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RogersMoin
I recently bought a MoCa 2.5 adapter for my XB8 network (which should have MoCa compatibility) yet when I connect the MoCa adapter to my coax cable upstairs I do not get a signal going towards my pc
This is how I have it set up but i think I either need a MoCa 2.5 splitter and a POE filter or another MoCa adapter to put at the coax cable next to the router.
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@Jaimaraim if you do a search within the forum for MoCA, you will come across numerous posts from me, concerning MoCA installation.
There is a post from another customer in April indicating that Rogers has dropped MoCA support from the XB8 modems. The user interface was still in the modem, but, it didn't appear to actually do anything. Tech support indicated that Rogers has dropped MoCA support from the modem. I don't know if that applies to the XB6 or XB7 modems. Dropping MoCA support would be rather odd if Comcast still had it running in their XBx modems. There wouldn't really be any good reason to drop MoCA support if Comcast still had it available in their modems. On the other hand, if Comcast has indeed dropped MoCA support from their modems and patched over or removed the code, then Rogers wouldn't have any say in the matter. Another good example of what happens when you don't own your own house. Stuff happens whether you like it or not.
So, you may have to buy another MoCA adapter.
You should be able to log into the current adapter and look at the MoCA channels that are running on the MoCA network. That would really prove whether or not Rogers has dropped MoCA support, despite the presence of the user interface and despite the user actually enabling it.
You need to install a MoCA Point of Entry (POE) filter and a MoCA 2.0 qualified splitter. You actually need 2 MoCA 2.0 qualified splitters. The MoCA POE filter will prevent any MoCA data from leaving your network and prevent any outside MoCA data from entering your network.
The MoCA network will look like this:
--> Inbound Cable -->MoCA --> MoCA splitter --> cable --> MoCA splitter --> Modem --> ethernet cable to adapter
POE (2 port) (2 port) --> MoCA adapter <-- ethernet cable from modem
Filter --> cable --> MoCA Adapter --> ethernet to pc
The problem with installing the two MoCA splitters is the signal drop that they will impose. Each filter will impose a 3.5 db drop in signal level, so, 7 db total. You may or may not have enough signal excess at your modem to permit that. You would have to post your signal levels for us to see if the two splitters could be added to the cable network.
To post the signal levels, log into your modem and navigate to Gateway > Connection > Rogers Network. Scroll down until you see the three tables that are located near the bottom of the page.
Park you curser just in front of the "Downstream" in that table. Hold down the shift key and stcoll down to the bottom row of that table and to the very right hand column, on the right side of that table. There are 32 QAM columns plus the OFDM columns, so, keep scrolling right until you can park the curser just after the last character in the bottom right column. Release the shift key, and with the data still selected, right click .... Copy. In a new post, right click .... Paste. That should paste in the entire table, just as it looks in the modem's user interface.
Do the same for the next two tables.
Just to see if this works, try this first. From the top Downstream line, keep scrolling down to include all of the data for all three tables, up to and just after the last character in the bottom right hand column of the CM Error Codewords. Right click .... Copy, and in a new post, right click .... Paste.
See if that posts in all of the tables in one go. Please let me know if that works.
One more comment, if you happen to have bought a go-coax adapter, they appear to want or demand to be the only MoCA controller on the MoCA network. So, if you have one of those adapters and have enabled MoCA in the modem, if it happens to still work, then its possible that the adapter and modem are fighting it out for which device is going to control the MoCA network. I don't know how that will work out.
Have a look outside of your townhouse, if you're on the ground floor for a grey nylon box, perhaps with a Rogers name or logo on it. That would be the Network Interface Device (NID) where the external cable run to the townhouse meets the internal townhouse inbound cable run.
Does your townhouse have a basement? If so, you might see the inbound cable down there, before it heads upstairs.
Do you have a splitter already installed? If so, installing another splitter would put the signal levels down into a -6.5 to -8 dBmV range, which is borderline in terms of the signal levels.
If you didn't have any splitters installed already, then installing two splitters would drop the signal levels in to a -10 dBmV range which wouldn't work. In theory it does, but, practically speaking that's too low for acceptable modem performance. The operating range for Docsis systems is -15 dBmV to +15 dBmV, however, on the Rogers network, historically, when your outside of a -6 to +6 dBmV range, you start running into problems. So, either way, from what I see, you're either into poor modem performance, or no modem performance.
With the Ignite (read Comcast) XBx modems, there is only one cable feed to the modem. All other cables to any other rooms will have been disconnected from the splitter that was previously installed to connect the previous digital Nextbox set top boxes, internet modem and possibly home phone modem. So, somewhere in your townhouse, if you already haven't discovered them, will be or should be the cables that start their path up to the various rooms in the townhouse. That might be a basement location, or possibly a comms closet which is usually close to the front entrance, possibly located in a coat closet. One of those cables would be the inbound cable from the external local tap that services the neighbourhood. The other cables would be the various cable runs up to the rooms in the townhouse. That inbound cable would have an F-81 connector on it to connect to the cable that runs to the modem location. That connector looks like this:
https://www.homedepot.ca/product/ideal-3ghz-f-splice-adapter-10-pack-/1000751479
Now, its possible that the cable run from the external local tap runs directly to the wallport where your modem is connected. That would be very unusual. Considering that you have another cable port in the home, that means that there should be a central location where those cables converge, which is where the POE filter and one of the splitters would go.
So, it might be time to do some exploring, both inside and outside of the home.
Its possible that there is some central location that services all of the townhomes, where all of the cabling for all of the homes converge. That would be a pain for anyone such as yourself who needs access to it to install any filters or splitters.
In a worst case scenario, you could probably ask Rogers to install a POE filter at the local tap, if that's the most logical place for it. There might be some cost to it, don't know.
Going back to the central cable location in the townhome, with a singular cable requirement to feed just the modem, its highly likely that the other cable runs are disconnected completely, which would explain the absence of a MoCA signal at the pc location. So, you have to find that location, wherever it is and determine which cable is which.
To prove that the modem is still capable of MoCA ops, you might be able to do the following. Move the splitter and adapter to the modem and connect the modem and adapter to the two ports of the splitter. You would need an ethernet connected device at the other end of the adapter to see if you get any data thru to the device. If the splitter that you have isn't a MoCA 2.0 qualified splitter, then it probably won't work as the splitter needs an internal frequency response up to 1675 Mhz to support MoCA 2.0 and above. A run of the mill cable splitter will operate from 5 to 1002 Mhz, with some bleedoff at the high end, probably not enough to support MoCA ops which runs up to 1675 Mhz.
Have a look at page 9 and 13 of the following MoCA spec to see the frequencies and MoCA Bands:
https://mocalliance.org/MoCA2/specification/MoCA_2.0_and_2.5_Device_RF_Characteristics-160808d.pdf
Hope this helps. Sounds like you have a challenge ahead of you to find where coax cables converge. When you find them have a look at the cable jacket. You should see RG-6 (preferable) or RG-59 (not preferable) printed on the cable jacket, along with other manufacturers data.
Is there a townhouse owners association, and if so, might there be one or two individuals who have taken on the job of attending to technical issues like Rogers cable contracts and support?
Are you on an individual cable account or on a bulk building contract?
Looking back at your upstream signal levels, you wont' be able to add another splitter unless Rogers has enabled the extended power levels for the modems. The Docsis limit for upstream ops is 51 dBmV. Rogers for some reason uses 52 dBmV, last that I heard. So, adding another splitter might drive the upstream levels beyond the failure point, where the modem shuts down individual upstream channels in order to stay within its upstream power limit.
So, two problems on hand, find the convergence point for the cabling, and get Rogers to tackle the upstream signal level issue. You don't have a lot of head room with the current upstream signal levels, so, I wouldn't be surprised if you were already experiencing some problems. The signal levels are also related to the cable type that is in use, RG-6 or RG-59.
Other food for thought, if MoCA simply isn't going to work, is to use pods or a router as a wifi bridge. For a wifi bridge you would have to buy a router that is capable of running in a Media Bridge mode. Different companies have slightly different names for it. But, what it does is act the second half of a wifi bridge, the first half being the modem. The modem communicates with the router over wifi. With the router up and running in Media Bridge mode, you would then connect any ethernet devices to that router. Since you're looking at using MoCA, you would probably experience similar latency with the wifi bridge. The more antenna on the router, the better as you're looking for a one to one match for the antenna count between the modem and router, if possible, as each antenna will support one data stream.
Here's a Shaw comparison for the XBx modems:
https://support.shaw.ca/t5/internet-articles/guide-fibre-gateway-xb6-xb7-xb8/ta-p/5114
Looking at the chart, the XB8 is or has:
Tri-band (2.4GHz, 5GHz, 6GHz)
WiFi 6E (Modes A, G, N, AC, AX)
24 antennas (8 for 2.4GHz, 8 for 5GHz, 8 for 6GHz)
So, if you're looking at a router as a media bridge, and looking for fast data rates, then you would be looking for a Wifi 6e router to support 6 Ghz and 802.11 AX mode. That won't be cheap. Might be cheaper in the short run to use pods, with their lower data rates.
I don't see any cheap or easy route ahead ....
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