# MOCA or Ethernet



## Wiggum (Jun 11, 2004)

Hi All

I just ordered my Roamio Plus and 3 Mini's. While waiting for them to arrive I thought I'd get a few answers if possible. I did read other posts about this subject.

I have coax and ethernet in each of the rooms already. 

I have not decided which room to put the main unit in as of yet. Right now I have Directv and the main unit is in the bedroom at the far end of the house along with the Router/Modem.

The other end of the house is where the Directv (and where the cable) used to come into the house to the splitter which then branches out to the DTV genie subunits. 

My network is all Cat 6a at the minimum. I have 3 NAS' on the network, AV receiver, 2 apple TV's, 1 Amazon fireTV, 4 media players, 4 computers, 4 laser printers, 2 color printers, an all in one printer/copier/fax machine, 6 iPads all on my network, ooma telephone. Doing a lanscan shows I have 34 different devices currently connected to the network either wirelessly or wired. Each room has a GB switch in it that feeds back to the main switch in the bedroom. 

I am frequently transferring files back and forth between NAS' as well as the computer to the NAS' at all hours of the day. Each computer is backed up throughout the day. I also stream full BR.ISO's, etc from one of the NAS to the home theater room. 

I am just wondering if I should be going MoCA or Ethernet? My major concern is that if a bunch of things are going at once on my network could I potentially have some streaming issues between the Roamio and the Mini's or even steaming issues with large files to from the NAS to the HTPC.


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## CrispyCritter (Feb 28, 2001)

My personal preference is ethernet unless there is some concrete reason otherwise. It's more mature and easier to debug a flaky ethernet network than a flaky MoCA network.

Your ethernet network should be solid; the only possible issue is contention, as you note. HD streams are a maximum of 18 Mbps; most are less. Even half-a-dozen of those going on at once will not cause any problems anywhere. It's whatever other ethernet activity that might interfere (large multiple PC to PC backups occurring often might be an issue.)


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

Since you already have ethernet wired to every room, I would definitely try that first. If you run into problems with the Minis when your ethernet network is in heavy use, then you can always try offloading the Roamio and Minis to MoCA later.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

EThernet or MoCA, you will not notice a difference streaming to the Minis. Now if you transfer content from the Roamio Plus to a PC then that should be using the GigE connection since the speeds are faster with the recent update. I am seeing 160+Mb/s transfer rates from my Roamio Pro to my PC. 

Personally I still have all my Minis on MoCA with my Pro on GigE(and my Roamio BAsic and Premiere on EThernet). I also have dozens of devices on my network. Although for me to avoid issues I have physically separated them on my network. I have thirteen IP cameras that are constantly sending data to a PC so that and half my wireless is on one segment since two thirds of my camera is constantly sending data over WIFI. All my TiVos are also on the same segment. Then my three unRAID servers and all my media players are on one segment for streaming my media. Then everything else and half my wireless is on a fourth segment. 

This way all the data stays separate unless a device needs to communicate with a device on another segment. I would have issues if I ran everything over the same segment of GigE. But my choice was to physically separate the segments or change to managed switches. And since I have over 65 devices on my home network, along with 20+ GigE switches, APs, and bridges, it was much cheaper to just physically separate everything than to by managed switches.


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## CompuJon3615 (May 10, 2007)

I had some issues with MOCA for awhile until I got the correct splitters in place. I think working with networks is easier but it is what I do.


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## Wiggum (Jun 11, 2004)

aaronwt said:


> EThernet or MoCA, you will not notice a difference streaming to the Minis. Now if you transfer content from the Roamio Plus to a PC then that should be using the GigE connection since the speeds are faster with the recent update. I am seeing 160+Mb/s transfer rates from my Roamio Pro to my PC.
> 
> Personally I still have all my Minis on MoCA with my Pro on GigE(and my Roamio BAsic and Premiere on EThernet). I also have dozens of devices on my network. Although for me to avoid issues I have physically separated them on my network. I have thirteen IP cameras that are constantly sending data to a PC so that and half my wireless is on one segment since two thirds of my camera is constantly sending data over WIFI. All my TiVos are also on the same segment. Then my three unRAID servers and all my media players are on one segment for streaming my media. Then everything else and half my wireless is on a fourth segment.
> 
> This way all the data stays separate unless a device needs to communicate with a device on another segment. I would have issues if I ran everything over the same segment of GigE. But my choice was to physically separate the segments or change to managed switches. And since I have over 65 devices on my home network, along with 20+ GigE switches, APs, and bridges, it was much cheaper to just physically separate everything than to by managed switches.


I have 8 Cameras recording but not over ethernet. I am going to be buying 8 IP cameras in the next few months. Also With the exception of my iPads all my internet connection is via wired network as well.

Thanks of the input all. I think I will give MoCA a shot first. I have both Ethernet and coax run to the locations so I'd like to try both methods. I'm sure it is me being crazy, but I'd like to keep the Mini steaming separate as much as possible from the network.


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## Wiggum (Jun 11, 2004)

I ended up going the Ethernet route so far no problems. I was wondering something

The DVR is located in my living room. There is a switch that goes back to my router. From the router it goes to one of the Mini's. The other goes to another switch and into the mini.

I have to run some Ethernet cables to another part of my house and was wondering. If I was to run an Ethernet cable from the two mini's directly to the switch located in the living room. Would this be beneficial as the signal would be going right from the one switch with the DVR directly to the two Mini's and bypassing the additional switches in-between?


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## dugbug (Dec 29, 2003)

Wiggum said:


> I ended up going the Ethernet route so far no problems. I was wondering something
> 
> The DVR is located in my living room. There is a switch that goes back to my router. From the router it goes to one of the Mini's. The other goes to another switch and into the mini.
> 
> I have to run some Ethernet cables to another part of my house and was wondering. If I was to run an Ethernet cable from the two mini's directly to the switch located in the living room. Would this be beneficial as the signal would be going right from the one switch with the DVR directly to the two Mini's and bypassing the additional switches in-between?


yes, but 
1> cable length must be respected 
2> you are saving the overhead of the switch and router logic that adds latency but for streaming there is no benefit.
3> if you have pc backups and other activity local to the other equipment this could remove their traffic. It would take a lot though to impede HD video which is relatively little compared to your 100Mbps or 1Gbps link.


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