Actiontec MoCA WCB6200Q and ECB6200 Review

MoCA Networking the Actiontec way

Occasionally we’ll get some gear rolling through the PCPer offices that are a bit off the beaten path.  The pair of devices on tap today are something you may not come across often, and could very well be something you may not have even heard of.  They are niche products serving a niche need, and that niche is “MoCA.”  Today we’re looking at the Actiontec WCB6200Q 802.11ac MoCA 2.0 Wireless Network Extender and its partner in crime the Actiontec ECB6200 Bonded MoCA 2.0 Network Adapter.

So, what the hell is “MoCA” you ask?  “MoCA” stands for “Multimedia over Coax Alliance” and is a standard for running data over in-house Coax wiring.  Whether you know it or not, you may have already run into MoCA networking as it's often used by cable and satellite companies to connect multi-room DVRs.  Established in 2004, the ‘Alliance’ currently has 45 members including pay TV operators, OEMs, manufacturers and IC vendors.  These members came together and developed a standard to create an in-home backbone for wireless network extension, multi-room digital video recorders (DVRs), over-the-top (OTT) streaming content as well as network access in MDU (Multiple Dwelling Unit) environments.  Using unused frequency bands on the Coax cabling, MoCA comes in 3 flavors, MoCA v1.1 that has speeds of up 175 Mbps, MoCA v2.0 was released in 2010 with speeds of up to 800 Mbps, and just recently announced in April of this year, MoCA v2.5 will see throughput of up to a whopping 2.5 Gbps.  Unfortunately, MoCA v2.5 is so new that we’ve not seen any related hardware yet.

So, what does all that actually mean?  Simply put, MoCA is a way for you to easily get high speed network connectivity to areas that you normally couldn’t.  Unless you are lucky enough to have a house with network drops in each room, you are most likely are using wireless to reach the far corners of your house.  But what if you can’t get a good signal somewhere in your home, or you can get a signal, but the throughput just isn’t up to snuff?  This is where MoCA is supposed to help.  You likely already have a ‘hard wire network’ running into every room of your house, and that’s Coax.  Using a MoCA network you can extend your high speed network’s footprint anywhere in your house you have a Coax port.

Continue reading our review of the Actiontec MoCA adapters!!

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