# MOCA vs Ethernet? Advice needed



## mwecksell (Jan 20, 2005)

I'm in the process of transitioning from my FIOS DVR to a Romaio Plus with two minis. Everything works so far, but when I get rid of the FIOS equipment, I'd like to know my setup is optimal.

I have a FIOS provided router with MOCA baked in. Right now, my Roamio has coax and ethernet going into it. One Mini has coax (MOCA), the other is on ethernet.

Is there any advantage to putting the Mini's on ethernet only or MOCA only? If I I have the Roamio on just the coax, will it get data from the FIOS router?

Does using the whole home DVR Roamio/Mini setup put a lot of pressure on my home network?

I've got Cat 5e almost everywhere, but I'd prefer to not overload the network if using MOCA will keep the Tivos on their own separate network.

Thank you.

---matt


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

Yeah the Plus's built-in moca will let it talk to the router just like ethernet. While ethernet is technically faster, moca's more than fast enough to handle everything. You can safely go moca for all 3 if you want to take some load off your ethernet pipes.


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## mpfeifer (Sep 15, 2007)

I just went through the same thing. MoCA works right away - attach coax and go through the guided setup. Gigabit Ethernet will be faster, but from what I see there is no real advantage. You will be constrained by your download speed for streaming and in-house the streaming will work fine under MoCA. Downloading to an ios device - movies or shows - seems to be constrained by the conversion process so you won't need any sort of speed. 

In short, unless you have a fast download speed (greater than 100) and do significant streaming, I doubt you will see any difference inside or outside of the house. 

That is my 2 cents,

Mark


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

BigJimOutlaw said:


> While ethernet is technically faster, moca's more than fast enough to handle everything.


Just to clarify, ethernet is not always technically faster than moca. While the Roamio Plus and Pro do support gigabit ethernet, the mini and Roamio basic only supports 100 mbps ethernet and moca's theoretical max is somewhere around 280 mbps.


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## mwecksell (Jan 20, 2005)

Thank you. You have all convinced me to put my two Minis on MOCA.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

tarheelblue32 said:


> Just to clarify, ethernet is not always technically faster than moca. While the Roamio Plus and Pro do support gigabit ethernet, the mini and Roamio basic only supports 100 mbps ethernet and moca's theoretical max is somewhere around 280 mbps.


I know... That's moca's PHY rate, real-world will be 80-90, while ethernet connections on the Plus (which is what the OP has) can be 150 depending on the device/PC it's transferring to. Main point being, it's all plenty fast.


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## eboydog (Mar 24, 2006)

One aspect to when comparing moca to ethernet is the model of Tivo you are using. The older Tivos do not have the processing power to fully utilize 100mb ethernet or Moca. 

I have a Tivo HD that simply can not get more than 27mbs while transfering content, now with my Premiere that increases to roughly 40mbs but still neither fully use a 100mb connection. Now I'm getting a Roamio (which, appears to be delayed due to weather) but I'm really looking forward to see how well it preforms as everything I have read indicates it's much faster yet yet still unable to fully utilize a 100mb ethernet connection. 

My Tivo HD is connected by Moca (using an adapter) and I don't see any change in performance when it was on ethernet which is again, because it just doesn't have the ability to pull the content off the drive and put it on the network interface. 

Now one thing I'm really looking forward to is when the Moca 2.0 adapters get out, while it been approved by the Moca committee, there are only a few manufactores that have even hinted about releasing 2.0 Moca devices.


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