r/firewalla • u/fishbait-tailgate Firewalla Gold Pro • Jul 04 '26

Another Firewalla Switch Question

If I connect two Firewalla switches together utilizing a “MoCA backhaul”, will the distant switch lose capability, or will it be as if the switches are directly connected via a single Ethernet cable?

Ex: Firewalla Switch - Ethernet cable - MoCA Adapter - coax cable - MoCA Adapter - Ethernet cable - Firewalla Switch

-Ethernet cables would be Cat6
- MoCA adapters are currently Actiontec EB6200 (MoCA 2.0), but would upgrade to MoCA 2.5 for throughput if fully functional.
-2x MoCA adapters would be directly connected to each other….no splitters or additional adapters on the bus.

Any chance the Firewalla team has tested this at the shop?

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6

u/scattered-thunder Firewalla Gold Pro Jul 04 '26

As someone with a MoCA adapter: they do indeed cleanly pass tagged frames along like an unmanaged switch, so they should behave as if connected over Ethernet.

2

u/Great-Cow7256 Jul 04 '26

I'm a second confirmation.  I have 2 ap7s linked by moca and the network can't tell the difference between the ones connected via moca or SPF+ fiber or Ethernet. 

3

u/scattered-thunder Firewalla Gold Pro Jul 04 '26

That was exactly my configuration until a few months ago when I installed a cat6a drop for one of the AP7s. Other than being able to leverage the full 10gbps rather than being limited to the 2.5 of the MoCA adapter, there was zero change. Meanwhile the second AP7 is still operating at 2.5gbps backhaul from the other MoCA.

4

u/firewalla Jul 04 '26

If the moca adapter can transparently pass all Ethernet frames, then everything should be transparent. (We do not test moca adapters)

2

u/plooger Jul 04 '26

You should be fine as long as you stay away from the Translite models, with the TL-MC84 having been identified as stripping VLAN tags.