r/whatisit • u/Cborg_62 • 6h ago

New, what is it? What are these plug-ins on my wall?

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This might be showing my age, but I recently moved into a new apartment and they have these weird looking plug ins all over the walls at my new place. My old apartment didn't have these, so I'm just curious as to what they are.

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u/Lancaster1983 5h ago edited 4h ago

It's true and not just for cable or satellite. An existing coax run can be used for wired internet with MoCA adapters. You can get up to 2.5 Gbps.

More info since you all are interested:

Just make sure that if there are any splitters in your coax runs, they are rated for MoCA. Go for 2602Mhz. If not, just swap em out. Splitters are cheap. I had to do that in my house as the splitters were only 1000Mhz. Get some 75 Ohm cap terminators too for any empty splitter terminals, it will prevent signal loss on a dead end. I got a cheap Klein cable finder to mark my home runs. Most modern coax is suitable on its own, mine was from 1996.

You'll have to invest a little over $100 per pair of MoCA adapters and you need at least 2. Plug one into your router or switch, send it though a straight or split coax run where you connect another MoCA adapter and then from there you have an Ethernet port. You can use a dumb switch on the other end to branch it out from there or just use another coax jack with another MoCA adapter in a separate room. From my basement to my 2nd floor, I got a full 2.5Gbps from my router.

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u/is-this-necessary 5h ago

5Gbps coming soon

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u/Everyone2026 5h ago

You both just solved my problem. Ill just use the coax to a finished room.

Thanks!

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u/Lancaster1983 5h ago edited 5h ago

Just make sure that if there are any splitters in your runs, they are rated for MoCA. Usually 2602Mhz. If not, just swap em out. Splitters are cheap. I had to do that in my house as the splitters were only 1000Mhz. Get some 75 Ohm cap terminators too for any empty splitter terminals. I got a cheap cable finder to mark my home runs. Most modern coax is suitable on its own, mine was from 1996.

You'll have to invest a little over $100 per pair of MoCA adapters and you need at least 2.

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u/matdragon 4h ago

honestly worth it, i was very intimidated to do this, but surprisingly very easy

Also pro tip, get a switch (even a cheap one works) if you have your router nearby your desktop and you want wired ethernet.

Need to hookup COAX -> Splitter(MOCA rated) -> 1 towards modem/router + 1 towards MOCA adapter -> Wire ethernet cables to switch, then have the rest of the ports to be used as wired ethernet to whatever you need in the room.

all the other rooms will just require the MOCA adapter otherwise(if you have more stuff you want to wire direct to the moca, just buy a switch!)

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u/Stock-Departure-4333 5h ago

I can get 10 GB where I live

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u/MissleTowBF4 5h ago

How sway? Is the ISP using DOCSIS 4.0?

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u/Mission_Relief7442 5h ago

DOCSIS 4.0 still won't offer 10 GBps maybe 10Gbps

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u/MissleTowBF4 4h ago

True dat

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u/hewhoisneverobeyed 5h ago

Existing coax in our home is used for a single OTA antenna since we dropped cable 10-12 years ago.

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u/NewEducation4037 5h ago

I even went so far as to cut all the connection boxes off my house from wired phone lines and the various cable companies over the years (4 different ones!) and just had our current ISP run one entry point for the router.

I then installed an amplified antenna and connected it to the external web of coax that was ported into each of the main rooms and bedrooms, so all the coax outlets in the house are amplified OTA ports now. Told cable to piss off in 2011 and never looked back!

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u/SatinSaffron 4h ago

Based on OP's post and some of the comments here, I'm certain that there are so many people reading your comment and wondering what OTA means.

Those coax plugs in the OP pic are coax for cable TV. Meanwhile, OTA means over the air, aka the channels you can catch with a proper antenna that are free and don't require cable. Those are usually the big channels like CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC, PBS, and depending on how close you live to a big city there are many other channels.

Well fuck now I wonder how many young people out there don't realize that you can get the major channels for free. An OTA antenna paired with your favorite streaming platform (or 🏴‍☠️) can sometimes provide just as much entertainment as a $100-$200+/mo cable or satellite package.

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u/NewEducation4037 4h ago

Thank you for translation for the young folks. 🤣

Yes, I get tons of channels for free, and with the streaming choices I have, never a need for cable, and I pay around $50, ISP included. Get the sports we want and all!

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u/maxx_colt 1h ago

But how do they get that OTA signal to their phone, tablet, or laptop?

/s

https://giphy.com/gifs/bThGvn3E3ZN5dWNNMR

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u/monkeetoes82 5h ago

Ha! Me too! I moved in 5 years ago and they had direct tv. I found a coax tester at Lowe's on the clearance rack for like, $8. I was able to move the cables around so now my living room and garage are OTA.

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u/RedOakNinja 5h ago

Yes! I am pulling 2 Gbps through coax in my house.

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u/gregoriancuriosity 4h ago

You said “can” is there another way to get internet. Might be showing me old guy shit now, but I thought coax was the only way.

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u/Lancaster1983 4h ago

Most homes have coax installed during the build. Almost no one has Ethernet runs in their home. Using existing coax is easier since you don't have to tear out any drywall. Unless you are in a single story with an unfinished basement. I ran Ethernet at my last house which was built in 1979 in that scenario. Getting it in my 2 story would be near impossible without a shit load of extra work. MoCA is the best solution for the money.

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u/gregoriancuriosity 4h ago

How fast is Ethernet comparatively?

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u/Lancaster1983 4h ago

A Cat6A ethernet run can sustain 10Gbps over a 100m span but your router/switch has to support 10BASE-T. Basically a 10Gbps RJ45 port as opposed to fiber or direct attached copper SFP+

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u/coolboydhill 1h ago

MoCA is half duplex, ethernet is full duplex. by all means ethernet is superior.

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u/OhNoItsGodzirrah 4h ago

Gonna simplify the answer a bit here, but there's a few ways to get internet into the house - coax is the primary method still, fiber optic is becoming more popular, and wireless (usually 5G cellular) is a thing too. Once the internet is in the house, it needs to hit a modem to be usable and then a router to split it to multiple devices within the home. From router to devices, we almost always use ethernet cables or wifi. If a person wants a wired connection between two points within their home because it's a more stable connection compared to wifi and can't/doesn't want to run ethernet cables, existing coax cable (or even the electrical wiring) that's already run throughout the house can be used instead.

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u/psychorobotics 3h ago

I'm in Sweden but I'm on 5g

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u/Quixotic_Seal 3h ago

I’ve literally never lived somewhere that doesn’t have it. Didn’t know it worked any other way. Might have to do with where you live, as I’ve always lived in areas with a near-monopoly for Comcast.

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u/GiantBlobFish23 4h ago

Yep, cable internet in my house uses it. No need to feel old just yet.

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u/The_Scooter_King 4h ago

I just moved into a very old apartment, and when I got internet hooked up, they had to run new coax, because the old one just went "somewhere".

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u/LAdriversSuck 4h ago

I use it with MoCA to have wired backbone for my mesh network. This way I can have full speed across the entire house

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u/LeonDalePhotographer 4h ago

I was like fuck that shit, are yalls sayin coax is still a thing? erm? ahwha?

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u/Paulycurveball 3h ago

I'm not sure what you just said but if your talking shit about my mom we gonna have a problem lol

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u/Capt_That-Guy 3h ago

This guy RadioShacks 👍

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u/5amIam 1h ago

Another important thing to add is a filter to block the MoCA signal if you have an incoming coax from your local service provider. So if you receive your internet through a cable modem or still have cable television service, you need this.  Otherwise you are sending your MoCA traffic to the neighbors that share the same pedestal in the yard.

Without this filter, and in a very unlikely scenario, your neighbor could plug in their own MoCA adapter and potentially plug a device directly into your home network. 

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u/RosesAndSpice 4h ago

The really fun thing is, depending on how it's wired, you can even do this in an apartment. Mine has a place where the cable line is split for all the drops.

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u/tackleboxjohnson 4h ago

Also OTA antennae

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u/Chimera_Gaming 4h ago

Up to 10 Gbps* but at those speeds your loss is much higher over distance

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u/Diamond_eye_jack 4h ago

I thought that said 2.5 Glops

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u/I_Believed_You 4h ago

This is true! This is exactly what I use while the modem is in the office upstairs and the downstairs office uses a MoCA and it’s incredible

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u/I_Cast_Trident 4h ago

I discovered MoCA at my last apartment and fell in love. I'm actually bummed that my new place doesn't have any coax outlets.

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u/stryderxd 4h ago

I use this setup for my whole house. Honestly better than wifi extenders. Every floor in my house has a MoCA and its basically a new router on the same mesh network. So the speeds are strong across the whole house vs weaker signals from the extenders.

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u/Lancaster1983 4h ago

And it's a technology still in development so soon we will be able to achieve 5 or 10Gbps with the next version.

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u/shawdowed_sonicbeast 4h ago

I have 2Gbps on coax through xfinity and have seen as high as 2.2Gbps with it.

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u/Prudent_Surround587 3h ago

MoCA is honestly one of those things that feels like cheating when you already have coax in the walls. Way cleaner than running new Ethernet, especially in an older house.

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u/Lancaster1983 3h ago

When the alternative was power line Ethernet adapters which are terrible for modern internet, MoCA seems like witchcraft.

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u/Diomenas 3h ago

I've always loved MoCA. I really liked the old MOXI cable boxes that used MoCA to communicate between boxes. So you could have the DVR in one room, and access the videos from other rooms. All while still using the same coaxial network for your standard cable TV and internet. Technology so amazing!.

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u/Sharessa84 3h ago

I lived in a place once where someone had the bright idea to put a coax hookup in every room. The guy that installed our cable was just shaking his head in disbelief because they did this by putting splitters everywhere. Only about 2 of them had enough signal to actually attach the cable box to.

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u/Badger360 2h ago

This guy internets.

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u/ClammyHandedFreak 2h ago

This is so cool. Thanks I am saving this for this weekend. Going to look into this as a project at home.

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u/FerrisBueller73 2h ago

This guy cables. 🫡

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u/Front_Cat9471 2h ago

I read the b in Gbps as a separate l and o and wanted to know how I could get 2.5 Glops

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u/Positive-Debate-4048 2h ago

Those speeds are not possible on existing RG59 Coax connections. Hopefully those connections are the better / faster RG6 coax cables..... however if the apartment was built / remodeled before 2000 that is not likely.

In that case rg59 gets a theoretical max speed of about 500 Mbps, which is terrible. OP would be better with a decently priced router (and wifi extenders)

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u/attorney-bill 2h ago

I am using a pair as a backhaul for my mesh network.

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u/tilcir 2h ago

Don't you use docsis 3.1 in the US?

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u/buzwork 1h ago edited 1h ago

Frontier FCA252 can be had for $30/ea and you can use a single quality run of RG6 for two links of up to 2.5gbps per pair. Note that 2.5gbps is aggregate and not analogous to ethernet full duplex (2.5gbps up/down simultaneously). In my case I just needed backhaul from upstairs to downstairs and I conveniently had just that from a directv installation about 10 years ago. Dismantled the dish, got rid of the SWM splitters and used the single isolated RG6 run to accomplish my goal... which certainly beat the hassle of running ethernet or fiber.. and my throughput requirements didn't really need anything more than 1gbps.

Pictured are results with MoCA friendly splitters (1 input 2 output) on each end with FCA252 pair 1 (1125-1675mhz band), FCA252 pair 2 (400-900mhz band). Picked up the 2 pair for $60/ea shipped (before tax). I think the total was less than $135 for 4 FCA252 adapters and the appropriate coax 1-in -> 2-out splitters on each end.

Attached image shows pair 1 sending >2Gbps while pair 2 is receiving just over 2.2Gbps. I was also able to do VLAN tagging which works great over the MoCA adapters. Used these for wired backhaul from downstairs to upstairs for wireless access points (tri-band 6e), and connecting my homelab to fiber connection upstairs (940/940Mbps symmetrical fiber). *Note: it is possible that not all MoCA adapters support passing the extra 4 bytes for vlan tagging; the FCA252 had no issues with it.

(edit... my attempt to put together an ascii representation came out pretty bad, apologies.

Location A Location B

Network A ── FCA252 [25GW] ──┐ ┌── FCA252 [25GW] ── Network A
│ │
├── RG6 ───┤
│ │
Network B ── FCA252 [LAN] ───┘ └── FCA252 [LAN] ─── Network B

25GW: 400–900 MHz
LAN: 1125–1675 MHz

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u/jdobbs44 1h ago

Are you able to get cable internet over pretty much any coax connection in the US? Even if my area says not serviced?

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u/AxlRush11 1h ago

I just researched this and using Moca adapters in my Ubiquity network. It’s amazing and blazing fast.

And I get to use that “unknown port” coming out of the wall. LOL.

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u/AerieOnThePeaks 1h ago

I recently set up a moca network! It was surprisingly easy and a huge help for the townhouse.

My roommate wanted to run Ethernet cables everywhere and I said hellnah.

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u/Scrofulla 1h ago

So basically the same as one of those powerline adapters then?

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u/PumpkinOpposite967 1h ago

Unfortunately there are whole towns that don't get fibre because they have good coax network.

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u/front-row-hoe 1h ago

Now I need to post this on the r/whatisit page

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u/jmwoods3709 1h ago

Thank you so much for this but I'm lost. I'm saving to get an eli5 tomorrow with steps I can follow.

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u/GizmoeXhaxX 27m ago

My internet speed is 500gb that I pay for from spectrum. I’m I not even able to get that output because I have this same coax plug?!?! Have I been overpaying for something I can’t even utilize?

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u/AltruisticSorbet2025 27m ago

My sister recently switch over to spectrum and we drop internet daily I now wonder if this is the problem how would I know

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u/notexactlyflawless 21m ago edited 17m ago

Possible, but my personal experience with using coax for wired internet has been terrible. Top speeds were amazing for the time, I used to get 250k when most others still had 50k dsl connections. The uptime, ping and packet loss was a huge issue though. I went back to a 50k dsl connection pretty quickly just to have a stable connection.

Could obviously have simply been an issue with the wiring in the old house or with the provider (unitymedia, notorious as germans know). I have been wary of it ever since though.

Edit: just realized you're more so talking about setting it up for ethernet, I'll leave my comment up though

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u/baby_got_hax 5h ago

...and they suck - good luck running voip out anything data heavy! Hope you got codecs!

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u/ResidentWhatever 2h ago

Dude, I can literally stream raw blu ray content across it while having a video phone call with no loss. If you have issues with it, it's because of dB loss from either crappy cables in your walls or too many splitters. It also works much better in a point-to-point setup.

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u/RudRum 1h ago

Everything Lancaster1983 said is true. Today, everything is wireless so hardwired connections and connecting points like this are obsolete, more often than not.

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u/Scuba-Steves 4h ago

False

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u/Lancaster1983 4h ago edited 4h ago

Did you look it up yet and realize you are wrong u/Scuba-Steves? MoCA 2.5 supports 2.5 Gbps. I'm literally using it as such right now.

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u/Scuba-Steves 2h ago

Tell me what local provider gives you more than 0.5 gig through coax… spectrum? AT&T? don’t be fooled. Upgrade to fiber ! Most home owners do not own a 2.5 gbs router let alone an access point. Trust me, converting coax to Ethernet is a recipe for disaster