How to wire ethernet in room with only coax cable jack

[brian23457]

Hello,

I am looking to wire a desktop computer in my home office to my home network. My home office only has a coax cable jack for TV and it is an old home so snaking an ethernet wire into my office is challenging to say the least. My modem/router is located in my living room on the other side of the house. What would be the best way to acquire ethernet access (wireless won't work in this case) in my home office? Is there some sort of adapter/splitter that could split the coax connection into both a coax connection for TV and an ethernet connection while still allowing my computer to be on my home network?

Thank you very much for your help.

 

[Snipergod87]

You can run ethernet over coax, will only be 100Mbit, but you wont be able to run TV over it as well.

 

[USAFRet]

Assuming there is a coax line next to your router, that also connects to the coax line in the office, a MOCA device.
Like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Ethernet-Adapter-without-Routers/dp/B008EQ4BQG
https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Bonded-Ethernet-Adapter-ECB6200K02/dp/B013J7O3X0

I have the one in the first link, and it does carry TV and ethernet signal through the same coax line.

In the office, it accepts the coax, and outputs both Cat5e compatible signal and coax to the TV or STB.

 

[bjornl]

Have you thought about going outside? Because your options are:

Go outside and penetrate the building at every entry point for the cat 6. This would allow for "in the wall" junction box and a professional looking wall plate.

Go up Penetrate the ceiling and put raceways to hide the cabling as it comes down and then have surface mount keystone/jack
https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Concealer-Wall-Cover-Raceway/dp/B01JKO8724/
https://www.amazon.com/Listed-Cable-Matters-Keystone-Surface/dp/B01J6JP6HC/
or
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9EQGNR/

Go around... have the cabling follow the molding on the floors and wrap around the house, use u-nails or similar for cable management.

Go under... lift the carpet and do a more stealthy version of the "go-around" method.

Go BIG. Open the walls.

Or hire a professional. They can often snake cat 6 in along the same paths used by coax, won't be cheap though. There is some skill to this, so while you could try it yourself, odds are you'd struggle.

I've had mix results with the Ethernet over coax. 1 speeds are inconsistent (and low). Latency is generally higher. And TV won't run over the same link.

 

[brian23457]

Assuming there is a coax line next to your router, that also connects to the coax line in the office, a MOCA device.
Like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Ethernet-Adapter-without-Routers/dp/B008EQ4BQG
https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Bonded-Ethernet-Adapter-ECB6200K02/dp/B013J7O3X0

I have the one in the first link, and it does carry TV and ethernet signal through the same coax line.

In the office, it accepts the coax, and outputs both Cat5e compatible signal and coax to the TV or STB.

I assume the connection between the router and the office coax jack does not need to be direct? For example the coax coming into the house is split and one connection goes to the router while the other goes to the office. I am just now starting to read about the MoCA adapters and admit they are still a little foreign to me so bare with me... Would I have to buy the twin set in the link you provided or can I get by with just one? Some articles I have read have made it seem that I need a MoCA adapter at the source (where the service enters the house) and in the office as well. Would this slow the connection at all?

 

[ko888]

Powerline networking:

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-PowerLINE-Gigabit-Pass-Through-PLP1200-100PAS/dp/B00S6DBGIS

 

[USAFRet]

Assuming there is a coax line next to your router, that also connects to the coax line in the office, a MOCA device.
Like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Ethernet-Adapter-without-Routers/dp/B008EQ4BQG
https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Bonded-Ethernet-Adapter-ECB6200K02/dp/B013J7O3X0

I have the one in the first link, and it does carry TV and ethernet signal through the same coax line.

In the office, it accepts the coax, and outputs both Cat5e compatible signal and coax to the TV or STB.

I assume the connection between the router and the office coax jack does not need to be direct? For example the coax coming into the house is split and one connection goes to the router while the other goes to the office. I am just now starting to read about the MoCA adapters and admit they are still a little foreign to me so bare with me... Would I have to buy the twin set in the link you provided or can I get by with just one? Some articles I have read have made it seem that I need a MoCA adapter at the source (where the service enters the house) and in the office as well. Would this slow the connection at all?

You'll probably need the pair.
1 next to the router, 1 in the office.

From the router:
Cat5e into the MOCA
Coax out of the MOCA, through the house wiring
Coax in to the other MOCA
Cat5e out to your PC, and coax out to the TV in the same room.

In my particular setup, Verizon FiOS, the TV and ethernet signal is already in the coax from the connection box in the garage. So all I needed is a single one, to extract the ethernet signal upstairs.
And by sweet talking the installer guy, he gave it to me for free.

It works acceptably well. I've not measured any speed between internal devices on the house LAN, but talking to the outside world, a 75/75 connection from FiOS is the same speed as regular Cat5e wired devices.

 

[brian23457]

Assuming there is a coax line next to your router, that also connects to the coax line in the office, a MOCA device.
Like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Ethernet-Adapter-without-Routers/dp/B008EQ4BQG
https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Bonded-Ethernet-Adapter-ECB6200K02/dp/B013J7O3X0

I have the one in the first link, and it does carry TV and ethernet signal through the same coax line.

In the office, it accepts the coax, and outputs both Cat5e compatible signal and coax to the TV or STB.

I assume the connection between the router and the office coax jack does not need to be direct? For example the coax coming into the house is split and one connection goes to the router while the other goes to the office. I am just now starting to read about the MoCA adapters and admit they are still a little foreign to me so bare with me... Would I have to buy the twin set in the link you provided or can I get by with just one? Some articles I have read have made it seem that I need a MoCA adapter at the source (where the service enters the house) and in the office as well. Would this slow the connection at all?

You'll probably need the pair.
1 next to the router, 1 in the office.

From the router:
Cat5e into the MOCA
Coax out of the MOCA, through the house wiring
Coax in to the other MOCA
Cat5e out to your PC, and coax out to the TV in the same room.

In my particular setup, Verizon FiOS, the TV and ethernet signal is already in the coax from the connection box in the garage. So all I needed is a single one, to extract the ethernet signal upstairs.
And by sweet talking the installer guy, he gave it to me for free.

It works acceptably well. I've not measured any speed between internal devices on the house LAN, but talking to the outside world, a 75/75 connection from FiOS is the same speed as regular Cat5e wired devices.

So do the two MoCA adapters need to be connected directly via a coax cable? The challenge for me is it is very difficult to wire directly between my router/modem (it is the same unit) and my home office, otherwise I would connect the computer directly to the router.

 

[USAFRet]

So do the two MoCA adapters need to be connected directly via a coax cable? The challenge for me is it is very difficult to wire directly between my router/modem (it is the same unit) and my home office, otherwise I would connect the computer directly to the router.

There must be a direct coax between the two.
Just like an ethernet cable.

MOCA 1 can be in one room (next to the router), and MOCA 2 can be at the other end of the house (office). Assuming there is reasonable quality coax connecting them.


Router->Cat5e->MOCA->house coax->MOCA->Cat5e->devices

 

[brian23457]

So do the two MoCA adapters need to be connected directly via a coax cable? The challenge for me is it is very difficult to wire directly between my router/modem (it is the same unit) and my home office, otherwise I would connect the computer directly to the router.

There must be a direct coax between the two.
Just like an ethernet cable.

MOCA 1 can be in one room (next to the router), and MOCA 2 can be at the other end of the house (office). Assuming there is reasonable quality coax connecting them.


Router->Cat5e->MOCA->house coax->MOCA->Cat5e->devices

Ok not sure that will work for me then, thank you though. Turns out comcast will snake a wire for only $40 so I think I'll take advantage of that and let them deal with it. Thank you all I appreciate it!

 

[USAFRet]

Ok not sure that will work for me then, thank you though. Turns out comcast will snake a wire for only $40 so I think I'll take advantage of that and let them deal with it. Thank you all I appreciate it!

$40 for Comcast to snake a new Cat5e to where you need it?
Yes, do that!!!

 

[vmfantom]

To correct a few outdated answers:
Bonded MoCA 2.0 now supports a MAC rate (the core Ethernet signaling rate) of 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps). It was the original MoCA 1.0 (released in 2006) that did only 100 Mbps. MoCA 1.1 in 2007 hit 175 Mbps, MoCA 2.0 in 2010 hit 500 Mbps although some vendors reached only 400 Mbps. A lot of people that used MoCA in the past haven't learned about the latest products because they came out only recently, but you should look for "bonded MoCA 2.0" if you want 1 Gbps. So that would be equivalent to Cat-6 cabling in 'speed' wherever your devices have Gig-E interfaces.

And MoCA adapters actually do have pass-through for TV (not satellite TV but any other kind below 1002 MHz, I had to remove some of these when I installed DirecTV) along with cable modems. That's why there are two coax ports on the back. You could use one port for TV and the other port for data. This should work out of the box and be transparent to your network (no new subnets, etc.) unless you try mixing and matching between brands. Yitong has encryption but Actiontec doesn't, etc.

One other thing, you can put up to 16 MoCA adapters on the same collision domain. There are "MoCA splitters" that are usually just satellite TV splitters, anything covering 5-1675 MHz or higher would work fine. So you don't necessarily need a point to point circuit in each case, you can just find the right runs and put a splitter on them as you might use an Ethernet switch.

Below are some of the in-stock options that a Google search turned up for gigabit bonded MoCA 2.0:
Actiontec Bonded MoCA 2.0 Ethernet to Coax Adapter (ECB6200S02), $99.95 for 1, https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Bonded-Ethernet-Adapter-ECB6200K02/dp/B013J7OBUU?th=1
Yitong Bonded MoCA 2.0 Gigabit Ethernet over Coax Adapter (YTMC-51N1-M2B), $59.99 for 1, https://www.ebay.com/itm/Yitong-1-Gbps-Bonded-MoCA-2-0-Adapter-Better-than-Actiontec-/182819726458

Actiontec and Yitong are probably the largest manufacturers for gigabit-capable bonded MoCA 2.0. Actiontec white-labels a few models of non-bonded MoCA 2.0 for TiVo according to the TiVo Community guys.

 

[rockmanwalker]

Assuming there is a coax line next to your router, that also connects to the coax line in the office, a MOCA device.
Like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Ethernet-Adapter-without-Routers/dp/B008EQ4BQG
https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Bonded-Ethernet-Adapter-ECB6200K02/dp/B013J7O3X0

I have the one in the first link, and it does carry TV and ethernet signal through the same coax line.

In the office, it accepts the coax, and outputs both Cat5e compatible signal and coax to the TV or STB.