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Netgear MOCA Coax Ethernet Adapter Kit MCAB1001

Gordon Mah Ung — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:00:20 -0500

Turn coaxial cable outlets into a high-speed network connection

Netgear’s MOCA (short for Multimedia over Coax Alliance) adapter is the can solution to the can’t. If you can’t get a reliable Wi-Fi signal throughout your home and you can’t make an Ethernet cable run and you can’t tap your home’s electrical grid with a HomePlug Powerline adapter, than MOCA is the can.

Using existing standard cable coax wires, the Netgear MOCA adapter lets you turn your cable TV runs into a “home entertainment network.” What the hell is that? Since the adapter is built around passing data through your cable TV, it’s no surprise that MOCA wants to push its adoption as an easy way to get Internet connectivity to your set top box, game console, or media center PC.

Setup is Joe-six-pack friendly: Just unplug the coax cable from your TV set and plug it into the Netgear MOCA adapter. Run a second coax cable from the adapter to the TV. TV signals are passed through transparently, so your American Idol viewing won’t be disturbed. And if the signal is degraded you can actually change the frequency the adapter operates on.

The kit includes an adapter to plant near your router/modem and another to place near your set-top box or media center PC.

The included patch cable can be used to connect your game console or media center PC to the Fast Ethernet port on the back of the adapter. Power it up and go to the room where your router or modem is located. Now here’s the rub: Do you have a cable run there? If you don’t have a cable outlet in the same room as your router, you’re SOL. Fortunately, in the land of the couch potato, most new homes are prewired for cable TV. Run coax cable to the second Netgear MOCA adapter, run a patch cable to an open Ethernet port on your router or modem, and power up both. If you’re within the guidelines of a maximum cable run of 300 feet, you should be up and running.

The technology promises a theoretical 270Mb/s transfer speed, which is sufficient for high-def content. Using a Linksys Media Center Extender DMA2200, we streamed both standard-def material and high-def material using the Netgear MOCA adapter to our TV.

We also conducted a rudimentary file transfer to simulate how long it would take to move a file from a server to a media center PC. Using the Netgear MOCA, we moved a 2.4GB video file in about seven minutes. Switching to our 802.11g network, the same file transfer took about 13 minutes. Not bad, but certainly not Gigabit Ethernet. We didn’t have 802.11n capability on our network to test its speeds, but we suspect the MOCA’s transfer speeds are similar to the faster Wi-Fi version—with less of a security risk. Since the MOCA is hardwired and its range is fairly short—300 feet—someone would have to jack into your cable line to intercept signals. The packets on the MOCA adapter are also encrypted by default.

So what’s the catch? The biggest ding is the lack of satellite capability. Even though a satellite provider is a member of the Multimedia over Coax Alliance, MOCA devices do not currently work with satellite installations. D’oh! Second, there’s the cost. At $190 for two adapters, it’s certainly not a cheap way to build a home network.

But again, the Netgear MOCA adapter is really for the person who can’t get any other networking methods to work. For that person, the price may just be worth it.

Imagine Connecting to the Internet with a 300 Baud Modem

Justin Kerr — Sun, 31 May 2009 16:00:57 -0500

An enterprising antique hardware collector known only as “Phreakmonkey” on You Tube has recorded and posted a video showcasing what the internet would have looked like in 1964. After detailing his lovingly preserved Livemore Data Systems “Model A” Acousitc Coupler 300 Baud Modem, he then proceeds to demonstrate how he uses it to establish a connection to the net.

Oddly enough, my 10 Mbps cable modem choked on the streaming video a bit, but my faith in my ISP was quickly restored when I compared it to the 300 characters per second this speed demon maxed out at.

This modem is about as (un)maximum as it gets around here, but it certainly is an interesting watch for nostalgic types who enjoy taking a look back at the history of digital communication.

T-Mobile Gives You 3G Access with New USB Modem

Paul Lilly — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:09:14 -0500

Built by Huawei Technologies, T-Mobile is gearing up to release the "webConnect USB Laptop Stick," a USB-based modem for notebooks to tap into the company's new 3G network. The stick will come with 8GB of internal storage and include a micro SD slot.

According to Jeremy Korst, T-Mobile's director of broadband products and services, the webConnect will provide download speeds of 600Kb/s and peak at over 1Mb/s.

"For the majority of customers, use cases around web browsing, social media, MySpace, checking email - all those typical things we see our customers doing more and more while on the go, the speeds we're providing now are more than sufficient to provide that customer experience," Korst said.

Nifty as the device is, price could end up being an deterrent. The webConnect carries an MSRP of $250, which can be partially offset with a service contract. A two-year contract drops the price down to $50, or $100 with a one-year contract.

(Image Credit: T-Mobile)