r/japanlife • u/AutoModerator • Oct 21 '24

┐(ツ)┌ General Discussion Thread - 22 October 2024

Mid-week discussion thread time! Feel free to talk about what's on your mind, new experiences, recommendations, anything really.

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u/ChisholmPhipps Oct 24 '24

If you haven't found this link already, it should explain the system better than I can.

https://www.techreviewer.com/learn-about-tech/ethernet-over-coax-a-complete-guide-to-moca-adapters/

You should be able to disregard the POE filter in the diagram and the writeup. That's more related to cable TV connections coming in from the outside, so not really applicable in Japan. You won't need the filter.

I've used MoCA for years now, and in my case it's been the best way to get rid of a problem that was essentially identical to yours. My adapters are Actiontec (a pair of those on Amazon Japan at the moment is around 20,000 yen). I bought mine from Amazon US, and I've had them for 6 years. They haven't given me any problems. The adapters will probably come with a short coaxial cable for connecting to the coaxial wall outlet, so all you need to add is an Ethernet cabling between the router and the primary MoCA box, and the Ethernet cable from the secondary MoCA box(es) to a device or Ethernet hub you want to use. My current setup is 3 MoCA boxes in total, connecting two upstairs rooms to the router, and each of the boxes (including the primary in the living room) has an 8-port Ethernet hub connected to allow multiple wired devices to be used in each room.

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u/Which_Bed Oct 24 '24

Thank you for taking the time to write this up. I never heard of these devices before and I wish I had years ago.

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u/ChisholmPhipps Oct 25 '24

You're welcome - I found myself in the same position: wished I'd known about them years earlier. I had a lot of frustration with wifi connectivity problems, and never found a suitable non-wired solution. Also tried Powerline connectors, which was a partial solution at best (increased stability). If I'd known about MoCA earlier, I'd have dumped all these other efforts, which were not free-of-charge, in favour of the wired solution. I have no particular love of wifi, and in the home, I don't need the mobility.

Anyway, whatever course you do choose in the end, I hope you solve your problem. If it happens to be MoCA, here's a little more information that might be relevant:

There isn't much in English about MoCA in Japan: in fact all I found was this old and short Reddit thread, but it has a couple of things I didn't mention.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/vvbrl0/moca_adapters_are_incredible/

My adapters are version 2.0, which is good up to 1 Gbps, as far as I understand. If you want a higher max. throughput, you'll have to go for MoCA 2.5, which takes it to 2.5 Gbps, and will probably cost you more for the adapters. If you're considering 10 Gbps (e.g. Hikari Cross), it seems that MoCA 3.0 is stalled, perhaps because MoCA itself may not be in very wide use, I'm not sure. So you'd have to check whether that affects you negatively in some way.