cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/63691946
Looking for advice on setting up a new whole home network and the direction to take of MoCA over existing cabling vs running new Ethernet Cat6A:
Recently in a new space that has an existing HomeConnect CSMAPDU9VPI with coax cables run throughout the home, which seems like a great candidate to just use MoCA and get up and running faster:
But I am also interested in "future proofing" the network setup and replacing the coax cables that are already run with Cat6A Ethernet, all connecting to a central 10G switch / homelab setup.
Is it worth the effort to re-run all of the cables and swap out the wall plates or just go with the simple thing an run with a MoCA setup? I'd really prefer to not spend on one setup with the plan to update in the future, but maybe that's the compromise solution to get setup and running sooner.
The CSMAPDU9VPI is currently completely isolated from the cable line to the modem (picture above is old and shows a cable connected to the IN port, this cable is no longer connected) so I don't think I have to worry about interference with my DOCSIS 3.1 service / modem.
You are probably fortunate enough to live in an area with not a lot of wireless interference, or don't have a lot of wireless devices on your network, or all your devices are rather modern.
You can have good wireless...it won't be as good as wired, never will or can be. By it's very nature it has to be a shared medium, which by it's very nature must be half duplex. Then there is the matter of sharing time with other stations on the same channel (and not necessarily on your network or under your control).
But for most things it can easily be "good enough". Certainly wouldn't run a server on wireless. Generally worse performance for realtime voice/video/gaming as well, because latency and jitter matter, and by having to share the channel with other stations, jitter is a fact of life.
And unsteady wireless is the #1 cause of VPN complaints in my office. By a very wide margin. Miraculously the problem always goes away as soon as they plug in.
But for casual web browsing, occasional large downloads (there's a reason mobile apps don't really show you how many B/s your transferring), streaming media...yeah, wireless can easily be good enough.
I have 53 nearby wireless networks. Lots of interference.
Channel scan charts just look like a bunch of color mixed together.
I used to modify my access points to use non-standard channels to help.
Still, other than copying media files, it's fine.