# Another MoCA Setup Thread (Sorry)



## mudd77 (Jan 8, 2012)

Hello guys. Sorry in advance for creating yet another MoCA setup thread. Just didnt want to highjack another posters thread with my lack of knowledge and rambling on the subject. To provide a little background, we are currently DirecTV customers with our internet provided by Time Warner. To cut cost, the family has decided to ditch DirecTV and rely solely on OTA/Netflix for our television needs. As a result, we just recently purchased the TIVO Bolt and two TIVO minis.

Ive currently got the Bolt setup and running in the living room with a Mohu Leaf 50 Amplified Indoor HDTV antenna directly connected. Everything is working flawlessly with the Bolt. Im now ready to venture out into unknown territory and attempt to connect the TIVO minis via MoCA. Ive been reading through the forum here for information on how to achieve this with my current setup. I think that Im close to knowing what accessories I need to buy, but the more I read, the more confused and less confident I am. I was hoping for your guys input and reassurance that I was heading down the right path.

So here is my current home setup/situation:

*TIVO Bolt Location  Downstairs Living Room:* As mentioned earlier, the TIVO Bolt is connected in the living room with an OTA antenna connected directly. Netflix and the other entertainment apps are accessed on the Bolt via Wi-Fi. There are two wall mounted coax connections behind this television. One was for the cable modem, which is no longer located here, and the other is currently being used by DirecTV (service will be canceled in the next few days).
*Cable Modem/Router Location  Upstairs Game Room: *The cable modem and wireless router are located upstairs in the game room. This is the preferred location of the modem/router as we have two PS4s systems setup here and prefer to game directly wired to the router. The cable modem is connected directly to the wall mounted coax.
*TIVO Mini #1 Location  Downstairs Master Bedroom: *The Mini # 1 will be located in the downstairs master bedroom. There is one wall mounted coax connection behind this television which is currently being used by DirecTV.
*TIVO Mini #2 Location  Upstairs Kids Bedroom: *The Mini # 2 will be located in my daughters upstairs bedroom. Once again, there is one wall mounted coax connection behind this television which is currently being used by DirecTV.

So, I need to determine what additional accessories that I need to buy. I know that I need to buy one MoCA adapter to connect to the cable modem/router in the upstairs game room. With that said, I have the following questions:

	Do I need to buy any other MoCA adapters to place at the Bolt or mini locations or do I just connect them to the existing wall mounted coax? 
	Will I need a MoCA "POE" filter and if so, where does it get connected?
	What about the OTA antenna currently hooked to the Bolt in the living room? Any way to get the OTA antenna signal distributed to the minis for live TV?
	One last noob question. When I had DirecTV hooked up with whole home DVR a few years ago, I know that they did something to the existing built in coax cables in the bedrooms (where the minis will be located). I removed the wall mounts in the DirecTV rooms and compared the coax cables located in another non-DirecTV room. It appears that the DirecTV cables have a red band around the connector while the other rooms have a blue band. Not sure if this is just for identification purposes or what? Will I need to call Time Warner to come out to my house to undo something that was done to the coax cables by DirecTV?

Sorry, for all of the rambling. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

To start from the beginning -- The OTA, internet, and DTV coax feeds are not physically connected to each other (and shouldn't be), so you'll need to play around with things since this is a hybrid setup. 

It won't work if one device is on the OTA line while others are on the DTV line. Devices need to share the same coax feed for moca to work.

This is the "cleanest" way to get things running: 

- First get all of the TVs sharing the same coax feed. The antenna feeds a splitter (the POE filter goes on the INPUT socket of this splitter), then the splitter feeds the TV rooms as well as the room with the router (yes, there will be 2 coax lines in the game room).

Perhaps the antenna should connect to where the DirecTV feed enters the house to cover as many rooms as possible.

- In the game room, connect the moca adapter to the new TV feed. Then connect the moca adapter's ethernet to the router. Ignore the internet coax line.

- Then all of the Tivo boxes should be able to connect via moca.


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## mudd77 (Jan 8, 2012)

BigJimOutlaw said:


> To start from the beginning -- The OTA, internet, and DTV coax feeds are not physically connected to each other (and shouldn't be), so you'll need to play around with things since this is a hybrid setup.
> 
> It won't work if one device is on the OTA line while others are on the DTV line. Devices need to share the same coax feed for moca to work.
> 
> ...


Wow, thanks for the quick and detailed response.

The coax part is what I find the most confusing. I was hoping to not have to get someone to come out and run new coax cable. But, it appears that I will have to do just that.

So, even though I don't need tv access in the game room, I still need to add an additional coax line because the current coax connected to the cable modem is not associated with the DirecTV lines that feed the other rooms? What if I didnt need to share the OTA antenna feed? Would that change anything? I could always just hook an OTA antenna directly to each of the minis televisions and change the input for live tv use.

I was hoping that since the DirecTV equipment is working fine with the current setup that the TIVOs would as well. Im guessing that the DECA technology that DirecTV uses bypasses the need for internet? Sorry again for all of the questions. Just trying to piece everything together before I spend anymore money. Thanks again!


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

mudd77 said:


> So, even though I don't need tv access in the game room, I still need to add an additional coax line because the current coax connected to the cable modem is not associated with the DirecTV lines that feed the other rooms?


Moca is just ethernet over coax. All the moca devices (Bolt, adapter, Minis) need to be on shared wiring or they can't communicate.

The moca adapter also needs an ethernet connection to the router to create the moca network. A TV coax run to that room was just one way of achieving it.

Not knowing how your home is fully wired, if you can visualize an easier way for you to achieve shared cabling among those devices, and an ethernet connection between the adapter to the router, all the better.

Moving the antenna to where the DTV's input is just seems like the most pragmatic plan since the DTV coax already feeds to all of the rooms. But again I don't know your house. Then you'd just have to figure out how to get an ethernet connection from a moca adapter somewhere on that OTA feed to the router in the game room.

I have no experience with DECA so I couldn't really help there. Maybe someone else with DECA experience can simplify things.


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## mudd77 (Jan 8, 2012)

BigJimOutlaw said:


> Moca is just ethernet over coax. All the moca devices (Bolt, adapter, Minis) need to be on shared wiring or they can't communicate.
> 
> The moca adapter also needs an ethernet connection to the router to create the moca network. A TV coax run to that room was just one way of achieving it.
> 
> ...


Thanks again BigJim! I'm going to go ahead and order me a MoCA adapter and filter. Would you recommend the older Actiontec ECB2500C http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1172333&gclid=Cj0KEQiAqqO0BRDyo8mkv9y259EBEiQApVQD_a7pVI1QbeQ3dEufcIt3EB7GdOqxF_0UX5jsxXLvJ_IaAlH_8P8HAQ&Q=&ap=y&m=Y&is=REG&A=details 
or should I go with the new Actiontec ECB6200S02 http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1179501-REG/actiontec_ecb6200s02_bonded_moca_2_0_network.html/prm/alsVwDtl Is the newer model adapter worth the $25 price difference?

As for the filter, do I need to look for something specific to OTA? I was just going to pick this up from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Filter-MoCA-Cable-Coaxial-Networking/dp/B00DC8IEE6/ref=pd_bxgy_504_img_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1J1PXY1AK8HDSTHNN1Q6

Then I saw this one with OTA in the description:
http://www.amazon.com/Filter-MoCA-Cable-coaxial-networks/dp/B00KO5KHSQ/ref=pd_sim_23_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=41VorHA2csL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=0W9WKMBAJTYS9WRCWNAW

Thanks again!


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

Either filter will do the job.

Tivo used to sell the cheaper moca adapter on their site for $50, but apparently it's gone now. Whichever adapter you go with is up to you, depending on how much you want to future-proof yourself. The Bolt has moca 2.0 so it might prove to be useful at some point. But 1.1 gets the job done too.


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## mudd77 (Jan 8, 2012)

BigJimOutlaw said:


> Either filter will do the job.
> 
> Tivo used to sell the cheaper moca adapter on their site for $50, but apparently it's gone now. Whichever adapter you go with is up to you, depending on how much you want to future-proof yourself. The Bolt has moca 2.0 so it might prove to be useful at some point. But 1.1 gets the job done too.


So, the MoCA adapter that I ordered should be here tomorrow so I can play around with things and see if I can get them to work.

One more question for you. If I were to get local channels from Time Warner via a cable card instead of using an OTA antenna and get them to come out and connect the rooms, would I still need a new line ran to the upstairs game room? Or would the internet and new cable tv feed all share the same line? Thanks in advance!


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

mudd77 said:


> So, the MoCA adapter that I ordered should be here tomorrow so I can play around with things and see if I can get them to work.
> 
> One more question for you. If I were to get local channels from Time Warner via a cable card instead of using an OTA antenna and get them to come out and connect the rooms, would I still need a new line ran to the upstairs game room? Or would the internet and new cable tv feed all share the same line? Thanks in advance!


Yeah in that scenario they can join the internet and DTV coax into one home network, simplifying everything. If you ask, they can probably also install the POE filter for you as well.


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## WVZR1 (Jul 31, 2008)

Will the MoCA used by DTV if he has the Genie or whatever it's called interfere with his MoCA project for the TiVo and OTA *until* the DTV system is removed? I didn't see where he mentioned the DTV was gone yet.


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## mudd77 (Jan 8, 2012)

WVZR1 said:


> Will the MoCA used by DTV if he has the Genie or whatever it's called interfere with his MoCA project for the TiVo and OTA *until* the DTV system is removed? I didn't see where he mentioned the DTV was gone yet.


Yeah, the DirecTV will be cancelled and disconnected tomorrow. Thanks.


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## emjayel (Jan 8, 2016)

Doesn't the bolt have a moca adapter built in?


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## mudd77 (Jan 8, 2012)

emjayel said:


> Doesn't the bolt have a moca adapter built in?


Yes, however to create the MoCa network using the Bolt you must have a direct connection to the router/modem. This was not an option for me as my router/modem is located upstairs while the Bolt is downstairs. The only option for me, to create the MoCa network, was to buy a standalone MoCa adapter and connect directly to my router upstairs.


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## emjayel (Jan 8, 2016)

mudd77 said:


> Yes, however to create the MoCa network using the Bolt you must have a direct connection to the router/modem. This was not an option for me as my router/modem is located upstairs while the Bolt is downstairs. The only option for me, to create the MoCa network, was to buy a standalone MoCa adapter and connect directly to my router upstairs.


gotcha. I am thinking about ditching DISH and getting a Bolt and Mini.... I am trying to understand what would work best for me as I have seen a couple of different ways to connect and I want to find the best way for me as well.


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## F18fxr (Oct 2, 2003)

emjayel said:


> gotcha. I am thinking about ditching DISH and getting a Bolt and Mini.... I am trying to understand what would work best for me as I have seen a couple of different ways to connect and I want to find the best way for me as well.


I'm in a similar situation as mudd77. DTV in FR and Genie in MBR. Ethernet back to cable modem/router in closet on main floor.

OTA will come in where the DTV is now to the new Bolt in the FR. Mini in MBR (has coax no ethernet).

Do I just add the adapter and filter between my modem/router?


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