Remember when you had to connect a coaxial cable from a TV point on your wall to a set-top box (from SCV, and later StarHub) to watch pay TV in Singapore? With the advent of fibre broadband, cable TV (as this was known) was discontinued in Singapore in 2019. However, these TV points and coaxial wiring are still present in many local homes. What if you could make use of them for internet access instead? Enter the Asus MA-25 Coax to Ethernet adapter, which does exactly this.
Quick specs
- 2.5Gbps MoCA to Ethernet (Full duplex)
- Up to 16 nodes
- MoCA protected setup (MPS)
- Requires power supply
I have been testing a pair of these Asus MA-25 adapters for several months now. Each adapter comes with a power plug, a LAN cable, and a coaxial cable. You'll need at least two adapters. One to connect to your router or switch, and a second adapter in another part of the home. Of course, both adapters must be connected to a coaxial point. It was fairly convenient for me as I had a coaxial point right next to the fibre termination point (and hence my router). However, the MA-25's need for an electrical outlet posed more of a dilemma, seeing as my nearby TV, soundbar, and game consoles all required an electrical outlet, too.
Each adapter comes with wall-mounting holes, but you don't have to wall mount it. Asus includes a right-angle cable adapter that lets the MA-25 hang off the coaxial point. And frankly, the adapter is light enough (93g) that you can probably just use double-sided tape. Each adapter comes with status LEDs, and an MPS button that adds a new adapter to the home network. There's also a band-mode switch that can be toggled to avoid signal interference with DOCSIS 3.1 cable modems. But that's not an issue for fibre broadband users.
In my usual speed test with two laptops — one connected to the Wi-Fi network, and placed next to the router, and the other laptop hooked up to the MA-25 via Ethernet in a bedroom — I recorded an average speed of 475Mbps. That's faster than most mesh routers I have tried, with the exception of the Asus GT6 gaming mesh router.
At S$124 for a single adapter, and S$239 for a pair, the Asus MA-25 Coax to Ethernet Adapter may have a place in homes with existing coaxial wiring. It performs better than the powerline network adapters I have tried, though it does requires an electrical outlet, and there's no passthrough feature, unlike some powerline adapters. But the MA-25 is more or less idiot-proof to set up, and inexpensive enough. You can also use these adapters to provide the Ethernet backhaul for a mesh router system. They are available now on Lazada, and Amazon US.
Note: Review unit provided by Asus.
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