Routers and firmware

[WilliamY]

The MoCA devices are essentially transparent to the router. If you think of it just like having run a cable, that's about it.

Hi,

Thanks, but something is just missing, should one of my RT-N66U LAN port connect to MoCA device A's RJ45 port? as you see, the MoCA device A's RJ45 port never be used, this is what I was confused.

William

 

[RogerSC]

Hi,

Thanks, but something is just missing, should one of my RT-N66U LAN port connect to MoCA device A's RJ45 port? as you see, the MoCA device A's RJ45 port never be used, this is what I was confused.

William

Sorry, yes, you should have a LAN network cable between the ethernet port of the MoCA adapter that connects to the cable modem and a LAN port on your router. I guess I missed your question. The adapters connect via the coax, and the router is connected via a LAN cable to MoCA adapter at the modem/router end. Then the ethernet port on the far end MoCA adapter provide the connection to the LAN and router for ethernet devices on the far end.

 

[RocketJSquirrel]

There is a good explanation of MoCA hookup, with diagrams, on this Netgear page. Don't confuse yourself over-thinking it. It works. And it works really well.

 

[WilliamY]

Sorry, yes, you should have a LAN network cable between the ethernet port of the MoCA adapter that connects to the cable modem and a LAN port on your router. I guess I missed your question. The adapters connect via the coax, and the router is connected via a LAN cable to MoCA adapter at the modem/router end. Then the ethernet port on the far end MoCA adapter provide the connection to the LAN and router for ethernet devices on the far end.

Thanks for clarification. much apprecated.

William

 

[WilliamY]

I got my Netgear MoCA adapters on Amazon. I bought two pairs since I needed 3 adapters, so ended up with a spare in case of problems, or to use in another room *smile*.

I just looked at Amazon and see that they have only 2 in stock (2 pairs *smile*, each kit has 2 adapters, of course) currently, so if you ordered a pair you'd be likely to get one.

On the other hand, on eBay right now I see a new pair, and a used pair. So they are out there.

There's also other MoCA hardware that I'm not familiar with. I've only looked at the Netgear ones.

Hi,

Could you please give me the eBay link, I cant find it.

Thanks,

William

 

[RogerSC]

Hi,

Could you please give me the eBay link, I cant find it.

Thanks,

William

Here you go:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NetGear-MCAB1001-MoCA-Coax-Ethernet-Adapter-Kit-/330788224493?pt=US_Powerline_Networking&hash=item4d0483bded

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Netgear-MCAB1001-MOCA-Coax-Ethernet-Adapter-Kit-/280958807383?pt=US_Internal_Modem_Card&hash=item416a732d57

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Netgear-MCAB1001-MOCA-Coax-Ethernet-Adapter-Kit-/280958806259?pt=US_Internal_Modem_Card&hash=item416a7328f3

 

[WilliamY]

Here you go:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NetGear-MCAB1001-MoCA-Coax-Ethernet-Adapter-Kit-/330788224493?pt=US_Powerline_Networking&hash=item4d0483bded

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Netgear-MCAB1001-MOCA-Coax-Ethernet-Adapter-Kit-/280958807383?pt=US_Internal_Modem_Card&hash=item416a732d57

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Netgear-MCAB1001-MOCA-Coax-Ethernet-Adapter-Kit-/280958806259?pt=US_Internal_Modem_Card&hash=item416a7328f3

Thanks, Is this adapter better than a powerline adapter?

William

 

[RogerSC]

Thanks, Is this adapter better than a powerline adapter?

William

My opinion is that MoCA provides more consistent performance than a powerline adapter, and generally greater throughput. A powerline adapter runs across the power lines...if you turn on a blender, or a sabre saw, or whatever, that puts a lot of noise on the power line, the powerline adapter has to deal with that. The cable TV in your walls is a lot quieter than that, it's double-shielded and provides a consistent throughput compared to powerline networking. That's been my experience as well, no problems, it just works consistently and performs very well.

 

[ian1975]

Hi RMerlin,

Finally, I got professionally hardwire installed from the basement to the first, second and third floor today. My HT system is on the third floor, will I need an RT-N66 each floor as an access point? What is your suggestion?

Thanks

Ian

 

[RMerlin]

Hi RMerlin,

Finally, I got professionally hardwire installed from the basement to the first, second and third floor today. My HT system is on the third floor, will I need an RT-N66 each floor as an access point? What is your suggestion?

Thanks

Ian

Hard to tell without seeing how your house is organized, but I'd say basement and third floor should probably get you covered, as each router will cover two floors without too much problem (assuming your average type of walls/ceilings).

 

[alternety]

Not sure of what you are setting up. Can you get a piece of Ethernet cable from the hardwired access point on each floor to all the items you need to connect?

If so, and you have multiple items on a floor you can use a simple switch.This is a box with Ethernet connections that lets you transparently connect devices,on however many ports you buy, together. That will give you full LAN speeds (10,100,1000) to all the devices. One port on the switch connects to the inter-floor wire you had installed. Presumably on one level your main router will connect to the wire you had run. You can run the Ethernet cable from the wall to a handy location on the floor and then connect everything on the floor to that point by connecting the switch there.

If you need radio connections, than you may need a wireless router on multiple floors. Unless, of course, one router's radio covers all the required areas. You can also place the router/repeater wherever best performance occurs for the floor.

I am assuming you have run one separate Ethernet cable from you central location to each floor. If you have only a single Ethernet cable just passing through each floor, the cable will need to be broken and a switch installed at each floor. Cable in and out will use up one or two of the switches ports. You can get switches inexpensively with 4, 5, 8, 16,32 etc. ports. Check Newegg. They quite frequently have a good price on small units.

All modern home Ethernet cabling is point-to-point. You can't just tap onto the cable. It is not acceptable to try to splice an Ethernet cable. It must terminate in the proper connector. If you have to extend anything directly from your new wire you have to terminate the wire and use an coupler to get to the additional wire going somewhere on the floor that must also have the proper connector.

If you ran separate wires to each floor, you may need a switch at the main router. It seems to me that I have read in one of these assorted threads that only two of the for switch ports on the 66U are free for normal use. In whatever case you only have two or four ports available on the router.

 

[ian1975]

Hi to you all,

So I put 1 RT-N66 in the basement connected to a DLINK gigabit switch, 1 in the second floor and 1 Airport extreme on the third floor. I put the latest firmware (220) on the Asus router. The RT-N66 in the basement is the main router and the other ones are access point. Yesterday after setting up the second RT-N66 on the second floor, I found that the Wifi download is half of the ethernet speed but before I was almost as the same speed as cable. The upload speed is the same as before. When I stream hd movies wirelessly, there is still some jerking not with the ethernet cable of course and the wifi signal is not stable this morning, I had to reset the main router a few times. I thought by putting 2 RT-N66 router, the wireless signal will be flawless. Should I use the same network name and password between the routers?
Did I do something wrong? settings? firmware? or just don't use the second RT-N66?
Help please? any ideas?

Thanks

Ian

 

[alternety]

Not really sure what is happening. I am assuming you can't simply get an acceptable route for an Ethernet cable to the necessary device.

I also assume you were previously getting the near hard wired transfer rate you are talking about between the remote device on the second floor and the router in the basement. Do you have a single separate Ethernet cable going to each of the floors. Not one cable going from the basement to the third floor. You might want to provide a bit more detail about whet is located where and how it links to things.

A couple of possibilities come to mind. Are the radios on the various access points set to the same frequencies? They may be interfering with each other. If you got satisfactory speeds between the basement and second floor with only the basement router, don't put another device on the second floor.

I am not usefully knowledgeable on how the routers behave. That said, if you don't have issues with nearby systems interfering, you should probably set each device to a set frequency if you can. An make the frequencies different for each of the floors.

Be sure that none of the routers think they should be linking to another via radio. Or two routers trying to route the same device.

Verify that the Apple device fits in this environment. They tend to do things their way vs other.

Someone more knowledgeable on the routers themselves should probably comment.