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Blue Curve Gateway - Moca capabilities

springbok
Grasshopper

I'm wanting to connect my Blue Curve Gateway (on my main floor) to a PC in my basement via hardline. 

I don't have ethernet run in my home and so I'm wanting to connect these two points via a Moca connection as I have a coaxial outlet near the PC.

I noticed the Moca setting in the Blue Curve Gateway admin panel. Would turning this on force the router to output traffic back into the coaxial line? I'm wondering if I can get away with purchasing only 1 (expensive) moca adapter.

Also: does anyone know what version of the Moca protocol these gateways run? I'm hoping to make use of my internet 600 connection and if it's not running Moca 2.0 I'll likely have to buy 2 adapters regardless.

Thanks for the help! 

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The MoCA capabilities of the BlueCurve gateway would be f...

shaw-valerie
Moderator
Moderator

@springbok The MoCA capabilities of the BlueCurve gateway would be for use with cable boxes, not to connect other internet devices unfortunately. 

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Okay, I benefitted from reading this thread, so here's my...

DWWalker
Grasshopper

Okay, I benefitted from reading this thread, so here's my experience with running MOCA on a Shaw Bluecurve XB6 Gigibit modem.

I ordered a single Translite TL-MC84 MOCA adapter off of Amazon. I figured I'd end up needing two, but I'd start with one just in case it worked.

I wanted to get Ethernet from my AV setup in my living room, where the modem and a separate WiFi router are located, to a coax outlet in an upstairs bedroom now being used as an office.

I began by installing a POE filter at the coax service entrance next to the electrical panel. (Aside: later, I did a test with and without the POE filter and it made no difference to internet speed - no surprise there, but I was curious).

I got a decent quality 2-way splitter and installed it on the main coax line and connected both my living room coax and bedroom coax to the splitter. I confirmed the bedroom coax line (one of many unused lines) by jumping the central conductor to the shielding at the bedroom outlet and checking continuity in the basement. The splitter had a ground lug so I grounded it to the ground strip nearby.

I went into the modem administration, took it out of bridged mode (rendering my external WiFi router inoperative, more later), and turned on the resident moca function of the XB6 modem. MOCA adapter installation was easy, simply connect the "moca" coax port on the adapter to the coax outlet in the bedroom, connect to wall outlet power, and run an Ethernet CAT5e or CAT6 cable to the computer.

With a single MOCA adapter installed at point of use in this way, I saw speeds comparable to direct Ethernet connection to the modem (450 to 900 Mb/s depending on time of day, alignment of planets, who knows why Shaw speeds vary so much?).

Obviously the shortcoming of this setup is that I couldn't use my external WiFi router with all its features, so I ordered a second Translite MOCA adapter and when it arrived I installed it in the living room. I reset the modem to bridged mode which automatically turned off the modem's moca capabilities. 

Coax from the wall jack to the "MOCA" connection on the adapter. Coax from the adapter (it has an output jack; if your adapter doesn't have a coax output jack you'll need a splitter here) to the Shaw modem, Ethernet from the modem to the wifi router in the normal way, and finally a short Ethernet cable from one of the wifi router LAN ports back to the MOCA adapter.

Head upstairs to the bedroom, wait for the moca connection to be made by the second adapter, and I now have really fast internet upstairs (max I saw on Ookla was 880 Mb/s) without the pain of WiFi.

Hope this helps someone. The Translite adapters were $89.99 each on Amazon and are plug and play. The first one was missing the instruction booklet and an Ethernet cable, but not to worry. Instructions aren't needed.The POE filter was $9.99 on Amazon. 

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MoCA is not used in the Blue Curve Gateway. It's there, b...

Techjunkie
Grasshopper

MoCA is not used in the Blue Curve Gateway. It's there, but it's not being used. The tech actually installed a MoCA filter to block the MoCA signal getting to the Gateway back when they installed mine. I also disabled it in the settings, and it fixed all the speed/connection issues I was having (ages ago).

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The less-expensive connection would be to use WiFi from t...

mdk
Legendary Grand Master

The less-expensive connection would be to use WiFi from the Shaw router to either the computer's built-in WiFi, or to purchase a USB-connected WiFi adapter, especially if the computer is "vertically-close" to the Shaw box, to get a strong signal.

The more-expensive solution: TP-Link AV2000 2-Port Gigabit Passthrough Powerline Starter Kit, to create 2 Gbit Ethernet carried over your house's wiring.

 

 

 

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Sorry I should have been more clear in my initial post. I...

springbok
Grasshopper

Sorry I should have been more clear in my initial post. I have an AC wifi adapter attached to my PC that I'm currently using to connect these two points but I'm only getting about 150mb throughput with a fair bit of interference.

I have used powerline adapters before but they are also susceptible to interference. This is why I'm looking into a moca connection 

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I'm wanting to know what the moca capabilities of the rou...

springbok
Grasshopper

I'm wanting to know what the moca capabilities of the router are (ie: will it work for data transmission, or is it only there to support moca TV boxes) 

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The MoCA capabilities of the BlueCurve gateway would be f...

shaw-valerie
Moderator
Moderator

@springbok The MoCA capabilities of the BlueCurve gateway would be for use with cable boxes, not to connect other internet devices unfortunately. 

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unfortunately that's not true.  The 2-port Gigabit powerl...

dwneumann
Grasshopper

unfortunately that's not true.  The 2-port Gigabit powerline kit doesn't give you 2 Gpbs, in reality my 1200 Mbps powerline adapters give me 30 Mbps.   Yes, you read that right.   30 instead of the advertised 1200 Mbps.   And the WiFi solution is not much better.  50 Mbps maximum, going through walls and floors.   The MoCA solution is the only one that will give you 400Mbps to your basement.  Unfortunately, there are known firmware bugs with the cable modems (even with the POE filters correctly placed) when you introduce MoCA adapters into your cable network.   Your wireless devices will just randomly stop getting internet connection, even though they are connected to the router/modem.   Its a known firmware bug.   

The only setup that is reported to work reliably (and unfortunately one of the only ones I cannot test myself)  is running fiber optic cable to the house and cat6 wiring into all your rooms.

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>   ... the WiFi solution is not much better.  50 Mbps ma...

mdk
Legendary Grand Master

>   ... the WiFi solution is not much better.  50 Mbps maximum, going through walls and floors.

Some wireless routers project their signal in a "donut" shape -- strong signal on the same floor as the router, but a weaker signal one floor "below" the router.  Some routers have antennas that can be rotated to be "horizontal" -- the strongest signal is at 90 degrees to the direction of the antenna. Some routers need to be physically rotated, to move that "donut" downward to the lower floor. Give it a try.

 

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I have the shaw blue curve gateway and I am able to conne...

boons
Grasshopper

I have the shaw blue curve gateway and I am able to connect moca to my upstair room with only one moca adaptor. You have to turn on the moca on the shaw blue gateway modem thru the admin panel. Once it turns on, you can use one maca adaptor in the other room. No moca adaptor is needed at the modem. Ensure you also install a moca POE ( point of entry ) filter at the point where the cable is coming in from outside. Hope this help.

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That's encouraging to be hear! Odd that the Shaw represen...

springbok
Grasshopper

That's encouraging to be hear!

Odd that the Shaw representative said the Bluecurve's MOCA capabilities were limited to the TV boxes only, but maybe they have changed that through a firmware update?

What sort of throughput are you getting at the upstairs connection point?

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