jeallen01
Specialist Contributor
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2003
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- Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
Back in the late 1980s/early 1990s a simple & relatively cheap way to get started with small local networks was the Ethernet system known as "10Base T", i.e. you ran some fairly basic coax from point-to-point and tapped off it using bayonet fit "T" connectors & coax plugs. Fairly simple to install but bulky, unwieldy, difficult to bend and with a very limited 10MHz b/w, and, as a result, that soon got replaced in small LANs by the flat twisted-pair ethernet with which most of us are familiar.
As far as I was aware that was the end of the use of coax for general purpose "basic" local networking(at least as far as non-optical/fibre cabled networking was concerned), and so I was very surprised to find out today that I was wrong! So who else was unaware of "MoCA", the coaxial data network standard named after the "Multimedia over Coax Alliance"??
I became aware of it via this HowtoGeek article "You can Convert Coax Lines to Ethernet with MoCA Adapters" and then this Wikipedia page "Multimedia over Coax Allliance", and so I thought I'd highlight the subject here - given that almost everyone of us already install & use high- quality coax for our satellite stuff, and probably have cables that could be adapted to use/re-use them for our LANs.
For example, had I known of this system several years ago, it would probably have made installing the NVR for my CCTV system in the attic (most of the cameras are at gutter level, and the NVR itself is pretty noisy & so I didn't want it in a habited area of the house!) where there's no convential cat 5/6 ethernet network cabling or outlet - but there are several spare WF100 cables that run all the way down to the ground floor where a connection to the main Cat 5E house network is easily accessible!
. That approach would also have saved me a lot of time, effort, and frustration (not to mention the money I spent in trying to get a reliable feed to the NVR from the camera on the outside of the garage at the end of the garden as I could have used one of the spare cables from the "dish farm" down there!).
That is, of course, if it would actually have worked, which of course I don't know - so, has anyone ever tried the MoCA networking approach - and if so, did/does it still actually work????
As far as I was aware that was the end of the use of coax for general purpose "basic" local networking(at least as far as non-optical/fibre cabled networking was concerned), and so I was very surprised to find out today that I was wrong! So who else was unaware of "MoCA", the coaxial data network standard named after the "Multimedia over Coax Alliance"??
I became aware of it via this HowtoGeek article "You can Convert Coax Lines to Ethernet with MoCA Adapters" and then this Wikipedia page "Multimedia over Coax Allliance", and so I thought I'd highlight the subject here - given that almost everyone of us already install & use high- quality coax for our satellite stuff, and probably have cables that could be adapted to use/re-use them for our LANs.
For example, had I known of this system several years ago, it would probably have made installing the NVR for my CCTV system in the attic (most of the cameras are at gutter level, and the NVR itself is pretty noisy & so I didn't want it in a habited area of the house!) where there's no convential cat 5/6 ethernet network cabling or outlet - but there are several spare WF100 cables that run all the way down to the ground floor where a connection to the main Cat 5E house network is easily accessible!
. That approach would also have saved me a lot of time, effort, and frustration (not to mention the money I spent in trying to get a reliable feed to the NVR from the camera on the outside of the garage at the end of the garden as I could have used one of the spare cables from the "dish farm" down there!).That is, of course, if it would actually have worked, which of course I don't know - so, has anyone ever tried the MoCA networking approach - and if so, did/does it still actually work????
