ScreenBeam Bonded MoCA 2.0 Network Adapter for High Speed Internet, Ethernet Over Coax - Starter Kit (Model: ECB6200K02)

I'm stunned at how well these MoCA coax adapters work and how easy they are to set up. I thought I was tech-savvy, but I clearly wasn't because I wasted a lot of money on WIFI range extenders and mesh systems that never worked well. WIFI range extenders and mesh systems take the signal from the home router and try to bounce it to the range extender or mesh node, which then tries to bounce it to the next node and so on. The problem is the range extender cuts down the WFI signal by 50% and it and the mesh nodes only work well when they're in sight of each other. That's not very efficient for larger houses or houses that don't have an open floor plan.Obviously, the best way to extend WIFI is to have your house wired with ethernet cables, but how many people have that? Answer: not many. However, almost everyone has coax running in their house for cable TV and that is where MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance) comes in. A MoCA adapter allows additional routers to receive an internet signal directly from your modem through the existing coax cable in your walls. You just plug the coax from your wall into an adapter and then plug the included ethernet cord from the adapter to an additional router, and now you have a super-strong WIFI signal as if the main router and additional router were connected by an ethernet cable.It works brilliantly and immediately, and the good news is you can set up as many routers as you need if you have a coax outlet in your desired room. I set this up in my mother's large colonial house where WIFI signal goes to die. I put three adapters in separate rooms and attached three old routers I had laying around and Voila, my mother loves me again!Ok, now for the Pro-Life Tips.1. THIS WILL NOT WORK FOR SATELLITE TV! CABLE ONLY! Sorry, but you're SOL w/ DirecTV and Dish2. You do not need a MoCA adapter at your modem if your modem is already MoCA enabled. You will need to hook up one of the adapters to the modem if it is not MoCA enabled. A lot of people rent a combination modem/router from their cable provider. The newer ones are already MoCA enabled and if it's not, your cable provider will trade your old modem/router for an updated one for free.3. Speaking of renting a modem/router combo...don't. Buy a separate ARRIS SURFboard Modem and whatever router you want and it will pay for itself in about a year. Don't give your hard-earned shekels to the corp bastards.4. You need a MoCA 2 way splitter if you're running your additional router off a coax that is also providing a cable signal to a TV. The instructions and diagram that come with the adapters aren't clear about this. The adapter set comes with one 2 way splitter, but you will need a 2nd one if you're going to set up two adapters and two additional routers. You can buy a 2-way splitter at Lowe's or Home Depot for $6. Just make sure it is MoCA compliable. Also, the box comes with two short coax cables, but you will need two more if you're connecting them with two TVs. You can buy 3 ft. coax for cheap if you don't have extras laying around.5. The MoCA adapter does not send out a WIFI signal by itself! You must use an additional router for each adapter. Any old router will do, so you don't need to blow your brains out on the latest and the greatest. However, you still need your original "Home Base" router that you have already been using.6. Instructions. How to set up in a room where you already have a TV and your modem is MoCA enabled: Unscrew the coax from the cable box and screw it into the "cable in" port on the splitter. Now screw in another coax to the "cable out" port of the splitter and run it back into the cable box. Cable TV is now all set. Screw another coax to the other "cable out" port of the splitter and screw the other end into the "cable in" port on the adapter. Then plug the provided ethernet cable into the adapter and plug the other end into the WAN port of your router. Plug adapter and router into the wall or outlet strip and enjoy that sweet, sweet rock hard WIFI signal.7. Please know the difference between "your" and "you're". Your is possessive, ie: your new MoCA adapter. You're is a contraction of you are, ie: you're going to love your new MoCA adapter. (See what I did there?)8. Enjoy your strong WIFI signal and please be safe and please be nice to each other. We're all in this trying time together and a little kindness goes a long way. Cheers.

These really work well to create wired network speed and reliability utilizing existing physical plant.Our two-story house was built in the mid-nineties. I'm assuming many 1970's to 1990's, multi-story houses are in a similar situation; so I will describe in detail below.As in many houses from that era it has lots of cable jacks (like 1-2 in almost every room). Most are on RG-59 wiring and a few newer ones are on RG-6 wiring. Since the house is two story, getting WIFI to propagate through multiple walls, ceilings, and floors is difficult. We are also at the top of a hill and pick up lots of interference from our neighbors' WIFI routers. Plus the total number of WIFI clients these days limits throughput making WIFI okay for low-bandwidth applications (like smart home devices) but poor for streaming devices. Also, running new wires is basically impossible in rooms that have rooms above them as the plenum is too narrow to crawl (about 6" tall). The mid-90's phone network is pre-Ethernet and as such is a hub network on cheap phone wire not a star network on Cat3 or Cat5 like many newer homes. Basically this meant we had three choices: 1.) use wireless only, 2.) find a way to use existing wiring, 3.) cut open walls to run Cat7.Option 1: WIFI works for low-bandwidth devices, but with so many devices these days (easily about 50 for a smart home) the throughput is very limited. We decided to keep WIFI for portable devices and low bandwidth requirement devices, but go with something else for our streaming devices.Option2: Using the existing wiring to create an Ethernet seems like the best option. I decided to make this happen one way or another. The house had lots of coax and quite a few phone jacks too. I researched options. Phone is limited to VDSL adapters. The problem with these are they are just point to point. So you get one connection and that is it. I wanted to connect all my major streaming point (office computer, game room TV, living room TV, and bedroom TV). So VDSL was a no go. I discovered both MOCA and DECA. DECA is much cheaper, but won't interoperatre with cable. We use a cable modem, which would have meant a lot of work at the cable box to separate all the ports in the house except the cable modem. This would have required running at least one more line up to my attic as the cable modem line was shared with my office line. Also MOCA 2.0 supports about 9 times higher bandwidth than DECA. I decided these two things made MOCA worth a few hundred extra dollar, especially since this is a one-time investment.Option3: Cutting open walls is messy and expensive. I really don't want to do that.Updating my coax network:1.) I went to the box and installed a MOCA POE filter at the input from the cable company. Don't forget this, or you maybe sending your LAN to your neighbors' houses. You can buy this on Amazon.2.) I went to the box and also all lines I could reach in the attic and replaced all splitters with new ones rated for up to 2.4 gHz. A two way splitter comes with each Moca adapter (or set of adapters). I used one of these. Likely you need a larger one at the box. I bought a 4 way Moca compatible splitter from BAMF here on Amazon. Don't "daisy-chain" the splitters. Buy the appropriate size. You will get better bandwidth. Also don't skip this step. In doing this I replaced two splitters that were rated to 1 gHz. The Moca 2.0 channels are at 1.0-1.2 gHz. This would certainly have lowered my bandwidth, if I had not done this.The install:I installed five Moca adapters as follows:1.) One is attached to my router - "coax in" line previously attached to the cable modem input, "tv out" out to cable modem input, Ethernet port to my router's Ethernet switch2-4.) "coax in" attached to the cable jack by my TV's, "tv out" is terminated with an f-terminator, Ethernet is connected to a 5 port TP-Link Gigabit switch connecting my Fire TV and Smart-TV or Smart DVD player.5.) Connects my office desktop computer the same ways as 2-4.After bringing my coax network up to date (described above). I just plugged these adapters in and it worked. No configuration needed.After installing my Internet speed tests with a laptop hooked to the switches maxes out at our ISP's limits. A network speed test using a 512mb file copy using LAN SpeedTest Lite shows the following500-600 Mbs downstream300-400 Mbs upstreamI think the difference in downstream and upstream speeds is due to greater isolation on the output side of the splitters.After the install I was finally able to Steam stream games from my office computer to my FireTV in my Game Room.