[SOLVED] Will this product allow me to convert coax data to an ethernet signal?

[omninano]

Hey everyone! I'm a networking noob, so I'm just running this by some people who have more experience before I take the dive and spend some money.

The scenario
In my room, I have some coax outlets in the wall, but no ethernet outlets. Currently I'm running a huge ethernet cord through multiple rooms (including my bathroom) to get signal from our router/modem-box to the PC in my room. This is a stopgap situation until I buy the product that I am asking about.

What I've seen
I watched this video and the host used some Actiontec MoCA Adapters to convert a coax connection in his wall to and an ethernet connection. Because I am a poor college student, I can't afford the expensive MoCA adapters from Actiontec, but I found a similar-looking product for much cheaper on AliExpress listed as an "IP HD Network Coaxial Transmission Extender." (full title: "Transmission Cables 1Pair Ethernet IP Extender Over Coax Kit EoC Coaxial Cable for Security CCTV Cameras poe splitter Cam")

What my question is
This "Ethernet IP Extender Over Coax Kit" that I linked seems to do the same thing as the MoCA adapters, in my unprofessional opinion. But is that true? If I buy this pair of devices will they work identical to the ones shown in the video (where all I have to do is plug one side of the coax into the wall, the other into the first adapter, and then an ethernet cord from the adapter to my PC, followed by plugging the second adapter into the wall/my router)? Are the female plugs on these devices the same as the standard coax cable plugs found in American households, and the same standard CAT-5 ethernet cable plugs?

Thank you all so much for the help! I just don't want to mistakenly buy the incorrect product and I'm not sure what to look for.

Notes
Hyper-fast speeds are not super important to me. I'll only be getting 50 - 100 Mbps max at one time, anyway. So don't worry about comparing speeds between the two products I linked.

 

[R_1]

different coax cables and ends on both of those devices.
one uses standard TV COAX and type F connections, the other uses a networking coax and a BNC connection.
Coax and BNC connections were standard way back in the 10base5 networking says with a top speed of 10Mbps - usually lower, which by todays standards is really slow.
the coax transmission extender is meant for network cameras, not fast ethernet

 

[bill001g]

I actually expected this to be a link to the coax to rj45 connectors you can get for $5 since many people asked that before.

This device I have no clue. It is kinda strange. It says it runs ieee p1901. I have always seen this associated with ethernet over powerline units.

As mentioned the coax connections are not your standard F connection. You can get cables that convert the ends but you will need be somewhat careful. Tv coax is 75 ohm and most coax that uses bnc connections is 50 ohm. It all depends on the device and which it works best on.

You might be better off with powerline units

 

[omninano]

Ohh, gotcha. So I need something that has a Type F Coax connection. Well I'm glad I created this post here before buying!

You might be better off with powerline units

The only problem with buying the Powerline units is that I'm pretty sure the rooms with my computer and the router are on different circuits, and based on the test run in that initial video I linked, the Powerline devices seem to struggle when they are not placed on the same circuit.

Does anyone know some cheap(er) alternatives to the MoCA adapters that Actiontec makes? Something that has the same functionality of going from Coax F to Ethernet CAT?

 

[bill001g]

Only the very old power line adapters had to be on the same circuit. the av500 ones work for most people in any part of the house. The newest AV2 version use the ground wire which is common to all rooms to run communications as well as the hots. These new ones work better and faster.....and of course likely cost as much if not more than the units you have linked.

I have never seen those units they say they are for use with a IP camera but a IP camera is still standard ethernet device.

It is too bad they are so uncommon that you don't see any comment or reviews. They are sold on a couple of sites but nobody has said anything about them.

 

[SamirD]

I second what bill001g mentions about the newest powerlines--those would be your best bet if you want 'wired' cheap. Even the gocoax moca 2.5 units which are cheaper than the actiontec are still more than a set of powerlines.

 

[omninano]

I found an old MoCA 1.0 adapter that seems to be pretty cheap. MoCA 1.0 is supposed to get up to 100Mbps, right? I only get ~30Mpbs right now with wired Ethernet, so this should be able to handle my max throughput.

Would this product work for my situation? Connecting Internet from my Coax F plug in my wall to the Ethernet port in my computer? Is there anything else I should be considering or be aware of?

(P.S. would I need to mess with any of my settings from my ISP to make this MoCA product work? I noticed in my router's configuration menu it shows a small red 'x' next to MoCA, but I've never done this before so I don't know if that's anything to worry about)

 

[SamirD]

So there are a couple of details you will need to confirm before you go the route of moca. You will need to enable the moca on your comcast/xfinity gateway. Next, you will need to confirm that there are no splitters blocking the moca signal to your room. This part may be tough as you'll need to find out where all the cable runs go and look at that splitter. If that splitter blocks moca, you will need to replace it before you will get moca at your room coax.

Once you have all this prep work done, yes the adapter you've linked to should work or if you just want a single port adapter, those are even cheaper:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ARRIS-MEB1...869851?hash=item3da2b66e5b:g:1BUAAOSwjiNbbLmP

 

[omninano]

So there are a couple of details you will need to confirm before you go the route of moca. You will need to enable the moca on your comcast/xfinity gateway. Next, you will need to confirm that there are no splitters blocking the moca signal to your room. This part may be tough as you'll need to find out where all the cable runs go and look at that splitter. If that splitter blocks moca, you will need to replace it before you will get moca at your room coax.

Once you have all this prep work done, yes the adapter you've linked to should work or if you just want a single port adapter, those are even cheaper:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ARRIS-MEB1...869851?hash=item3da2b66e5b:g:1BUAAOSwjiNbbLmP

Hi there! I'm sorry, I had to leave my house for a while because of a personal situation, but now I am moved back in and ready to solve this problem.

Thank you @SamirD for the helpful information to check before I buy the MoCA adapters! I successfully enabled MoCA on my Xfinity gateway, and now I am trying to determine if there there are splitters that would block MoCA signal to my room.

My only problem is that all of the coaxial cables are behind walls, so I can't see where they go or if they have splitters attached. As this is a rental house, I don't want to tear up the walls. Since this is my first time doing this, I watched and read some tutorials online for how to trace electrical wires using a stud finder and how to trace coax cables from both ends using a multimeter or a "coaxial explorer" (toner). All of these methods help me identify where a coax cable goes to/comes from, but I am unsure if any of them will help me identify if there are any splitters involved. I suppose maybe I could see if multiple coax outlets get a signal from one master cord? Does anyone have any suggestions for how to identify if there are splitters in cabling behind walls? I'm unsure with how to proceed and I haven't found any methods by searching online.

 

[bill001g]

Splitters are generally not placed behind the wall. You might find them behind a wall outlet in the box.

What modern houses do is all the coax and other type of cables run back to some central closet. There will be some kind of device they use to connect the cables to or they may be connected to nothing.

If there are splitters they are normally in a attic or basement.

Generally if the cable works on a cable modem then the splitters are good enough for moca.

 

[omninano]

Splitters are generally not placed behind the wall. You might find them behind a wall outlet in the box.

What modern houses do is all the coax and other type of cables run back to some central closet. There will be some kind of device they use to connect the cables to or they may be connected to nothing.

If there are splitters they are normally in a attic or basement.

Generally if the cable works on a cable modem then the splitters are good enough for moca.

Okay great! I've seen the box that all of the coax cables run back to (it's on the outside of the house). I'll investigate it more carefully in the morning and report back here. Great to know that there probably aren't any splitters inside the wall!

 

[omninano]

So it looks like all of my cables run to the outside of the house and connect to a Commscope CSAPDU9VP Homeconnect Subscriber Amplifier.

I'm not finding any other splitters in between the path from the house walls to the amp. I suppose the only thing I am unsure about is that I know Commscope makes some MoCA-specific amplifiers, but the one on my house doesn't show the symbol for it. Is this something that could interfere with my ability to use MoCA in my room? Or is the wiring setup I have probably fine?

The MoCA Enchanced model I've seen

The unit attached to my house

Generally if the cable works on a cable modem then the splitters are good enough for moca.

I'm also not quite sure what this sentence means.

Thanks for the help!!

 

[bill001g]

I can't tell you anything about that device. You best first option is to make sure all the wires you need are connected to that box. There are a couple that are not connected.

It is splitter and amplifier. Unless the device is designed to filter moca frequencies it should work. You have nothing to lose by trying it.

If it does not work then you consider replacing it with a difference amplifier or you might be able to just use simple splitters. All depends why they have a amplifier in there in the first place,. Many times it is being used to increase the signal strength of over the air tv antenna.

 

[omninano]

Alright thanks! In that case, I went ahead and ordered an old ActionTec MoCA device (this one) so I will report back here when the product arrives next week. Thanks so much for helping me learn and understand this!

 

[SamirD]

So it looks like all of my cables run to the outside of the house and connect to a Commscope CSAPDU9VP Homeconnect Subscriber Amplifier.

I'm not finding any other splitters in between the path from the house walls to the amp. I suppose the only thing I am unsure about is that I know Commscope makes some MoCA-specific amplifiers, but the one on my house doesn't show the symbol for it. Is this something that could interfere with my ability to use MoCA in my room? Or is the wiring setup I have probably fine?

The MoCA Enchanced model I've seen

The unit attached to my house

I'm also not quite sure what this sentence means.

Thanks for the help!!

Excellent work finding this!

Okay, this sheds a lot of light on what your cabling might be like. You might still have some splitters elsewhere that aren't moca compliant, but I doubt it at this point.

So one of those goes to your cable modem and one of those goes to your room. And to be honest, if that's the only place we want moca, we don't need to worry about the rest.

I would try your adapter without changing any wiring and see if it works. If it does, great! But I would be shocked if it did because the commscope product you have will block moca according to the discussion in this thread:
https://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Your-...PDU9VP-that-does-not-filter-MoCA/td-p/3284652

However, there is actually a very simple solution--connect your modem and jack outside of the commscope.

And this is pretty easy too--just find out which one of the lines is the modem and which is your port. Take both of them and connect them into a splitter which connects to the commscope. This way, the moca units are connected to each other and the modem will still get a signal from the commscope.

And be sure to get a quality splitter and not some fake from amazon:
https://multicomstore.com/products/...urst-sb-2wmsv-2-0-moca-2-0-drop-splitter.html

https://extreme-broadband.com/shop.html

 

[omninano]

Well there has definitely been some new information uncovered in this process.

I received the ActionTec device, and as predicted by @SamirD it did not work when first plugged into the coax port in my room. Every light on the device lit up except for the "coax" light.

I went outside to try and find which coax cables were the cables running to my room and to the modem so that I could connect them with a splitter as SamirD suggested. However, this is where I learned some surprising information. I tried unscrewing each of the coax cables, one by one, from the Commscope device that I posted pictures of earlier. To my surprise, unscrewing all of them didn't affect my modem's Internet connection! Even with all of them unconnected to the Commscope splitter/amplifier, there was still Internet running into my house and to the modem!

(note that the only cable plugged into the Commscope in this picture is the same one I am holding against it in the middle)

(here are two pictures of the cable box without the Commscope device)
This finding gave me the hunch that perhaps only one coax port in the house had Internet, and all of the others didn't. To test this, I disconnected the modem and re-connected it to different coax ports in different rooms around the house. (There are ports in almost every single room: bedrooms, the living room, the dining room, the garage, etc.) Sure enough, after booting up each time, the modem would not receive any Internet signal from the different coax ports except the first one it was initially plugged into.

What I find most amazing is that, when we first began renting this house, we chose to install our modem/router in the coax port that we did completely based on where we thought the WiFi signal would distribute best, and that just happened to be the one coax port in the house that has Internet! What are the odds of that?

Anyway, knowing that only one coax port in the house has Internet, there is a certain cable coming out of the house that I suspect is probably the one carrying the Internet signal (because it is directly on the opposite side of the wall to where the Internet-enabled coax port is).

If I trace that cable back to the grey-cable-box-thing that I showed earlier, I find that it is not plugged into the Commscope device at all, but instead is connected to this small shiny cylinder with a second cable on other end of the cylinder running underground.

The cylinder has a sticker on it that reads "DO NOT REMOVE. REQUIRED FOR ANY ROOM DVR OPERATION. PCT-LPF-1002. 1 GHZ Low Pass Filter."
I'm not actually sure what this cylindrical device does, but I am hesitant to remove it considering the all-caps "DO NOT REMOVE" warning on it. If I were to mess with it, though, my guess is that I should stick a splitter before or after it to give Internet to whichever coax cable goes to the port in my room as well? I'm not confident though.

How should I proceed? Can anyone give some advice on what my next steps should be to get Internet access to the coax port in my room so that I can use this ActionTec device I brought? Thanks!

 

[bill001g]

You want to put the splitter after it if I understand correctly. That is a filter to prevent signals from your house going back to the cable company so you need it between you and the ISP. It also appears to have the a ground wire on it to prevent stuff like lighting from entering the house if it were to hit the ISP cables in the street.

So what you want is likely ISP COAX---filter----your new box with all the coax cable connected to it. This lets moca work in your house and the filter prevents the moca signal from going back to the ISP.

looks like a bunch of cut cables that you will likely have to terminate some of them.

 

[SamirD]

Again, great detective work!

bill001g nailed it here.

You want to put the splitter after it if I understand correctly. That is a filter to prevent signals from your house going back to the cable company so you need it between you and the ISP. It also appears to have the a ground wire on it to prevent stuff like lighting from entering the house if it were to hit the ISP cables in the street.

What this also means is that you can replace the commscope with a moca compliant box and have moca all over your house if you want.

 

[omninano]

I am happy to announce that I now have Internet in my room through the coax port!

I inserted the splitter after the PCT filter and traced the cable that runs from my room to the box outside. I connected that cable to the splitter and after some jury-rigging finally got the hardware all set up and the Internet sent to all of the rooms that need it. The only thing that we had to add this morning was a male-to-male coax cable that we could attach the ground wire piece back onto (since it does not fit on the splitter which is where the ground was before).
The ActionTec box in my room gets a coax signal now and successfully turns it into an ethernet signal that I can plug into my desktop computer!

🎉🎉🎉Thank you so much to @SamirD and @bill001g for all the help figuring this process out from start to finish! I feel like I learned a lot through doing this (turning a lot of theoretical knowledge I had into practical experience). I think I've moved up from extreme novice to minor novice! Really, really, grateful to you guys for being so patient and kind and explaining all of these steps to a networking noob like me. Thank you!

 

[omninano]

Summing up everything from this thread into one post to mark as "best answer":

The "IP HD Network Coaxial Transmission Extender" device did not work for converting a coax signal to ethernet because it did not have a Type F Coax connector, which is what the port in my wall uses. I instead bought a MoCA 1.0 ActionTec adapter (aka an older model) that was around the same price as the original device I linked.

When trying to install the ActionTec adapter, I found that the coax port in my wall did not have Internet connectivity, so I had to install a splitter to my house's coaxial hardware that gave Internet access to the port in my room. After that, the ActionTec box began working and I was able to convert the Internet signal from coax to ethernet.

 

[SamirD]

I am happy to announce that I now have Internet in my room through the coax port!

I inserted the splitter after the PCT filter and traced the cable that runs from my room to the box outside. I connected that cable to the splitter and after some jury-rigging finally got the hardware all set up and the Internet sent to all of the rooms that need it. The only thing that we had to add this morning was a male-to-male coax cable that we could attach the ground wire piece back onto (since it does not fit on the splitter which is where the ground was before).
The ActionTec box in my room gets a coax signal now and successfully turns it into an ethernet signal that I can plug into my desktop computer!

🎉🎉🎉Thank you so much to @SamirD and @bill001g for all the help figuring this process out from start to finish! I feel like I learned a lot through doing this (turning a lot of theoretical knowledge I had into practical experience). I think I've moved up from extreme novice to minor novice! Really, really, grateful to you guys for being so patient and kind and explaining all of these steps to a networking noob like me. Thank you!

You're welcome! Great to hear that not only you fixed the issue, but learned a lot in the process. 😀 This is how many of us got started in the first place. 😉