MOCA and Direct TV

[lagann]

Hi,

Im totally a newbie with regards on moca. Im currently using a Netgear powerline av200 adapter but thats not cutting it for me. I have a 50mbps cable connection from Comcast but the PC thats connected to the powerline only gets half that and i wish i could get the best ping possible as im also a gamer.

So i have been reading about MOCA and how thats superior to the traditional powerlines connected through the outlets. But also im reading contradicting reports that moca will or will not work with direct tv installations. So which is it?

My home uses Direct TV but the room im trying to hook up moca is not connected to any Direct TV boxes. Will me having Direct TV installed in my home make moca not work? im very confused about this

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[ikecomp]

I have the exact same question and will find out tomorrow when my netgear MoCa Adapter comes in. Like you, I have Directv but it is only in a couple of rooms (family room and master bedroom). The rest of the coaxial lines in my house are connected to regular cable tv lines for my comcast internet connection. To be more specific, the coax lines coming in for cable tv are separate from those coming in for satellite at the POE (point of entry) outside my house.

I'll try to get everything working with just the regular cable lines and then try to see if I can also get the satellite cable lines working as well. I've heard this is possible if a diplexer is used and you play around with the channel settings.

I'll report back once I know.

 

[lagann]

I forgot completely that the room my modem and router are set up in, indeed has direct tv installed there. Im not sure though if a new coax line was added just for that. I will need to find out.

But this is what i find confusing http://hd.engadget.com/2008/05/11/directv-joins-the-multimedia-over-coax-alliance-moca/

Direct TV has joined the moca alliance....so have they made it so that moca will work in tandem with their boxes?

 

[ikecomp]

Well, although my adapters have arrived amazon sent me the wrong version. apparently I was sent the european version as the power plugs can not be used as expected. fortunately I had a couple of european to us adapter plugs lying around. At any rate, I'm not having the greatest of luck. I have the moca adapters connected directly to each other and the best I can do is 30 megabits per second which is half off the 70 megabits that's been reported everywhere. I'm using the resource manager in windows 7 and it barely ever goes above 30 mbps during samba transfers. I also set everything to default in on both adapters but don't get any change in transfer speed.

I dare not try to get satellite working until I can get the full 70 megabits. maybe the US version that amazon is overnighting me will work better but I'm skeptical at the moment

 

[stevech]

The MoCA units I have include directions for using a web browser to set what frequency these use on the cable. Frequency choice is normally automatic, but a manual choice may be needed for cases where satellite dish signals are on the same cable.

Mine deliver about 70Mbps net yield at the IP layer.

 

[thiggins]

MoCA uses the same frequency range as DirecTV does. So if both signals are on the same coax, it won't work.

 

[ikecomp]

Well, although my adapters have arrived amazon sent me the wrong version. apparently I was sent the european version as the power plugs can not be used as expected. fortunately I had a couple of european to us adapter plugs lying around. At any rate, I'm not having the greatest of luck. I have the moca adapters connected directly to each other and the best I can do is 30 megabits per second which is half off the 70 megabits that's been reported everywhere. I'm using the resource manager in windows 7 and it barely ever goes above 30 mbps during samba transfers. I also set everything to default in on both adapters but don't get any change in transfer speed.

I dare not try to get satellite working until I can get the full 70 megabits. maybe the US version that amazon is overnighting me will work better but I'm skeptical at the moment

I've done some more testing and I'm now more confused then before. I performed some ftp tests last night and I was consistently getting 10 MB/s throughput (adapters connected directly to each other) however, when transferring files via SAMBA I was only getting about half that on average. Should there be a 50% decrease in throughput based on the protocol being used? I know there's less overhead with ftp but I wouldn't think it would be that much.

Any suggestions out there for tweaking performance?

 

[stevech]

MoCA uses the same frequency range as DirecTV does. So if both signals are on the same coax, it won't work.

Are you saying that none of the frequency choices available (may or may not be those defined by the MoCA standard) with manual selection can be compatible?

 

[ikecomp]

I've done some more testing and I'm now more confused then before. I performed some ftp tests last night and I was consistently getting 10 MB/s throughput (adapters connected directly to each other) however, when transferring files via SAMBA I was only getting about half that on average. Should there be a 50% decrease in throughput based on the protocol being used? I know there's less overhead with ftp but I wouldn't think it would be that much.

Any suggestions out there for tweaking performance?

Ok, I've fixed or rather eliminated the bottleneck. I tried using one of my desktops instead of the underpowered netbook I was using and samba speeds jumped to an average of 83 megabits per second. Once I get my diplexer in, I'll try it on one of my satellite lines to see if there is a way of getting
MoCA and directv working on the same line although I'm not hopeful at the moment

 

[thiggins]

Are you saying that none of the frequency choices available (may or may not be those defined by the MoCA standard) with manual selection can be compatible?

Answer is... it depends. See http://mocablog.net/2010/08/02/you-say-moca-i-say-deca-which-is-it/

Anyone out there gotten MoCA and DTV working on the same coax?