with both my internet access location and wifi signals in my house. The internet comes into the living room behind the TV and there is very little space for any equipment outside of the Eir vDSL modem/router so most of my networking equipment is up in the attic including WIFI access point. I do not have any ethernet ports but do have a TV aerial socket in each room, including next to the Eir router so thought I would play around and try to get a MOCA network setup since we dont use that wiring for anything else. That way I could connect the Eir router to the equipment in the attic at 1Gbps speeds. I got a pair of these GOCoax MA2500D and the specs on them are great, 2.5Gbps interfaces so future proofed if I ever get FTTH. I tested them with a long coax cable between two rooms and was able to get 1.4Gbps so that was pretty good.

So my problem is I can get them to talk to each other when connected directly but not when in different rooms connected to the aerial points. The reason is I don't think I have the right connectors. The MA2500D uses satellite screw connectors so I bought a few of these thinking I could plug the screw cable into the MA2500D and then put one of these onto that and plug it into the wall...

Unfortunately those ^^ do not fit into this socket...

I have a cable that does fit into it which looks like this but I do not know what that cable is called...

So I think I need a cable with ^^ that at one end to go into the TV aerial socket in the wall and this on the other end...

Is there a name for this kind of cable or is there an adapter I can buy somewhere?

Thanks

brimur69

@The Cush Hi, hope you don't mind me "calling" on you. Would you have any idea about this? Thanks

The Cush

I haven't ever used MOCA and so wouldn't be familiar with it, but I'll make a few suggestions anyway and maybe learn something new myself.

What frequency range does the MOCA unit output on?

The wallplate/faceplate has a Belling-Lee Female connector, used for terrestrial TV between 470-862 MHz, not recommended for higher frequencies. It may also be filtered to a range of frequencies.

How old is the co-ax cabling in the house? Satellite grade cabling can handle higher frequencies with lower losses.

Is the co-ax cable split in the attic?

The screw-on connectors are F-connectors and faceplate versions are available, no filtering and capable of handling higher frequencies - Satellite TV F Connector Wall Plate - Best Buy Online in Ireland (freetv.ie)

RoysWorld

That is the correct connector that you have. Try pushing it in harder.

RoysWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118028659#Comment_118028659

The manufacture of Belling-Lee connectors say 0-3 GHz on their datasheet. http://www.coax-connectors.com/media/2101268/16-275-B6-REV-A00-2.PDF

Most cheap TV wallplates don't have any filters, would be unlucky if it did.

Glaceon

MoCA works at similar frequencies to satellite signals so I would advise the use of F connectors. Where do the cables in the wall terminate?

RoysWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118030847#Comment_118030847

Belling-Lee connectors are suitable for satellite TV frequencies.

Source, manufacturer's datasheet: http://www.coax-connectors.com/media/2101268/16-275-B6-REV-A00-2.PDF

MoCA can use a broad range of the spectrum.

https://mocalliance.org/technology/Final_Best-Practices-for-Installation-of-MoCA_170516rev01.pdf

If you have cheap brown coax in the wall you would probably get better results using the lower frequencies. Band E and Band F. But you should try the higher frequencies too, it can be surprising what works best.

RoysWorld

MoCA Band E and Band F are in the UHF TV band. Worth exploring what works best.

winston_1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118030824#Comment_118030824

One manufacturer claims that. The B/L connector was designed nearly 100 years ago for low frequency RF. Most wallplates with saddle and clamp B/L connectors would go nowhere near 3GHz.

The aerial sockets in each room won't connect to each other. They may be separate outputs on an amplifier. They may connect to outputs of a multiway passive splitter. Either way the splitters are designed not to pass signals from one output to another so as to prevent spurious signals from one TV interfering with another.

There is no way they are going to work in your setup.

RoysWorld

There is a lot of misinformation on the web regarding Belling-Lee and F-type connectors, particularing around their passbands and impedance. There seems to be a lot of uninformed opinion that Belling-Lee is inferior to F-type. As you mention, the saddle connectors common on both TV and satellite wallplates will likely have a greater impact.

Getting back to the OP's question, the OP states their intention to place their Eir modem where the wallplate pictured is, and the rest of their network equipment in the attic. It seems likely there will be a single run of TV coax from point to point, probably the cheap brown type. The OP does not appear to intend to run Saorview on the coaxial cable. MoCA Band E (400 to 700 MHz) and Band F (650 to 875 MHz) are in the lower UHF band. Optimistically that should work okay on such cable. I would guess than MoCA Band D (1.125 to 1.675 GHz) might not do well on cheap coaxial cable, but on a short run the results might prove good enough.

OP, if pushing those converters you have in harder doesn't work, maybe these will work.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BHPN8NJ/

brimur69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118028659#Comment_118028659

Thanks all very for the info, knowing the name of the interface made it much easier to search for the cable using its technical name IEC 169-2. I managed to get a connection from upstairs on one side of the house (20 years old) to downstairs on the other side of the house and its maxing out my 1Gb switch connection so Im very happy with that. It should be future proof too since it has a 2.5Gb and the connections stats say it is connection at full signal strength 3.5 Gbps internally...

RoysWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118037266#Comment_118037266

That is fantastic. Thank you for letting us know and sharing your results.

Hopefully the naysayers will reflect on the experimental result and keep a more open mind.

winston_1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118037266#Comment_118037266

Nobody, including you knows the future.

RoysWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118039212#Comment_118039212

There is no way they are going to work in your setup.

And yet, they did.

brimur69

I finally got a chance to test it properly. Using a computer with a 2.5G adapter in the living room corner back to my network upstairs, on the opposite side of the house, to a server running a speedtest server on a 10GB switch. Results blew me away tbh. I bought a pair of Devolo Magic 2 2400Mbps homeplugs a week ago and was only getting 70-80Mbps with those. But these are amazing. As a bonus they only added 2ms to the trip unlike the homeplugs which was a lot higher.

RoysWorld

That's great! If you have two computers with 2.5G adapters, you might be interested in testing with iperf.