what can be done to get this moca network right?

[hpw]

I have posted the issue a few weeks ago. After that I was away for a while.
Now, I am back to the issue.

This time, I decided to post a wiring diagram of my set up. [ See the attached pdf file]

Here are two observations.
(1) when I hooked up one Actiontec ECB2500C in the basement,
and connected a macbook pro to the router as shown in the diagram.
It worked fine --- I could surf the internet smoothly.

(2) Then I take the macbook to the 2nd floor where I have a 2nd
ECB2500 hooked up to the coax outlet on the wall.
The 'cable and internet' LED lights on the ECB2500 all turned solid green.
ON the macbook pro,
I checked System-Preferences---> Network, it says
Thunderbolt Ethernet is currently active and has an IP address
of xxxxxxx.
[ The exact same message also showed up when the macbook pro
was connected in the basement in (1). ]
However, the safari on the macbook pro could not get to
www.google.com. It just sat there, --- no action.

What can be done to make it right ?

Thanks
HP Wei

 

[degrub]

I have posted the issue a few weeks ago. After that I was away for a while.
Now, I am back to the issue.

This time, I decided to post a wiring diagram of my set up. [ See the attached pdf file]

Here are two observations.
(1) when I hooked up one Actiontec ECB2500C in the basement,
and connected a macbook pro to the router as shown in the diagram.
It worked fine --- I could surf the internet smoothly.

(2) Then I take the macbook to the 2nd floor where I have a 2nd
ECB2500 hooked up to the coax outlet on the wall.
The 'cable and internet' LED lights on the ECB2500 all turned solid green.
ON the macbook pro,
I checked System-Preferences---> Network, it says
Thunderbolt Ethernet is currently active and has an IP address
of xxxxxxx.
[ The exact same message also showed up when the macbook pro
was connected in the basement in (1). ]
However, the safari on the macbook pro could not get to
www.google.com. It just sat there, --- no action.

What can be done to make it right ?

Thanks
HP Wei

A couple obvious things
1 replace the 8 way splitter with a 4 way bidirectional all ports splitter. You may have too much signal budget loss between it and cable losses.
2 the existing 8 way splitter may not be bidirectional across the two ports used by
moca modems although the sync light would indicate otherwise. Is there another moca modem in the system - maybe cable co box ?
3 swap the two ECB2500s to see if the issue follows the ECB.
4 test with a direct short piece of RG6 cable between the two ECBs to verify that the two ECBs are in fact working correctly. Plug the MB into the ECB not connected to the router.

Do #4 first, then if ok, attach the upstairs ECB with short cable to the splitter port used by upstairs cable, test, if ok, then test again upstairs after reconnecting cable.
If that fails, then likely signal budget or bad cable - which could be a poor wall terminatio. Remove the wall plate, disconnect the cable and connect to ECB and test. If that fails, likely bad cable/connector.

 

[degrub]

I have posted the issue a few weeks ago. After that I was away for a while.
Now, I am back to the issue.

This time, I decided to post a wiring diagram of my set up. [ See the attached pdf file]

Here are two observations.
(1) when I hooked up one Actiontec ECB2500C in the basement,
and connected a macbook pro to the router as shown in the diagram.
It worked fine --- I could surf the internet smoothly.

(2) Then I take the macbook to the 2nd floor where I have a 2nd
ECB2500 hooked up to the coax outlet on the wall.
The 'cable and internet' LED lights on the ECB2500 all turned solid green.
ON the macbook pro,
I checked System-Preferences---> Network, it says
Thunderbolt Ethernet is currently active and has an IP address
of xxxxxxx.
[ The exact same message also showed up when the macbook pro
was connected in the basement in (1). ]
However, the safari on the macbook pro could not get to
www.google.com. It just sat there, --- no action.

What can be done to make it right ?

Thanks
HP Wei

Before you do the hardware checks i suggested,
Can you ping the router IP address from upstairs ?
Can you ping 8.8.8.8 from upstairs ?
What happens if you unplug the cable tv box from the cable ?

 

[hpw]

I did a few checkings following your suggestions.
(1) using Sperry cable tester --> make sure the coax cable from
the upstair outlet to the splitter is OK. And it is.
(2) Replace the basement ECB with the one on the 2nd floor.
The macbook in the basement can surf the net smoothly.
--> so, the two ECB boxes should be OK.
(3) Use a short coax cable (tested by Sperry tester),
and bring one ECB and macbook to the basement near the splitter.

short-cable Ethernet-cable
splitter --------------> ECB --------------------- macbook

On the mac,
System-preference' s Network shows the same message as before.
ECB box has greed light on both internet and cable LED.
But macbook canNOT surf the net.

Exactly the same behavior as before.

Can this point to the splitter issue ?

thanks
--HP

A couple obvious things
1 replace the 8 way splitter with a 4 way bidirectional all ports splitter. You may have too much signal budget loss between it and cable losses.
2 the existing 8 way splitter may not be bidirectional across the two ports used by
moca modems although the sync light would indicate otherwise. Is there another moca modem in the system - maybe cable co box ?
3 swap the two ECB2500s to see if the issue follows the ECB.
4 test with a direct short piece of RG6 cable between the two ECBs to verify that the two ECBs are in fact working correctly. Plug the MB into the ECB not connected to the router.

Do #4 first, then if ok, attach the upstairs ECB with short cable to the splitter port used by upstairs cable, test, if ok, then test again upstairs after reconnecting cable.
If that fails, then likely signal budget or bad cable - which could be a poor wall terminatio. Remove the wall plate, disconnect the cable and connect to ECB and test. If that fails, likely bad cable/connector.

 

[hpw]

I did not notice this reply before I disconnected my test
configuration to do other works.
Will test it out after I put it back on.

Before you do the hardware checks i suggested,
Can you ping the router IP address from upstairs ?
Can you ping 8.8.8.8 from upstairs ?
What happens if you unplug the cable tv box from the cable ?

 

[hpw]

The result for ping's is
(1) in the basement, without ECB,
ping 8.8.8.8 --> about 13ms and no packet loss
ping router --> about 0.5ms and no packet loss

(2) by the splitter, using the port for the 2nd floor,
with short-cable from the splitter -> ECB ---- macbook
[ ECB in the basement is turned on too -- full moca set up ]

From prior testing,
this is equivalent to doing the test on the 2nd floor.

ping 8.8.8.8 ---> about 12--50ms and many packet loss
ping router ---> 3--10ms and many packet loss

(2+) On the splitter, I disconnected the coax cable that
goes to the TV box (STB).

The ping result did not improve. Many packet loss.
And the timing reading was a little worse than in (2).

----------------------------------------------

From this and the tests in previous post, can we say that the splitter is to blame ?

---------------------------------------------

The pre-amp and splitter configuration is as follows:

Antronix MRA1-15 Amplifier ----> Antronix CMC2008H-A splitter
[ Both are for 52--1002MHz ]

thanks
HP

Before you do the hardware checks i suggested,
Can you ping the router IP address from upstairs ?
Can you ping 8.8.8.8 from upstairs ?
What happens if you unplug the cable tv box from the cable ?

 

[sfx2000]

From this and the tests in previous post, can we say that the splitter is to blame ?

Very well could be - also check the MOCA settings - some have Cable/DBS profiles, and they can conflict, so they should be consistent across all the adapters, and consistent with the TV signals if those are also present on the same media...

 

[hpw]

Getting ideas from this thread, I have solved the problem. And this posting serves as a reference for other people.

The tools that I used:
(1) Sperry cable tester (from Home Depot)
(2) ping (command line) utility in mac OS. One can also use Preference->Network.

I first used (1) to make sure the coax cable installed in this old house is in good shape.

(A)
In the configuration as shown in the diagram attached in the first posting of this thread,
from the mac connected on the 2nd floor,
the 'ping router_IP_address' showed average of 9.5ms with 79% loss
'ping 8.8.8.8.' showed 27ms with 72% loss

(B)
In comparison,
If the mac is connected to the router directly, the above two 'ping's
showed average of 0.5ms and 13ms with no loss.

(C)
The I did the test as shown in the attached diagram in this post.
The two inputs on the the two ECB2500 moca boxes are connected with a short coax cable.
The mac is connected to the Ethernet port on the 2nd moca.
The two ping tests showed average of 3.6ms and 16.6ms with no loss.
(It works by comparing (B) and (C).)

==> The result of (A) and (C) together with the respective diagrams
suggests that the splitter is the culprit.
The one in the old house has an operating frequency range of 5 -- 1005MHz.
The moca box's operating frequency is 1100--1500MHz.

So, I replace it with one with operating frequency up to 2GB.
[ I also added a moca filter in front of the splitter to prevent moca signal leaking
out of the house. ]

Now going back to the configuration in (A), the two ping tests showed
average of 3.7ms and 16.2ms with NO LOSS.

That is it. Thanks for everyone who suggested various ideas to try out.
The process was very much like setting up experiment in a laboratory.