Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 13 years and 8 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.Since I was facing a re-org of my media cabinet to set up my new TiVo Premiere, I took the opportunity to make some network changes as well. I’m not quite ready to upgrade my wireless network to the N standard that was finally ratified last year but still wanted good throughput so I could stream and download HD video to the new Tivo box. After doing some research and reading good reviews, I decided to try out MoCA, or ethernet-over-coax.
I picked up a pair of Netgear’s MCA1001 MoCA adapters (they come in a set) from Amazon. The setup is supposed to be relatively straight forward: connect one of the adapters to your cable connection (before your cable modem: the cable from the wall goes into the adapter, and then out to your modem) and your router. Then connect the other adapter to the cable line elsewhere in the house and plug the network cable from the MoCA adapter into the device you want to add to the network (in my case the TiVo, but it could be an XBox, PS3, HTPC, etc.). Your network traffic now goes from the router, out over the coax wires already in your walls to the other adapter, then over the CAT5 cable to the target device at speeds up to 270Mpbs.
My setup, unfortunately, was not that straightforward. I wired up both adapters but could not get them to “see” each other (the coax LED wasn’t lighting up). After doing a little more reading, I discovered that the MoCA adapters use the spectrum on the coax lines above the 1GHz range. Most basic cable splitters only pass the 5Mhz – 900MHz range, effectively filtering out the MoCA signal. I picked up some new satellite splitters at Lowe’s, which pass the 5MHz – 2.4GHz range and work just fine for cable TV. After some quick (but hot!) re-wiring work in the attic, I had the old splitters swapped out for the new and eureka! the adapters were working! My TiVo Premiere now had a nice, fast, wired network connection in the media cabinet instead of wireless.
One nice touch is another button that turns off all the bright blue LEDs … every piece of equipment with bright LEDs should have this option!! I left the LEDs enabled on the adapter in the network closet, but there’s no need for them on the one connected to the TiVo so I simply pushed the button to turn them off. This will be handy if I end up adding an addition adapter in say, a bedroom (as it is I have to put small pieces of black electrical tape over all the various electronic LEDs that just tell me a device is “off”).
The MCA1001 does have a configuration interface, but you can’t access it remotely over the network which is a bit annoying. You have to disconnect the adapter, wire it directly to your PC with a hard-wired IP address in the 192.168.0.x range, press a button to put the device into setup mode, and then use Netgear’s setup utility to access it. The configuration options are slim. Basically you can change the password for the configuration interface (which I did), set an encryption key for the MoCA traffic (which I also did since apparently it’s possible for some of the traffic to “bleed” out of your house over the coax), and see some basic statistics (which aren’t “live” since you’ve had to disconnect the adapter from your multimedia device). If you’re seeing interference on your television there are some options for changing the frequency band which luckily I did not have to mess with. You can also update the firmware, if necessary, from this interface. Don’t forget to turn off the setup mode button before reconnecting it to your network (there’s another handy blue LED showing if the unit is in setup mode).
It would also be nice if you could purchase these adapters singly, instead of just in pairs. Obviously your initial setup requires two, but after that I guess you’ll have a spare if you don’t need more than two at a time.
Since I don’t have another MCA1001 on another TiVo, I haven’t been able to test the MRV transfer speeds, but streaming video via streambaby or transferring shows via pyTivo over the new coax network seems fast. My wireless router also only has a 10/100 switch in it (no gigabit) so that’s a bottleneck to the theoretical 270Mbps maximum these MoCA adapters can pump out. At any rate, I’m pretty satisfied with them so far! Now that I have wired ethernet available in the media cabinet, it should be easy to add a Blu-ray DVD player or other network-enabled media device like a Slingbox in the future without having to worry about wireless range or speeds.
I ended up buying another pair of the MoCA adapters on eBay, so now all three of my HD TiVos are on the MoCA network. I also put into service an old Buffalo WHR-G300N wireless router (that I wasn’t using) as a basic switch in my office so even my PC is now hard-wired to the network through the coax. In my basic MRV tests with the TiVo, transfer speeds are a lot faster than over wireless G (as I expected). I’m pretty happy with these adapters! Here are the rates as reported by my TiVo Premiere:
We had some serious storms here in the Tampa area yesterday so the electricity was going on and off during the day. This isn’t normally an issue since all of my equipment is on UPSes. In the late afternoon, I started getting warnings from my Nagios network monitor that the TiVos were down. I knew the power couldn’t be out in the house since my cameras, server, and NAS were still running (and not on battery power) so I figured something must have gone wrong with a MoCA adapter.
After doing a bunch of troubleshooting when I got home I narrowed it down to the MoCA adapter at the router/cable modem. Basically just the coax link went out, which effectively knocked all of my TiVos (and my home office PC) off of the internet. All of the other MoCA adapters were working, so the TiVos could see each other, they just couldn’t get out to the internet. I swapped the unit with all of the other MoCA adapters to make sure it wasn’t a line or splitter issue and it didn’t work no matter where I put it. I finally ended up swapping a functional MoCA adapter from one of the TiVos to connect to the router to get the MoCA network connected to the internet again for now. I’ve got an open support ticket with Netgear and am hoping to get a warranty replacement. It’s seems coincidental that it stopped working the same day as the bad storms, especially since it was plugged into a UPS, but maybe it was a surge over the coax line or something …
After jumping through the standard tech support hoops with Netgear, I managed to get them to issue me an RMA for the defective adapter. A few days later I had the new unit, wired it up and plugged it in and it worked perfectly. So the old one was definitely defective and my MoCA network is back at full strength.
Just over a month later and the RMA replacement died! This time the unit was completely dead, no lights and wouldn’t power on at all. I had to jump through the tech support hoops again but got them to send me another replacement.
Hi all,
Two days ago I bought a pair of Netgear MoCA adapter kits (MCAB1001). Everything hooked up great – I had my two Tivos (1 Premiere, 1 HD) seeing each other, and able to connect to the Internet.
Then I moved the router, which meant disconnecting and reconnecting everything.
After that, my Tivos could still “see” and transfer to each other, but they no longer can connect to the Internet. All attempts to reset the Tivo’s network settings result in a “Gateway router could not be located” message.
In my Netgear router admin view, the Tivos do not show up as connected.
One clue, maybe, is that my MoCA’s panel lights show a “coax” connection icon lit (a little gear) on the front panels of the two remote (Tivo-connected) adapters, but not on the base adapter. I’m not sure if this is expected, but I think it would be.
I have been on the phone with Netgear support, but so far they are stumped. This is a new device for them, and it is also supposed to be pretty much plug and play, and they have not had many calls.
Has anyone experienced this?
Any help appreciated…
Rob from AZ
You definitely need the coax LED lit on all of your MoCA adapters. If the one at the router isn’t lit, then yeah, you’ll see exactly what I experienced in that any MoCA devices on your network won’t be able to connect to the internet. I would double-check your connections, since you moved the router. Your cable connection should come from the wall, to the MoCA adapter, to the cable modem. Also make sure you didn’t bump the Setup switch and have the adapter in setup mode (in other words, the wrench LED should not be lit).
If that doesn’t work, I would say try what I did: move the “faulty” adapter to one of your TiVos and see if the coax LED lights up. If that works, it’s not the adapter. Maybe the coax connection at your router’s new location has a splitter behind it that’s filtering out the MoCA signal?
Also, I wouldn’t consider this a “new” device for Netgear. I’ve had my units since last August and if you check the reviews on Amazon they go back to 2009! So don’t give tech support a pass because they’re telling you it’s new and they don’t get a lot of calls.
At any rate, post back here with your results and I’ll try and help you through …
It’s been a year since I switched to MoCA networking and I still love it. I feel obligated to report, however, that I’ve now had four of these Netgear units die on me (at different times, not all at once) and it’s always been after a power outage. All of my equipment is hooked up to UPSes, so I can’t explain it, unless the surge is coming through the coax. At any rate, the coax LED fails to light up and there’s no connection. I’ve been able to return all four through Netgear’s RMA process and they’ve sent me replacements, so I’m happy with that. Except now, my warranties are up so the next time it happens I’ll be giving the Actiontec model a try: I’ve already purchased two on eBay.
You can read about my experience with the ActionTec adapters here.
Unbelievable (although it shouldn’t be by now): after another brief power outage this evening, I’ve lost another Netgear adapter. It had the same failure symptoms as the other: no coax LED and no MoCA connection. This is really ridiculous. The adapter was connected to a UPS, so it has to do with a surge or something over the coax line? So that makes five (5) failed Netgear adapters in just over a year. Not a great track record. So now my “spare” ActionTec is live and we’ll see how that fares.
Hi Windracer,
I had the same issue with two Netgear MOCA1001 adapters. Both times, no storm in the area. I have surge protection on the incoming cable line and all are plugged into a UPS.
I have decided to give up on Netgear and MOCA. I will run Cat5 throughout the house where needed. Plus, I now stream more 1080p content and the MOCA does stutter at times ( fast action scenes ).
Netgear will never get another penny from me. I wouldn’t count on Netgear MOCA as a long term solution.
Glad to hear I’m not alone in that regard. I haven’t give up on MoCA though … it still works great (when my adapters are working) and is a lot more convenient (for me anyway) than running Cat5/6 to every room.
Dear friends
I have been using netgear MOCA 1001 adapters for 6 months now.It works as advertized ,set up was a breeze,until one fine day we had a power outage.When power was back an hour later i realized my internet was down at one side of the house where the Moca 1001 was acting as a bridge to relay internet to the new wing.Symptoms are link light wont come on.I have been using a coxial cable which was doing nothing else but for the 2 MOCAS to comunicate (Dedicated).After studying the problem i came to the conclusion that these malfunctions are because of the delicate MOCA power adapters that cannot take power surges.To find out the problem conect your moca to the pc directly via lan ,leave pc at dhcp automatic on status and open the MOCA configuration utility while the moca is in set up possition.If this is succesfull go to the next moca and repeat the process ,if the power adapter has lost its amps you will notice that the link with the computer fails and the internet light on your moca will not come on and your pc will say lan cable unplugged althoug it is plugged.
In short i bought myself a new ac to dc adapter with the same +5 volt dc rating and got 2 amps instead of the original 1 amp and now i can enjoy internet again
So for you guys out there dont chuck your moca away but replace the adapter and get it running again.
note Bring your moca along and try the new adapter before you buy it as i have once experienced trying a dlink modem adapter with same specs but seem to give out more volts than its rating as a result the set up light on the moca lights up even without depressing it.Do not settle for this
Good luck and give it a try
You are a genius Deepz V! After much searching on forums, you are the only one I could find that correctly identified the problem with my Netgear MCA1001 adapters. I couldn’t understand why both would work at one end of the network and neither would work at the other end. I swapped the cables,checked the connections, and tried (and failed) to get into the configuration utility. Finally, swapping the power adapters confirmed that one of the power adapters was bad.
Hey Windracer,
I see some have replied within the last month so even though this blog is 2 years old, MoCA is coming into its own and more people are searching for info and finding YOU. Just wanted to add my two cents….switching my Premier 4 and my new Mini to MoCA (service thru Brighthouse Tampa)….ordered a brand new Netgear mca1001 V2 from Amazon…DEAD OUT OF THE BOX.
Internet pass thru for the desktop works so the “CLink” flashing light telling me I had no coax connected was suspicious, leading me to believe there was a problem. Switched out to new 2.4 Ghz splitters, still nothing. Netgear support was less then clueless…they even had me connect the Ethernet cable from the MoCA adapter back to my router where the other end was. You read that right, they insisted I loop the Ethernet cable back into itself on the router – don’t know what good that did but I explained that was nonsense. They said they have never received problem calls on this adapter and a faulty coax-in has never been reported – yet just before I linked to your blog three people reported the same, and have talked with Netgear. That’s horrible business and shows they are so far from being in touch with their customers they have lost me for LIFE.
Actiontec adapter on its way – about to read your blog on those….hopefully I fare better.
I’ve had six separate Netgear MoCA adapters die on me since originally writing this post, so I totally agree with you that Netgear’s quality is way down. I have not had any problems to-date with the Actiontec models. Good luck!
Thanks for documenting this. I bought 4 of these in April 2010 and I had better luck than you in that they’ve worked fine for 4 years, but tonight I just had my second one die in the past few months. I don’t believe I had any power outages (certainly not today!) but otherwise the symptoms sound similar . No connection; the power LED lights up but not the coax or ethernet. The “wrench” LED behaves strangely, it is lit dimly – if I toggle the switch it lights up at full brightness but I cannot manage it.
Luckily in both cases I could just use MoCA on the TiVo (which wasn’t an option when I bought them) but it sounds like I might want to replace the other two with Actiontecs.