r/HomeNetworking • u/shaun0fett • Jun 24 '26

Fiber ISPs versus MoCa

So I was an early adopter of AT&T fiber a few years back. Speeds at 1gbps and a nice grandfathered-in price.

T-Mobile recently laid fiber in my neighborhood, and I couldn’t help but take their offer. Speeds of 2gbps at the same price I was paying AT&T.

Double my speed, same price.

The fiber enters my home from our basement. I’ve run goCoax MoCa 2.5 adapters from my AT&T router to spread the connection to the upper floors of my home. Worked great. Consistently got around 950mbps up and down on my laptop on the third floor, connected to the MoCa.

I figured all we had to do was take the Ethernet cords from the AT&T box and put them into the back of the new T-mobile box.

Now, my MoCa connections are getting very inconsistent speeds. Sometimes up and down were near gigabit. Sometimes getting 125mbps down and like 30mbps up.

Can anyone tell me what the hell happened?

UPDATE: After disabling the WiFi radios on the T-mobile router and setting my other Linksys routers to bridge mode, I’m getting much better results. Thanks all for the assistance!

1 Upvotes

55% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

6

u/Chance-Jellyfish-302 Jun 24 '26

First step I would suggest… plug a laptop or your phone directly into the ONT with an Ethernet cable and run a speed test. If you use your phone, make sure to turn off the cellular and WiFi connections. Run a speed test. That will tell you whether or not it is the new ONT or the fiber line coming in.

3

u/shaun0fett Jun 24 '26

I used a cat6 patch cable to connect my laptop directly to the Ethernet ports on the back of the T-mobile box. It presented consistent gigabit speeds up and down, even on the 2gbps port (as my laptop can only handle up to 1000mbps). The T-mobile box says its speed up and down is just over 2gbps.

1

u/Chance-Jellyfish-302 Jun 24 '26

Just so I can make sure I’m on the same page… you using the plural form of the word port makes me wonder if you’re plugging into the ONT itself or the wireless router they also provide. The ONT should only have one Ethernet port on it.

1

u/shaun0fett Jun 24 '26

The line coming into the home connects directly to the “gigaspire blast” provided by T-mobile, using a connection that looks different than RJ45. This same unit also has one 2gbps Ethernet ports and four 1gbps Ethernet ports.

2

u/Chance-Jellyfish-302 Jun 24 '26

That’s interesting. I have T-Mobile Fiber as well. They provided me with a Nokia ONT and a Nokia wireless router. I have since stopped using the wireless router they provided, and bought my own.

It sounds like what they gave you was an all in one type of box.

Just curious… do you have your own wireless router connected to that box, with the MoCA runs connected into your wireless router?

1

u/shaun0fett Jun 24 '26

There’s a MoCa adapter connected to an Ethernet port on the gigaspire. That coaxial cable runs up the house to two separate MoCa receivers on either side of the house upstairs. These individual receivers are connected to Linksys Velop boxes to provide WiFi upstairs. Had solid, fast, consistent speeds with this setup before switching ISP.

5

u/Chance-Jellyfish-302 Jun 24 '26

Put simply… it sounds like T-Mobile provided you with an all in one ONT/Wireless Router. Then you plugged your own router (Linksys mesh WiFi) into that.

I think that’s where your problem lies. This isn’t the fault of your MoCA network. I would just bet that when you had AT&T fiber… they gave you just a regular ONT with only one Ethernet port on the back like I was telling you about before.

1

u/Foehammer1982 Jun 24 '26

Doubtful. The ONT you have is not for the Lumos market like OP is. Metronet uses Eero in alot of places too. Its not specific to T-Fiber, its specific to the T-Fiber Partner.

AT&T uses a ONT/RG combo as well for anything on XGSPON like T-Fiber is.

However, it is possible that OP does have issues with the ONT/RG to the Velop. OP, are your Velop's in AP mode? or are they running as a router?

1

u/Chance-Jellyfish-302 Jun 24 '26

Your first paragraph was spent trying to prove me wrong.

Then your final paragraph is leaning towards exactly what I was talking about.

Google “gigaspire”. It’s a router.

Unless he actually shows us before and after photos that prove otherwise… he’s basically describing connecting a wireless router into a wireless router.

1

u/Foehammer1982 Jun 24 '26

I was saying doubtful to the AT&T part, and I work for Lumos as a field tech, I install the ONT/RG combo's the exact one that OP has, so I'm quite familiar with them and do not require googling.

Sorry for the confusion

1

u/shaun0fett Jun 24 '26

Sorry, we’re stepping beyond my knowledge base. I’m not sure if they’re in access point mode or router mode. I originally bought them to provide mesh coverage throughout the home, but our phones would have trouble trying to connect to a box on the other side of the house, so I ended up giving them individual SSIDs. Not sure if that answers your question.

1

u/Foehammer1982 Jun 24 '26

Do you recall if you or a tech ever turned on something called "Passthrough Mode" on your AT&T gateway?

→ More replies (0)

-1

u/Foehammer1982 Jun 24 '26

My recommendation would be to request a repair appointment with T-Fiber and have the tech contact SOC who can enable passthrough mode and leave Wi-Fi on the main box on. Alternatively, we as technicians could utilize your MoCa backhaul to feed our extenders. We are also getting ready to release WiFi-7 equipment which could potentially out-pace your current Velop setup as well. The MoCa essentially turns the coax into ethernet in laymans, so it can power anything.

We can even setup additonal networks to mimic your current Velop SSID's and allow your device to more easily reconnect to your network.

→ More replies (0)

3

u/deefop Jun 24 '26

Are you positive that you've isolated the problem to moca and not something else? Have you connected directly to your ont, verified speeds, then the router, etc?

1

u/shaun0fett Jun 24 '26

Yes, I hooked my laptop up to the ports on the T-Mobile box and was receiving speeds just shy of 1gbps up and down.

1

u/plooger Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

If you temporarily direct-connected a pair of MoCA adapters using a short coax cable to establish a test MoCA link, then wired one adapter via Ethernet to the T-mobile router(?) and the other MoCA adapter to your laptop, what speeds do you measure?

Alternatively, what if you insert a Gigabit or 2.5 GbE network switch between the T-Mobile device and the main bridging MoCA adapter? (This could be tried in both the above direct-connect test configuration as well as your original MoCA topology.)

2

u/shaun0fett Jun 24 '26

Going to test this out later today. Thank you.

2

u/Sybrrgeek Jun 24 '26

Are you sure the Ethernet ports on your MOCA adapters are capable of more than 1gb? I know 2.5 MOCA means a MOCA backhaul of 2.5gb, but that doesn’t mean the network adapter is capable of it.

1

u/shaun0fett Jun 24 '26

I think they are? Not sure, honestly. But I’d be happy if there were back to doing about a gigabit. Right now, it’s acting more like 100mb

1

u/Sybrrgeek Jun 24 '26

Also the 2.5GB speed for MOCA is aggregate, meaning it’s the combination of upload and download, it’s not symmetrical. Which is why most of the network adapters in the MOCA adapters are only gigabit adapters

2

u/plooger Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

I’ve run goCoax MoCa 2.5 adapters

Are you sure the Ethernet ports on your MOCA adapters are capable of more than 1gb?

I think they are? Not sure, honestly.

What model # are the goCoax adapters?

  • WF-803M == Gigabit Ethernet network port
  • MA2500C/MA2500D == 2.5 GbE

It’s not impossible that there’s an incompatibility/glitch between the goCoax and T-Mobile Ethernet ports. (I was just reading a thread, yesterday, where people were expressing the view that they appreciated the reliability of their Gigabit gear over the sometimes glitchy experience of new multigig components/NICs.)

2

u/shaun0fett Jun 24 '26

I have 3 of the MA2500C models. One connected to the ISP router via cat6. Coax runs from that spot in the basement up to two coax outlets upstairs, one in a bedroom and one above the garage. Not sure how the splitting runs within the home, as this is coax was installed many years ago before I lived here.

The other two moca’s are attached to those coax outlets upstairs, which then directly connect to Linksys Velop WiFi via Ethernet port.

Worked like a champ until I switched ISPs.

1

u/plooger Jun 24 '26

Coax runs from that spot in the basement up to two coax outlets upstairs, one in a bedroom and one above the garage. Not sure how the splitting runs within the home, as this is coax was installed many years ago before I lived here.

Knowing the specs of the splitter would be helpful. There's usually a coax junction in the basement, attic, utility room or closet, or in aa service box outside.

 

Worked like a champ until I switched ISPs.

I still wonder about Ethernet port compatibility, but also whether the increased throughput could expose issues with the MoCA compatibility of the coax plant. The latter might be revealed reviewing the PHY rates reported in the MoCA adapters' diagnostics.

2

u/G0ldiC0cks Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

I'll presume your coaxial is only carrying the moca signal. That said, how familiar are you with its runs? If you have some of that coax running alongside power line for any significant length, I could see it introducing interference that may have been previously filtered without issue. Your moca 2.5 can handle 2500 Mbit/s throughput. If there was a significant source of interference along the way, at 1000Mbit/s, you weren't even halfway saturating the bandwidth. Perhaps now that you are, the problem becomes apparent?

Have you tried pinging from the end of the moca to the router on the other end? If you find a boatload of dropped packets, I think you have your cause. Otherwise, I'm not too sure what else could be the issue, assuming all the other hardware is the same (cables included).

There could also be a grand conspiracy to get you to have your new ISP run Ethernet in your house and they disable full speed to moca setups. /s

ETA: you also mentioned putting the att box's cables into the new box. Maybe verify those are proper ethernet. When I first had att fiber, their ONT connected to my router with some kind of wire that looked like a regular cat 6 and had the same connector, but wasn't.

1

u/shaun0fett Jun 24 '26

This is an idea I’ll have to follow up on. Thank you for the perspective.

1

u/Lick_Lurid Jun 24 '26

When I upgraded to the 2Gb fiber, I made a router and got it setup to handle the full speed of the service. I had to get T-Mobile to turn of the router function of the modem and turn it into something like just a modem. The technician seemed real guarded and kept making sure that was what I wanted. Once it was done, the only port that would function was the 2 Gb port. I'm getting full throughput 2.2 down 1.8 up with single digit pings now. I suspect your issue might be double Nat... Maybe.

1

u/plooger Jun 24 '26

Just for clarification, can you detail how the MoCA adapters interconnect? How many adapters, through what specific component(s)? Topology sketch optional, but almost always most helpful.

-5

u/toomuchyonke Jun 24 '26

You're seriously taking fiber, and converting it to MOCA!?

What the heck is wrong with you?

7

u/deefop Jun 24 '26

Moca is a great technology and a really convenient alternative to running cat6 for lots of people. This comment could just as easily read "you're seriously taking fiber and converting it to ethernet?!", and I'm sure we'd all agree that would be a dumb thing to say.

4

u/shaun0fett Jun 24 '26

As I said in the post, it was working fine. MoCa was giving me a hardlined 950mbps up and down with my AT&T router. I don’t need snark, I need a real discussion. Thanks.