Dodge DeBoulet

"PoE" stands for "Point of Entry" and a PoE filter prevents your MoCA adapters from polluting the neighborhood (and, also, prevents them from poking around in your stuff).

Here's the one I used.

cblaisd

Thank you.

Different question: There is only one cable outlet that currently supplies the modem and tv. Would I need to put a splitter at the wall in order to have an outlet for the MoCA adapter?

Dodge DeBoulet

There are two coax connectors on these MoCA adapters; one is labeled TV/STB and the other has a network icon. You should be able to cable the first one directly to your TV or set-top-box and the second one to the coax from the wall that previously fed the TV/STB. If for some reason the TV doesn't work connected that way, you may need to get a splitter.

chx1975

I am still absolutely astounded by how well a pair of cheap AF TP Link powerline adapters worked for me in my house in Hungary (the wiring is terrible). I haven't expected a lot but actually it maxed out the 100 mbit Ethernet it got.

Cat Man Do

Slightly a long shot, but you might look at the location of your WiFi box. Sometimes moving the cable modem and router to a more central location can improve signal to other floors of the house.


OFten there are already outlets in other rooms that the cable modem can be moved to.

pseudoswede

PoE = point of entry ... in reality, it's actually installed to prevent your network signal from leaking out of the home to nearby homes who also use cable

https://www.tivo.com/shop/detail/moca-poe

You typically install it at the point where the cable from the pedestal enters your home.

Edited to add: oops. Didn't see the second page.

cblaisd

Thank you "Pedestal"? Can you explain?
I haven't yet gone sleuthing to see where the cable enters the house. I **think** it may be underground, in which case a whole 'nother challenge for identifying.

gfunkdave

The pedestal is a small enclosure where coax lines from multiple houses come together and are fed from a single line from the cable company. They usually don't have powered electronics in them but could. That would be a node, a powered piece of equipment that converts the cable company's fiber optics to coax. You'd only have a pedestal if your service is underground. If it's aerial, you'll just be fed off the nearest pole.

Usually they are about two feet tall, green plastic boxes on the ground by the road somewhere. There's usually one every 3-5 houses. Here are some photos: https://www.google.com/search?q=cabl...w=1439&bih=858

cblaisd

Thank you

Sure wish the Powerline adapters had worked without tripping the AFCI Siemens breakers; that was dead simple to set up.

I did find a nice pair of used recommended MoCA adapters for $35. Someday I'll have a chance to explore this more and hopefully get installed.

cblaisd

I **think** that this is where the cable enters the house. The left side one is the incoming cable (?) The right side one I think goes to the modem/cable box.

Although it doesn't show in this picture, the black coax is just a short pigtail that goes to nothing.

There is a whole mess of other cables coming in near this that aren't connected to whatever this is called. My hope is that somehow the cable going to the tv/modem is actually connected to the cable that goes to the man-cave.

Dodge DeBoulet

If you're concerned that the cable connection in the man-cave may not be connected and can afford a few minutes of internet dis-connectivity, just unplug the cable modem from its current location, drag it down to the man-cave, and connect it there. If all the right idiot lights come on, you should be good to go.

cblaisd

I think it's time to surrender and live with the mediocre connection. I'm grateful for your suggestion because it allowed me easily to learn that the outlet in the man-cave is apparently not connected to anything. And it is utterly unclear where the cable comes into the house, and the splitter that sent the picture above doesn't label whether the jacks are inputs or outputs.

Another idea: I have an Asus Router. I also have a second Asus router. I understand that if I set the second one up as a repeater, I halve the whole system's bandwidth. But the Asus (RT-AC66U) can be set up as a "media bridge." Would that avoid the repeater-halving-bandwidth issue? And then I just plug the mancave's computer into one of the ports on the router-media bridge?

I suppose I could also call the cable company and see if they would offer any help in either setting up a MoCA system or making the man-cave's cable outlet live (while showing me where the cable enters the house for a POE filter)

But I loathe calling the cable company....

gfunkdave

You can also see if a friend has a tone generator you can borrow (or buy one - $60 or so). Plug the generator into the man cave coax outlet and then run the receiver around the splitter box (and look in the wall if the wire is hanging in there) and see which one gives you tone.

My guess from the photo you sent (I couldn't read the labels on all the splitter jacks) is that the black cable is the input.

Dodge DeBoulet

Your cable connection comes in underground, right? Do you have a cellar, crawl-space or is your house on a pad? Somewhere around the perimeter, there's coax coming in. Once you find where that's terminated, you have a home for the PoE filter.

I seriously doubt that the man-cave cable is just dangling inside the wall. Did you take the wall plate off and verify that the cable is securely connected to the back side of the connector?

gfunkdave's suggestion re: the tone generator is a good one, but if you have an acquaintance that owns one, you'd have already asked him all of these questions

That would work, assuming a signal too weak to work reliably for your computer is still strong enough to be picked up by a wifi router acting as a bridge

If you're having cable issues (video pixelation/artifacts, poor bandwidth, service interruptions, hallucinations) they may send someone out for free.

I'd been experiencing some bandwidth/connectivity issues a few months ago and something anomalous turned up in my ISP's tech support person's automated analysis. They rolled a truck. The service tech spent an hour at the house re-terminating all of the cable connections, then told me just before he left that there had been a major fiber cut in the Portland ME area that was causing problems for most Maine Comcast customers.

cblaisd

Will respond in more detail, but just want to say that my first attempt to re-configure the second router as a media bridge somehow hosed the main router's ability to do its thing (despite multiple resets/reboots) to the extent that I eventually had to do a factory reset and recreate the SSID, etc.

This is fun!

ETA: Apparently I'm not the only one having troubles getting the Media Bridge mode to work:
https://www.google.com/search?q=prob...hrome&ie=UTF-8