Testing and Results – Ping and Packet Loss
Testing a Wi-Fi extender and network adapter that uses MoCA/Coax as its backbone as opposed to straight Ethernet had me scratching my head for a while as it’s unlike most other network testing. Eventually I settled on doing a batch of baseline ‘Adjacent’ tests and comparing them with similar long ‘Ranged’ tests.
For the adjacent tests, I the ‘Server’ and ‘Client’ laptops were within two to three feet of each other. The ‘Ranged’ tests on the other hand involved running the MoCA network through the longest run of Coax cabling I have in my house. Starting in one of the far rooms on the second floor, the Coax run goes up into the attic and to the opposite side of the house. The cable then goes outside and down to the main 10-way tap/splitter. From there, another Coax run goes back up the side of the house, across the attic and down into another room on the first floor on the far side of the house. The run puts a good 160 feet or so of Coax as well as the 10-way tap/splitter between the WCB6200Q and the ECB6200 and should be an approximation of what many would try to do in their homes.
For the test scenarios I wanted to make sure I captured not only maximum possible speeds by running the tests with the two machines connected directly to each other over Ethernet, but I wanted to test a wide range of hard wired and wireless configurations at both the Adjacent and Ranged distances so I could compare them to each other. The test scenarios included:
Adjacent Tests
- Laptop NICs – Direct Connected (Max Throughput)
- Laptop NICs – WCB6200Q LAN Ports
- Laptop NICs – WCB6200Q to ECB6200 Coax Bridge
- Laptop Wi-Fi – WCB6200Q 5 Ghz
- Laptop Wi-Fi – WCB6200Q 2.4 Ghz
- Wi-Fi Signal Strength – Laptop to Router 5 Ghz
- Wi-Fi Signal Strength – Laptop to Router 2.4 Ghz
Ranged Tests
- Laptop NICs – WCB6200Q to ECB6200 Coax Bridge
- Laptop Wi-Fi – WCB6200Q to ECB6200 Coax Bridge 5 Ghz
- Laptop Wi-Fi – WCB6200Q to ECB6200 Coax Bridge 2.4 Ghz
- Wi-Fi Signal Strength – Laptop to Router 5 Ghz, No Extender
- Wi-Fi Signal Strength – Laptop to Router 2.4 Ghz, No Extender
- Wi-Fi Signal Strength – Laptop to Router 5 Ghz, With Extender
- Wi-Fi Signal Strength – Laptop to Router 2.4 Ghz, With Extender
Test Results – Ping Tests
First up, let’s look at the ping tool tests. As I mentioned earlier, this set of tests runs a simple series of pings between the machines looking for response time and dropped packets caused by the network in between them.
You may notice that I don’t even have any charts related to Packet Loss, and that’s simply because I didn’t see any. None of the test scenarios produced any lost packets which is good to see.
Looking at the Adjacent Ping Time tests, we see 0ms delay when the machines were connected by Ethernet, either directly or through the pair of LAN ports on the WCB6200Q. Once we add the Coax ‘bridge’ between the WCB6200Q and the ECB6200 into the mix, we do see a minor increase in average ping times up to 2ms, which does show there’s a bit of overhead with the conversion/de-conversion of Ethernet to Coax and back. The Adjacent Wi-Fi tests using 5Ghz & 2.4 Ghz went up to 3ms and 4ms respectively.
When we move to the Ranged Ping Time test, we see something interesting. Even though there’s more than 160’ of Coax and a splitter/tap between the two machines, when they are connected by Ethernet we’re getting the same 2ms we saw in the Adjacent tests. Both the 5 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz Ranged tests over the Coax bridge doubled the average ping time compared to the Adjacent tests. In both the Adjacent and Ranged Wi-Fi testing, the Laptop and WCB6200Q were about the same distance apart so it’s just the addition of the Coax bridge that seems to be causing the bump up in average ping times of Wi-Fi.
MoCA adapters are really only
MoCA adapters are really only good if you’re renting a place and are not allowed to mess with stuff. However if the owner hasn’t properly grounded the coax, there are high chance this gear will burn out. Otherwise there is a lot of cheaper stuff.
I disagree that this is only
I disagree that this is only useful if you rent. I own my house but don’t want to pay someone to rip up the walls of my finished basement and then rip up the walls upstairs to string CAT6 up to my bedroom on the second floor. That’s why I’m interested in this MoCA extender.
Thanks for the great review–very helpful on the results. But I disagree with your conclusion that getting WiFi extenders is a better idea than this MoCA extender. WiFi has never been reliable and fast to distant corners of even medium sized houses. If you’re sharing files across a LAN, having 600 to 800 Mbps of solid and reliable throughput is head and shoulders above what any wireless repeater/bridge can do. Wish it could do the full gigabit speeds in both directions though–maybe I’ll wait for the MoCA 2.5 devices to hit the market.
I’ve run, installed and used
I’ve run, installed and used MOCA in many residences as FIOS customer and for cable customers. Never had any moca adapters “burn out.”
I disagree also. We bought a
I disagree also. We bought a newly renovated house in the Bay Area in February, and while the house was equipped with all of the latest energy saving appliances, LED lighting, and a highly efficient heating system, etc., there was curiously no thought to wiring the house with cat6 while the walls were open. What it does have is coax. I considered doing the job of running the cat6 myself, and may still do sometime in the future, but I couldn’t wait for that and went with the Actiontec adapters. I had to connect and terminate all of the coax runs myself, and added two new runs. Bottom line is that these work beautifully. I have a few Tivo devices on the network so connecting them via MOCA was a bonus, not my initial objective. Great show every week guys!
The ECB6200 Bonded Network
The ECB6200 Bonded Network Adapter worked great in my situation. I have a back house that is currently wired for cable but not ethernet. I was able to use my adapter and the Verizon supplied Fios Quantum Gateway and achieve pretty decent performance. I would have ran ethernet but I’d rather not dig up the conduit.
I have been using moca
I have been using moca extenders and wifi for about 3 or 4 years(maybe 2, who cares) now with fios. I really like them. Every room is already wired with cable coax. Made it easy to get a wired connection to 4 computers, a television, and 3 game consoles. Add the 2.4ghz and 5ghz wifi network of each to extend the wireless with to a total of 5 phones, 2 laptops, 2 tablets and whatever else is running on it. There’s not a dead spot in the house. Mind you, everything is always running, but it’s stout enough for the average consumer. The only drawback my setup has is sharing from one computer to the other, but no one in my household shares files as such. The only thing that is shared is a printer.
Why can’t you share files?
I
Why can’t you share files?
I currently have an inexpensive DECA extender made by directtv (100Mbps max, not gigabit) up to my second floor bedroom using coax, and it works great, including sharing files. I just wish it were gigabit, which is why I’m interested in MoCA.
It’s a choice. I can make a
It’s a choice. I can make a homegroup, stream from one device to another. It’s a simple thing of I have no interest in what a 16 and 18 year old teen female is saving, nor a 20 year old male. Me and my wife use the same desktop. It’s nothing to do with the tech.
If I had to guess on the
If I had to guess on the speed of the network, I’d say 150-250 mbps from one device to another. Im guessing on the abbreviation. I use gen 1 or 2 of moca.
How did you confirm you had
How did you confirm you had the latest firmware? I can’t find any reference on Actiontec’s website.
Also, one user pointed out issues with transfers of large files, with speed dropping to 0 for a couple of seconds.
References:
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/actiontec-wcb6200q-extender.28150/
https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/3n4rgp/wcb6200q_is_now_available_moca_20_80211ac_network/cwx0f2e
Another user pointed out issues with the web-based admin, which “works only occasionally.”
Reference:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/3n4rgp/wcb6200q_is_now_available_moca_20_80211ac_network/cyqubhp
Did you experience either of those problems? What is your firmware dated?
Confused about MoCa and this
Confused about MoCa and this Wireless AC Extender.
I have CableService Internet (Coax) upstairs to my TC8717T Gateway (with AC WiFi), Which is MoCa 2.0.
CableService Coax also goes to my Cable/DVR unit downstairs, with HDMI to my SmartTV. TheSmart TV also has ethernet and WiFi channel in (for Amazon & Netflix & other applications) and today I only use the WiFi.
I want two things:
1. Wired Ethernet to the TV (for Amazon, Netflix other), and
2. Extended WiFi downstairs (with wired ethernet backhaul), so I don’t lose connection when I go outside (very small house/patio, but the 5G upstairs has to go through both floor and multiple walls. If downstairs it would just be 1 wall or maybe 2).
There is no CAT5/6 in the house, and I can’t practically speaking add them.
If I insert a Coax splitter and wire up the WCB6200 near the Cable/DVR box and run ethernet from the extender to the SmartTV, would this work? And for WiFi, if I use the same SSID and passwords from the Gateway wireless settings (or use the WPS sync, per the WCB6200Q user manual) will the extender wireless connect and work correctly (with coax cable as wired backhaul)? Keep in mind the extender is ActionTec and the Gateway is Technicolor. Also the TC8717C has only one Coax connector.
I don’t really want to spend the $170 just to hope it “might work”.
If you have Fios you can buy
If you have Fios you can buy or rent the extender from Verizon. It come with a slitter for $99.00. works great and I am going to add a second one on the other side of the house. The Gateway is in the basement and my WiFi does not do well on the first floor without the extenders.
I have the FIOS Quantum
I have the FIOS Quantum Gateway router and recently purchased the WCB6200 to extend wifi and hardwired coverage in my home. However, I am not sure I understand how the two work together. The WCB6200 is connected in an upstairs room using coax cable while the Gateway is connected downstairs also using coax cable. Do the two devices communicate over coax cable such that the WCB6200 emulates my Gateway or is the communication done over RF which would reduce broadband speeds to the upstairs? I have a 75 mbps broadband connection to my home and was hoping that I would have that same connection speed whether I was hardwired connected downstairs or upstairs. Can anyone help me understand please?