Struts's Networking Thread

Audio Systems
64

It sounds like going from v1 to v3 is a big step forward :slight_smile: Their devices are also quieter than the 1U rack mount Xeon-based server I installed in the garage…

That said, I’m happy with the performance (and saturating a 1Gbps line only pushes the processor usage to about 0.7%!).

65

I’ve got 2 meshed AP’s I’d like to wire, running network cable would be about impossible

Who do we like for MoCa adapters?

I’ve already got coax run within a few meters of them. This would be the easiest solution

66

Sorry Chris, no experience at all with MoCa, it’s just not a thing here.

67

I figured it was worth a try :smiley:

1 Like
68

It was! Cable TV (which I am guessing is where your Coax originates) was never a huge thing here and I have never seen or been asked for MoCa before. I believe it is a similar in the UK where several of the other regulars here appear to be based. But maybe someone with some experience from the US or some other market with higher cable penetration can comment.

I have to admit “X over Y” workarounds set my teeth on edge, but that is based on experience with PLC and MoCa may be a completely different kettle of worms, especially if said Coax is “dark” and no longer carrying TV signals.

69

Correct. In fact I had to look up what MoCa is . The site offering information about it talks of the coax cable installed on “most” homes. Frankly I have never come across such a thing in the UK ( though it might exist in untypical houses) and assume that Struts is right about cable TV. Never happened here. To me it looks like a N. American thing.

70

In the Netherlands most homes have a cable TV connection (coax).

1 Like
71

It’s only been recent, last decade or so, homes have been network wired. That was for the posh and well to do prior. Mostly following the roll out of fiber backbone. Our cable TV providers still to a certain extent have a monopoly on data and catv. ATT and Verizon have installed some fiber networks in areas where they sued for access and won. All of our data is run through coax to the house with a coax modem. The Moca technology has been around for a number of years. To be honest, I just learned of it this week. Seems there is a lot of wasted bandwidth capability I’m able to utilize by the adapters. Only seems to be about 6 major company’s. Motorola, Hitron, goCoax, Screenbeam (formerly Actiontec and a couple others. Sorting through all the real and paid reviews is tedious. Think I’ve narrowed it down to Motorola or Hitron. Still deciding

72

It was a “thing” in the UK, but a quite small one, mainly because of the success of Sky which was satellite-based. Looking forward to the day someone asks if they can use their Sky dish to connect to their Vivaldi!

I think Telenet(? maybe got the name wrong) offered cable and maybe one other. Sweden had a cable operator (ComHem) that had some success in urban areas but most households went from DSL (copper) directly to fiber.

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We’ve gone DSL to coax to fiber

DSL was just starting to be spoken about in the early 80’s when I lived in Bath

74

Yes, though I don’t think it ever reached the scale to enable one to say “most” UK homes have an existing coax installation which can be converted to MoCa. Cable TV has been used on a very limited basis, often provided to a single town such as Swindon, for decades. More activity came during the 1980s and 1990s when the government thought it may have a future and set up a regulator; the Cable Authority. Nothing much came of this and the Authority became absorbed into Ofcom. Of course Virgin can provide TV via fibre ( having taken over the pre-existing Mercury network). Whatever, overall the limited cable offered seems to have been been rapidly superseded here mostly by satellite delivery ( Sky) as you point out.

75

Installed the Moca adapters today. Lina is Coming off the same switch with the Apple TV which pullied 950 down on speed test. Prior this switch was connected to a meshed AP and speed test was about 150 down. I streamed some hi Rez Qobuz for a while and was astonished at the sound quality difference. Wasnt just my ears that noticed. Step son walked in the big room and asked what changed

76

Great news Chris. However bandwidth would never have been the issue, even at 150Mb/s, but latency. Are you able to measure latency vs the MESH network?

Btw, I never understood, is the coax network still live, ie carrying cable TV signals? If so, do you notice any difference in performance in the audio with the STB on and the TV active vs off/not? (maybe they are in the same room and this use case doesn’t make much practical sense?)

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Yes. TV is still live. No difference. Those signals are on a different frequency spectrum going through the coax. Placement is on opposite end of the house

78

Thanks Chris. I understand the basic principle of shared medium networking. MoCa is essentially the same as HomePlug AV, just operating in a higher frequency band. But that in itself is not a guarantee of no interference. I have had problems with HomePlug caused by noise generated by other appliances on the spur. Just curious if you had tested with and without the STB switched on to see if there is any differences in latency and subjective SQ or whether you just took it on trust.

But really happy that it’s working for you.

79

I have not test the latency. gauging strictly on performance, all lag is gone while watching programs with the Apple TV

80

Your setup is impressively thought out—great balance between security and usability. Totally agree on the Apple quirks; helpful, but often a nightmare for fine-tuned networks!

82

Hi @anon99318867,

[Struts here. Since posting that I have joined dCS and this is my new account]

Thanks for the encouragement. Although that post is a couple of years old now very little has actually changed in my network architecture and configuration and I have had no security breaches or malware incidents that I am aware of. So the setup seems to be serving its purpose.

I don’t do anything special for monitoring, just use the standard Unifi functionality which covers all my needs. I manage a handful of networks and can do that very easily from my Unifi account, so I habitually go in and check the dashboard for each of them a couple of times a week - invariably only to find out everything is working fine. Unifi will alert me to anything untoward that happens by email so I see problems in near real-time, and the remainder of what I can read in the logs is pretty much just informational and not problem-related.

All pretty uneventful really, which is just how I like it!

PS I can’t help noticing that the text you quoted from my post (last sentence, third bullet-point) contains text that wasn’t in my original and appears to be some sort of advertisement for an online gaming site. Unless you’re a particular fan of that site and added it yourself (which I think might be in breach of the Terms of Service) it occurs to me that it just might have been inserted by some malware on the machine you posted from. Might be worth checking.

2 Likes
83

@AndrewS I think that justakin is a bot, not a real human. Its forum posts are always long winding reactions on old posts, which are quoted in full.

If you see its stats:

Stats

  • 7 days visited

  • 15m read time

  • 6m recent read time

  • 10 topics viewed

  • 43 posts read

  • 0 given

  • 8 received

  • 0 topics created

  • 7 posts created

15 min total read time, 43 posts read, 7 posts created???

Look at the openings of its 7 posts:

Wow, that’s a very thorough setup

I completely agree with your take

Hello and welcome to the community!

Good point.

I think you’ve raised a really important point.

Welcome! It’s always great to see new members diving into the world of dCS.

You make a really thoughtful point.

3 Likes
84

Thanks @Ermos, something in the back of my mind said the reply smelt a bit AI-like, but the idea that the user is actually a bot never occurred to me. @James.