Moca setup help

[axwell]

What I could try just as a seperate test is take the tv box out of the equation and do wall point to moca and plug a laptop in to it. I assume that would at least tell me the signal works and then adding the moca splitter after would divide the signal.

How big an impact are the unterminated cables having would you think? The cable company havent labelled any of the cables so determining what cable is what will be a manual process of unplugging them from the amp in the basement and seeing what tv they knock out..if I could at least get the moca to work withiut that first and then it improved the signal to put the caps on it would be less hassle up front and buying more equipment at the hope of it working rather than knowing it will.

 

[degrub]

What I could try just as a seperate test is take the tv box out of the equation and do wall point to moca and plug a laptop in to it. I assume that would at least tell me the signal works and then adding the moca splitter after would divide the signal.

How big an impact are the unterminated cables having would you think? The cable company havent labelled any of the cables so determining what cable is what will be a manual process of unplugging them from the amp in the basement and seeing what tv they knock out..if I could at least get the moca to work withiut that first and then it improved the signal to put the caps on it would be less hassle up front and buying more equipment at the hope of it working rather than knowing it will.

That would be a good idea. power them down at least. Or disconnect all of them for the test. include the cable modem as well. After testing, bring them back one at a time starting with the ISP modem.

Question - does the TV reception depend on the ISP modem ?

it may or may not be significant. Depends on the cable installation and the environment around it. At the very least it will improve the signal quality for all of the devices by eliminating reflections. It is a signal to noise ratio issue.

you should be able to find female type terminators and just place them on the end of the cable unless you want to get a simple coax tracer kit.
here is what you need -

https://www.l-com.com/coaxial-bnc-terminator-female-colored-cap-rg59-75-ohms

here is a coax tester kit

Klein Tools Coax Explorer 2 VDV512-100 - The Home Depot

The Klein Tools Coax Explorer 2 verifies proper continuity of F-connector coaxial cables and maps their location. This tester comes with one (red) remote. The available color-coded remotes (sold separately)

www.homedepot.com

 

[axwell]

I would need the ISP modem on for the test though? I plan to go to one of the other bedrooms and remove the tv box and just go from the wall to the moca adapter and test it that way, if I get a signal then I will put back in the tv box and see if i still get a signal - if I do then theres prob something specific to the line in the tv room I was testing on - if I dont then there is some other issue in the whole setup stopping it and I am prob at the point of just calling it a day rather than spend money on more equipment and messing with it getting nowhere.

Question - does the TV reception depend on the ISP modem ?
Not sure on that one actually -but I would imagine no, incoming coax goes to the amp and then those lines go to the wall points which feed set top boxes. The ISP modem is on out 2 from the amp so its independent in that sense. Why so?

 

[axwell]

I tested the 2nd moca adapter in a different bedroom removing the tv box there (the other tv boxes are still connected and in use) - same result, 3 lights but no internet. When I tested moca adapter 1 connected with a short coax to moca adapter 2 and to the laptop everything worked like I said previously, so its once it gets upstairs the issues happen so I think its safe to ignore the modem in the equation and any possible issues there. The only difference upstairs are the tv boxes, and I just tested without one of them in place and it made no difference. I will test later with the other boxes disconnected from their power supply but as they arent directly linked to the moca adapter would they have any effect?

 

[degrub]

If you want to test the cable system to see if there is an issue for the Motorola moca modems and isolate the issue to the cable plant, you should remove or power off all other devices.

this is not testing internet connectivity, but the ability of the motorola modems to sync across the cable plant.

the 8 way splitter makes the cable plant look like one single cable. So nothing is independent if the splitter is moca rated. That means any device on any port’s cable can “talk” to any other device.

 

[axwell]

Sorry im confused what the aim is, if i turn off the other devices and the modem you suggest seeing if the moca adapters still ‘link’ and i get a green light for that?

I already have 3 lights which suggests they do sync. Or do you think there could be a signal reaching adapter 2 from another device like a tv box set in another room that it sees as a sync?

 

[degrub]

You only reported one of the moca modems with 3 lights. That indicates that it is syncing with another device, not the other motorola moca modem. If both moca modem sync with each other, they both will have all lights on.

 

[axwell]

Sorry yeah I get you now. If it was to work with the tv set top boxes not powered on how would I work around that anyways adding them back in?

 

[degrub]

There was an earlier thread here with a similar issue. The order of power on seemed to matter. I am not finding it at the moment....

 

[axwell]

Hmm weird but ill try anything at this stage. Will try tomorrow without the set top boxes and see if it makes a difference.

 

[axwell]

So I unplugged all the tv boxes and now i only get 2 lights on both moca adapters. The power light on both of them and then when i have the laptop connected the lan one will come on (laptop off no lan light) but the sync one doesnt come on at all.

In the previous test just by the router with both adapters and a short coax and the laptop connected it worked.

With the tv boxes connected I am getting 3 lights upstairs so its syncing to something, most likely just the box adapter 2 is connected to. Without the tv boxes its just coax and the devices. The coax is working fine for the tv boxes so I cant see how it could be a damaged cable, distance shouldnt be an issue..so all that I can think of is the cap terminators and adding those, i have some ordered arriving tomorrow. Other than that I am stumped unless you have any more suggestions?

 

[degrub]

The ISP modem was unplugged as well ?
there is likely another splitter in the system that is preventing the MOCA 2 sync. It could be in the wall or the attic.

Let's take the commscope splitter out of the equation completely.
remove all of the cables from the splitter.
Plug the cable going up to the location of the other modem into the moca modem and see if you get sync. This will be a cable test only. so nothing else connected to coax.
If it syncs, then plug that cable back into the splitter and plug the cable from the moca modem into the splitter. does it sync ?
if not, connect power to the splitter. Does it sync ?

 

[axwell]

I ended up removing all other coax connections from the amp apart from the one going upstairs and the modem and still couldnt get it to sync. I had hoped it would be a more straightforward process and we were visiting from out of town so I decided to abandon it at this stage and put things back as they were and will maybe revisit it in the summer when we are back. They are gonna cut the chord so them there will be no tv boxes to consider and I can mess around more with the coax or run a new line using the existing one to pull it in and at least then ill know exactly what I am working with. The only other thing I thought of after was that maybe there was a poe filter out at the box outside where the cable comes in and then the amp is also supposed to have one built in that this may affect it but as it was working when I had everything connected with a short coax I assume if it wasnt going to work it wouldnt work then either.

When they cut the chord im gonna recommend they buy their own modem instead of using the spectrum on, would you suggest i get them to get a moca enabled one at that point? Also how does that then work in the sense of converting moca to ethernet on the other end, is there a different type of adapter you use in that case instead of the motorola ones with pass through?

 

[krkaufman]

When they cut the chord im gonna recommend they buy their own modem instead of using the spectrum on, would you suggest i get them to get a moca enabled one at that point? Also how does that then work in the sense of converting moca to ethernet on the other end, is there a different type of adapter you use in that case instead of the motorola ones with pass through?

A remote MoCA node won't know whether the main MoCA/Ethernet bridge is built-in to the cable gateway (combo modem/router) or is a standalone MoCA adapter.

The main consideration would be whether you can find an all-in-one gateway that includes the MoCA spec you're targeting. (e.g. A gateway supporting MoCA 1.1 wouldn't be too attractive.)

 

[axwell]

My question was what device would be used along with a moca compatible modem/router. The motorola adapters were a pair since you werent using the modem/router with Moca. If you use a moca modem/router then what do you use in conjunction with that? Do you just use a single adapter instead of the motorola pair or is there a different adapter when its modem-adapter?

 

[degrub]

moca modems capable of using bonded channels should do so according to the spec when available to the modem.
Each device is a node on the coax and talks to other devices independently when the appropriate channels are available to use.
Some devices may play nicer when all the same manufacturer. Maybe read the MOCA spec document and see what is minimum mandatory or ask the manufacturer ?