For many people, a typical wireless network extender is connected by running a certain length of Ethernet cable or wirelessly. Until a few months ago, I was still unknown, and another standard appeared, namely MoCA or "Coaxial Cable Alliance Multimedia".
A few months ago, Actiontec contacted me shortly after they released their latest MoCA network extender WCB6200Q. The solution supports the second edition of the latest binding MoCA standard and is compatible with 802.11ac through its dual-band configuration.
This extender requires your existing router to support MoCA, or alternatively, you can purchase an adapter sent by Actiontec for testing, such as ECB6200. Using a 4x4 radio configuration, the dual-band radio on this solution has a speed of 600Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and a capacity of 1300Mbps on the 5GHz band, and also has dual Gigabit Ethernet ports on the back of the device.
The suggested retail price of the Actiontec WCB6200Q is US$149.99, while the ECB6200 adapter is priced at US$89.99, both with a one-year warranty.
The packaging of Actiontec WCB6200Q is very simple. The light brown box is used for the extender on the left and the ECB6200 adapter on the right.
The scope of delivery of ECB6200 is shown above. It includes a short coaxial cable, power adapter and Ethernet cable.
Looking closely at the adapter, you can find that there are two LEDs on the front edge of the device, while the two coaxial ports on the left are on the right, and the Ethernet is on the right.
Moving on, we have another box of WCB6200Q delivery scope. The situation with Ethernet cables, power adapters and coaxial cables is very similar, but this also includes splitters.
The front of the extender is equipped with six LEDs, from which you can gather information about power, coaxial connections, and wireless activity and Ethernet.
As I mentioned very briefly, the extender does have two Gigabit Ethernet ports on the back of the device, as well as its coaxial input and reset button.
In order to test WCB6200Q, I went to the basement of my house and set up the solution, making it a solution that any ordinary consumer can use the existing coaxial cable. The cable I use is a 50-foot cable, from the basement to my office, it is RG8 coaxial cable. In the basement, I deployed an ECB6200 adapter with Ethernet and coaxial connections, and set up an extender in my office, and connected it to a test PC via LAN. As you can see above, I haven't fully put Actiontec into enhanced mode to reach full performance, and you see the peak at 432 Mbps.
Through a simple LAN test on 2.4GHz, Actiontec was able to generate 95 Mbps.
When moving to 5 GHz, the performance of Actiontec equipment was much better at 245 Mbps.
Since MoCA is a brand new technology to me, I'm pretty sure that somewhere in the test, I might have screwed it up. Having said that, it took me more than a month to solve this problem, and always came up with the same result, which made me think it might need a firmware update. Anyway, I do like this technology and see it very useful for large buildings or multi-storey rental houses. This gives me a build quality that I think is pretty good. At least it’s about the same as every network extender I’ve tested, including all major vendors.
The performance I have seen may be helpful, whether it is for me to figure out how to put the device into enhanced mode, or for Actiontec to issue a firmware update for that purpose. In the test, I was able to reach 432 Mbps over LAN, 95 Mbps on 2.4GHz, and 245 Mbps on 5GHz.
In general, I can only recommend this device to people who do not have access rights or who cannot use CAT5 or CAT6 cables where needed. This device is much better than a powerline network and is a reliable alternative to traditional wireless network extenders.
If you are looking for an alternative to the Ethernet cable to the destination upstairs, then Actiontec WCB6200Q may be a reliable choice.
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