A MOCA band-stop will not work for DECA. They’re different frequencies. The DECA bandstop filter should give you the privacy. You want that at the point of entry into your home (either the outside of the house or at the direct line from outside into your house). Basically the idea is to keep DECA/MOCA frequencies from getting into the coax lines in your neighborhood.
Sounds good. The main line from outside is actually connected via an inline connector in my basement so I imagine that’s as good a spot as any. Now that I think about it, that lines runs straight to my router with only one more inline connector so anywhere along there should work. Thanks!
I’m wrong about the information below, there ARE receivers that will power the DECA. I don’t know if I’m misremembering or if I was taught wrong, but outside of a DirecTV setup you will STILL require a powered DECA.
No, there aren’t any DTV receivers that can power the DECA externally. If the DECA isn’t internal, you have to use the external power supply.
DTV does make the DECA adapter available without power supply as a service part, because if a DECA fails it usually isn’t the power supply that went bad.
If you buy some without power supply, either send them back or hold on to them as service parts in the event that one of your DECA adapters fails.
Not sure why we’re debating DTV hardware setup, not relevant to Tablo setup, but with a CCK feeding all your receivers, the DECA adapters at the receivers do not need the power supply.
Take a read here:
I’ll obviously defer to Solid Signal. I was taught wrong, or more likely I am misremembering the setup. I haven’t had a DECA in my DirecTV setup nor installed one in a couple of years.
Me being wrong doesn’t change the fact that anyone that wants to use DECA’s to connect a Tablo will require powered DECA’s.
Correct - that is what I said re: use with Tablo. As well, the link I shared from Amazon is to purchase them with the power supply.
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Ok so here is what I’ve done now. I have moved the modem and router up to the second floor keeping the modem directly connected to the incoming coax ISP line and used a DECA adapter to push it back out thru my coax network via the router. I have a DECA adapter on the first floor feeding an old Belkin Wireless N (circa 2009) router which is feeding the Tablo (I had to keep the Tablo on the first floor due to roof antenna wiring) and then an 8-port switch for everything else on the first floor. I have 100/down 5/up service and getting speeds in the 90’s/4’s at different wired points so happy there. Both boy’s xbox’s are now wired and they are happy too as are my wife and daughter who have the Roku 1s. So all good right?
All except for the fact that when I connect the DECA Band Stop filter that @thanatos0801 mentioned (attached in either direction) I lose internet connection. I am trying to install it mid-line of the main line to my modem which is inside my house and the only inline connector after the box outside my house. Inside my box Charter has an Antronix surge protected ground block CL-15.
- What, if anything, am I doing wrong with this filter?
- Will what Charter has in my box suffice to keep my network private?
Thanks for any help!
I’m not sure what frequencies Charter uses. The DECA bandstop may be blocking a range that Charter is using for their cable service. You may need to try and run the wire straight from outside the house right to your cable modem. Use a coax cable splitter to split the line in, one side goes to your router, the other side goes through your DECA bandstop to the DECA unit. Just make sure that the line coming in doesn’t branch off to any of the other coax lines you want to hook other DECA’s to and that should be safe.
Unfortunately, coax has a lot of variables, and I’d need to know where all your wiring is running to get it perfectly sorted out.
Thanks for the help! I’m not sure of their frequencies either but you’ve lost me with splitting the line in as the line in only goes to the modem now and then out of the router via ethernet to a DECA unit which goes then to a coax splitter to feed the rest of the house. I am trying to attach my layout. I thought I used the DECAs after the router to convert to coax which then goes to a splitter. I thought the filter goes on the line in which would be the only way a signal would get out.
@mullermj - I did a little digging on this, and I should have caught this sooner. Arrowrand correctly stated above that DECA can interfere with cable because they have overlapping frequency ranges.
In your case, since you’re using a cable modem, you probably really want MOCA adapters. They’re more expensive, but they’re on different frequencies than cable, and a MOCA bandpass won’t interfere with cable.
This link is pretty technical, but it does suggest that, depending on your setup, it’s possible that you can use DECA with Charter and it will work. It looks like your configuration is OK and will function. BUT, since they’re on the same frequencies, when you put the bandpass filter in place at the entry to your home, you’re basically blocking the cable signal as well as the DECA signal. You can use the setup as-is, but the risk you run is that one of your neighbors on the same cable run also sets up a DECA in-home and then your two networks could become linked. You’re not exposed to the world, as far as I’m aware… just anybody on the same coax run in your neighborhood who is also using DECA. Whether that’s a risk you are willing to accept or not is up to you.
What I would do if I were you (and I didn’t want to shell out for MOCA) is forget the bandpass filter and go for actual isolation in your coax lines, but it’d require moving some things around a bit. If you move your cable modem to the cable entry point, you can disconnect the entry line from any other coax and wire that straight to your cable modem. Then wire ethernet from the cable modem to your DECA box, and the coax from the DECA into the splitter that feeds the rest of the house. Then you run DECA at any other point you want hard-wired ethernet (to get to your routers, for instance). That way, your home coax is completely isolated from the external lines, and your DECA network is feeding everything interior. Did that make sense? Hopefully your home was built in such a way that the coax split is interior to your house and not in the external junction box. It’s still possible to run what I just described in that situation, just a little more wiring work required to make it happen.
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Ok you’re putting a lot of thought into this and I really appreciate that! I’m reading your advice and thinking isn’t that what I did? My entry line goes right to my modem. And you left out my router. Modems generally go directly to the router which is what I have and then from the router via a DECA to the splitter which btw is in my garage attic and pretty accessible.
Again, my wire ethernet is from the router (connected to the modem) to a DECA box which goes right to a 4-way splitter although I currently only have two other DECAs in use. How is what I have different from what you’re stating? I’m obviously missing something.
Oh and I only have internet service. No cable tv.
Thanks again.
Re-reading your reply…are you saying not to connect the modem to the router but add an additional DECA to connect the modem to the splitter and then run coax back to the main router using a DECA? Then the splitter still goes to the other DECAs?
OK, it sounds like you’re safe, then. Most houses have the entry from outside coming into a basement area, and then splitters right at that entry point connect to the coax wires going to the rest of the house. What I thought you had done was wire the DECA back into the common line connected to your modem to feed the rest of the house. But if you’ve got the outside line coming directly to your modem, and a second line going to your DECA feeding the rest of the house, then you don’t have to worry at all about privacy, because you’ve already created an isolated coax line inside your house that’s not directly linked to anything going outside. That also explains why the DECA isn’t interfering with the cable internet signal.
If that’s what you’d already done, then great. Call it good and enjoy the boost in reliability and speed. 
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Fantastic thanks for the help! I’m guessing the modem is keeping things from getting back out then?
Not quite. The way you have things wired, the DECA signal is never getting onto the coax line that’s going to the modem.
Think of it this way. In most houses, I can use a continuity tester and plug one end on the coax outside (the cable ingress point) and the other end onto any coax outlet in the house, and I’ll see continuity. Effectively, the coax is just one big wire going everywhere in the house and out into the cable network. In that case, you have to worry about stopping your network signal from getting back out of the house. In your case, you could do a continuity check from outside and not see a connection to your other coax lines, because the only place that incoming wire goes is straight to your modem. The modem isn’t really “stopping” anything, per se. It’s just that you have to completely separate coax “wires” in your setup.
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Thanks a ton for all the time and info! I ran head first into this, like always, and got done and thought oh wait, there was something else. I’m glad I’m good! And this is working out great!
But I do have two more DECAs on the way as I’m upgrading two Roku 1s to 3s soon. Gotta love Craigslist.
I am moving at the end of the month to another house (not very far away from where I live), but Uverse is more limited there than at my current house. So I bit the bullet and went with Comcast. The big advantage is that I am on the Extreme 250 tier (250 Mbps down / 25 Mpbs up) which is way faster than I have ever had before.
I want all the outlets to take advantage of this speed, and rewiring a 2-story house for ethernet can be expensive. So I decided to go with MOCA adapters, and will use 4 for now.
I think the best spot for my cable modem will be in my media/bonus room. That way I can hook up my cable modem and MOCA adapter using a splitter, and then connect my cable modem to my router. I will also have a PC, Tablo, Roku, and a Blu-Ray player all hooked up to my router (which is how I have it in my current home).
I will put one MOCA adapter in my office, though since I have a work laptop and gaming PC in there, I will need a switch. Another will go in my daughters work area for her computer, and the last will go in the room with my wife’s computer. I plan on just using wireless media streamers for my bedroom and living room tvs, though I could always buy one my pair of adapters.
I am using these adapters ( http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1179504-REG/actiontec_ecb6000k02_moca_2_0_network_adapter.html ), as well as a filter ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DC8IEE6?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=od_aui_detailpages00 ) that will be put on at a spot before the cable is split to the rest of my house.
With those download speeds, you will be watching tv shows before they even finish filming them. Sounds like a great setup. Best of luck.
Here is another option, serves as a wifi extender and you can use Ethernet cable with it. Only $40 on Amazon now. If I needed it, I’d just use this.
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Thanks for posting this. I think I might have to pick one up for my parents.