MoCA adapters generate "dropped packets"

[RogerSC]

My MoCA network is working well as far as the big picture goes, doing it's job admirably...Motorola MM1000 adapters. I got an Edgerouter 4, switched the eero to bridge mode, and have started to see the occasional message like this in /var/log/messages on the Edgerouter:

Apr 11 18:43:18 ubnt kernel: Port 2 receive error code 10, packet dropped

More or less one or two an hour, sometimes hours with none. So I narrowed this down to the MoCA adapters by disconnecting various clients and seeing if I still got the messages. The only thing that stops the messages is turning off the MoCA adapters, while leaving everything else connected. Left them off for about 8 hours today, and no messages like the above appeared in the log. So I tried a "hail Mary" *smile*, and reset all 3 MoCA adapters after turning them back on and letting them stabilize. Just got the above dropped packet message in the log after 15 minutes or so.

Any suggestions on how to fix this or work with it? I've had these adapters almost 2 years now, while I've had the eero wireless mesh router...so I don't know how long this problem has been there since there's no logs to check for the eero. Getting the Edgerouter 4 has opened up a new world of local control for me, the eero has none, and now I can see these messages. Definitely a mixed blessing *smile*. I could just ignore them, that would work, but I'm one of those people that likes to understand what's going on.

Thanks.

 

[Booboo22]

I would start by asking Ubiquity what "error code 10" signifies. But assuming it's just corrupted Ethernet frames, perhaps you could start by (a) changing the Ethernet cable that feeds the MoCA adapter. (b) Change the MoCA adapters around so a different one is taking the incoming Internet feed. And see if any of those makes a difference.

 

[RogerSC]

I would start by asking Ubiquity what "error code 10" signifies. But assuming it's just corrupted Ethernet frames, perhaps you could start by (a) changing the Ethernet cable that feeds the MoCA adapter. (b) Change the MoCA adapters around so a different one is taking the incoming Internet feed. And see if any of those makes a difference.

Unfortunately, Ubiquiti doesn't list their error codes. I've been assuming that it's a packet that is badly damaged/corrupted in some way, or it would be a "Martian packet" error (they contain the packet header) or some other error. The Edgerouter 4 does have "packet capture" capability, but haven't tried that yet, not sure how helpful it would be. Might give it a shot and see if I could somehow capture one of these dropped packets.

I have 3 of these adapters. I'm thinking that I might buy one new one, and try substituting it for each of the MoCA adapters until the messages stop. I will try substituting cables, but I don't expect that to turn anything up. But you never know, I guess. I've also written to Motorola support to see if there's updatable firmware, or if they have any ideas *smile*.

 

[RogerSC]

Got a new plan. Turn off each MoCA adapter at each remote eero node (one at a time) and see if the messages stop. If they stop, that's the one at fault. I will have to shift one of the remote ones to be the gateway adapter if it is the gateway adapter, to verify that, but no problem. If it's a problem with only one of the adapters this should tell me which one. Or if it's more than one, this should tell me that as well *smile*.

Don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, but better late than never. Guess I'm just not thinking about it that much, since things are working despite this issue.

Update: Think that I've got the guilty party. I'm thinking that I'll leave it off until I get a replacement or find a way to update some firmware on it or something.

 

[Booboo22]

Sounds good. That's why I suggested you rotate the adapters, as it's unlikely that the problem is coming from a MoCA adapter *not* directly connected to Ubiquity. Since all traffic enters from one adapter, then that would the likely culprit.