Testing and Results – Signal Strength and Bandwidth
Test Results – Signal Strength
I, like many people, was thoroughly lost when I first started messing around with Wi-Fi signal strength testers. The numbers are usually negative and seem to go backwards, so it can cause some confusion. Without going into too much detail, a Wi-Fi signal is measured in ‘dBm’ or Decibel-Milliwatts. ‘dBm’ is a power ratio measuring power (in dB) of a measured power referenced against one milliwatt. So for example, a typical radio station will pump out 100 kW of power and have a Power Level of 80 dBm, where 802.11 Wi-Fi networks on the other hand are often received with a signal of less than a milliwatt. They are usually in the -10 to -100 dBm range, where -10 is actually the strongest signal and -100 is the weakest. Simply put the higher (closer to zero if you’re negative) a dBm rating is, the strong the signal. Once you start getting into the -80 to -100 dBm range you’ll probably start having issues with your Wi-Fi.
No real surprises here. We of course get the best signal strength in our Adjacent tests. With the laptop sitting a foot or so from the router it’s going to get a strong signal in both the 5 & 2.4 Ghz bands. As soon as we look at signals from our first Remote Test where the laptop isn’t anywhere near the Wi-Fi source, it immediately takes a dive. Once again, as soon as bring our Extender into play, the signal picks back up, regardless of any impact from the Coax bridging. So to sum up, moving a client closer to a source of a Wi-Fi signal boosts the signal strength, thank you Captain Obvious…
Test Results – Bandwidth Tests
So it’s time to get down to business and see how the WCB6200Q and ECB6200 perform in actual data speed tests. First we’ll look at the Average and Maximum Read/Write speeds in the Adjacent testing.
The charts pretty much speak for themselves with the Direct Connect numbers giving us the maximum speeds we could possibly get between the Server and Client machines. When pushed over Ethernet and through the WCB6200Q LAN ports we see a negligible drop-off from the maximum speeds to the point that it’s not even worth mentioning. Once we go through the ‘Coax Bridge’ though, we do see a hefty drop off in average speeds going from 855 Mbps Read down to 768 Mbps (10% Drop) and a steep 785 Mbps Write down to 571 Mbps (27% Drop).
Wi-Fi performance is average but of course not coming in anywhere near their Marketing speak ‘Theoretical Maximum’ speeds of 1700 Mbps on 5 Ghz and 300 Ghz at 2.4 Ghz. Looking at even maximum numbers the best we saw is 267 Mbps Read at 5 Ghz, which isn’t too bad, and 56 Mbps Read at 2.4 Ghz, which isn’t that great.
Looking at the at the Remote test numbers we don’t see a major drop off in the ‘hard wired’ tests, with Read and Write speeds only dropping a few Mbps. We do see a bit more of a drop in the Ranged tests for Wi-Fi speeds. When we compare the Adjacent and Remote average Wi-Fi data we see a drop of 13% and 2% in 5 Ghz Writes/Reads respectively and 18%/13% in 2.4 Ghz Writes and Reads
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?