# Advantages/disadvantages Ethernet vs MOCA



## cyclone23 (Jul 3, 2016)

I've had my Bolt and 2 minis for somewhat less than a month now. I originally tried to network the system using MOCA and Ethernet. It worked, but it screwed up internet access for all my network computers. I switched to Ethernet and it sort of worked, but I found myself having to reset my switches and/or the Minis every 3 or 4 days. I found out that TIVO doesn't like switches in the Ethernet lines. I'm sort of forced because there is an Ethernet line in every room in the house.

So, today, I switched back to MOCA, using wireless instead of wired. So far so good. Everything seems to work.

The question is: What am I losing or gaining by running MOCA? Does the slower performance of the wireless Ethernet connection cause any problems?
The wireless connection is coming off of a network extender, so it is a bit slow.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Given what you've described, I'd recommend figuring out what the hiccups are; you should be able to go all-MoCA or all-Ethernet.

An all-Ethernet solution avoids MoCA networking outages at the Minis when the BOLT is being rebooted (assuming the BOLT would be bridging MoCA and Ethernet, rather than a standalone MoCA adapter). Since you have Ethernet connectivity to all rooms, the primary advantages of MoCA would be keeping your TiVo Multi-Room Streaming (MRS) traffic off your Ethernet segment, or as an alternative should you not be able to get Ethernet networking working.

As for your all-Ethernet issues, you might want to review the following posts:
http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10771621

http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10949541​
On the all-MoCA front, there's not enough information to go on. My main curiosity would be whether your home network already had a MoCA network established, and the BOLT was creating a second MoCA network and creating a network loop.


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

cyclone23 said:


> I've had my Bolt and 2 minis for somewhat less than a month now. I originally tried to network the system using MOCA and Ethernet. It worked, but it screwed up internet access for all my network computers. I switched to Ethernet and it sort of worked, but I found myself having to reset my switches and/or the Minis every 3 or 4 days. I found out that TIVO doesn't like switches in the Ethernet lines. I'm sort of forced because there is an Ethernet line in every room in the house.
> 
> So, today, I switched back to MOCA, using wireless instead of wired. So far so good. Everything seems to work.
> 
> ...


Kaufman has the bases covered. I also suspect the MoCA problem was a duplicate MoCA network being created. If you are on a Fios system with one of their Actiontec or Greenwave G1100 routers or any system in which the router/gateway is supplying MoCA, you would want to use the "connect to a MoCA network" setting on the Tivos. 
You are lucky to have a home wired with Ethernet, one of the main uses of MoCA has to do with the fact that most homes don't have Ethernet but almost all do have coax.
The wireless to the main DVR is often ok for the DVR but when minis enter the picture there are often problems, if it continues to work for you and your not interested in troubleshooting the other options....so be it.


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## TeamPace (Oct 23, 2013)

Have used my Roamio basic with 4 Mini's connected via ethernet (each one connected thru a switch) and have never had any problems other than a bad ethernet cable I had to replace a year or so ago. Haven't set up anything special and just use standard ethernet settings and DHCP. So I'd trouble shoot your network as it shouldn't be giving you the problems you are having.


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