I recently switched to a 100/100 FIOS plan to Gigabit. While the ONT is in my garage, all of my coax and Ethernet connections are home-run to the basement. Under the 100/100 plan, the WAN connection to the ONT was delivered over my home-run coax line from the garage to the basement. A Verizon G1100 router in the basement took the MoCA WAN signal and bridged it to my Ethernet network connected to a separate switch.
Of course, 100/100 is the maximum that Verizon will deliver over coax, even though the MoCA 2.0 protocol in the G1100 supports up to 500 mbps. Still not enough to support Gigabit service, but greater than 100/100. Unfortunately, I do not have Ethernet home-run from the ONT to the basement, so began to explore the use of bonded 2.0 MoCA adapters to service the Gigabit feed from the ONT’s Ethernet WAN port to my G1100 via the existing coax run.
I purchased a pair of the Actiontec ECB6200 MoCA adapters, and figured the on-site Verizon techs could figure this out, since the network topology seemed pretty straightforward...at least, to me. Unfortunately, the techs were unfamiliar with this device, and were unable to establish a WAN link using them. Before giving up, and reverting back to my 100/100 coax-connected plan, I figured I’d give it a whirl, myself. I’m a tech professional, but was not previously familiar with the MoCA specs, so this required some exhaustive searches for information on the web, as well as some trial and error.
After ER a few attempts, I managed to establish the Ethernet bridge using the Actiontec devices, but the link was unstable and would also impact the FIOS STBs that also connect via coax. Also, the Actiontec documentation is extremely sparse. Finally, after about a week of tooling around, I got everything working and am enjoying full Gigabit service. I therefore figured I’d share, so others with similar setups can benefit...
Equipment:
Actiontec ECB6200 Bonded MoCA 2.0
G1100 Verizon FIOS router
MoCA 2.0 compliant splitter (2)
MoCA 1.1 compliant A/V splitter 6-way to connect home-run coax to set-top boxes.
Steps:
Call Verizon to switch from coax WAN to Ethernet WAN port, on ONT.
The G1100 uses MoCA frequency of 1000 MHz for WAN; 1150 MHz for LAN. The ECB6200 defaults to 1150 MHz, so must change to avoid network conflict with G1100 MoCA LAN frequency.
To change the Actiontec MoCA frequency, directly connect an Ethernet cable between computer and ECB6200.
Set Ethernet IP details on computer, as follows:
IP Address: 192.168.144.10
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Router: 192.168.144.1
Browse to 192.168.144.30
Access ECB6200 Configuration settings and change, as follows:
RF Channel: 1400
RF Band: Band D Hi
RF Switch: Hi
Submit. Power cycle, and re-access to confirm that changes took effect. Repeat for other adapter.
Use a MoCA 2.0 compliant splitter.
Connect main coax line (garage termination, in my case) to “input” port of splitter.
Connect coax from ONT to one output port.
Connect ECB6200 “Coax In” to other output port.
Connect Ethernet cable from ONT to ECB6200.
At other end of main coax line (basement, in my case):
Use another MoCA 2.0 compliant splitter, though not sure if this is necessary.
Connect main coax line to splitter “input".
Connect splitter to ECB6200 “Coax In” port.
Connect splitter to A/V splitter in (this feeds my STBs).
Connect Ethernet cable from ECB6200 to G1100 WAN port.
Connect coax from G1100 to video splitter (creates MoCA 1.1 network bridge for STBs, which is still required).
I hope this helps others who may be facing a similar challenge!