ECB5240M intermittent MOCA issue

[Freezetrap]

Hoping I can find some help related to an issue that I've been having.

I have the FiOS 1GB package with a G3100 installed with a default configuration.  From there I have it hooked up via coax to an outlet on the first floor of my townhome.  Two floors up, I have an ECB5240M, the standard "fios network adapter" hooked up to another coax line, with a PC and a NAS device on it.

This configuration will work fine for a few days at a time.  However, randomly (as far as I can tell), the ECB5240M will lose connectivity.  The power light will stay on, but the coax light goes out.  It loses it's IP address as I'm no longer able to ping it or navigate to the admin page, and it will show as offline on the router devices page.  From here my only recourse is to unplug the ECB5240M and plug it back in, which fixes the issue for another few days until it happens again.

At this point I'm not sure what the issue might be.  I haven't nailed down any kind of pattern, as it's always a different time of day and sometimes it's 2-3 days and sometimes a week or more between issues.  I don't know if it's:
A) a problem with the ECB5240M itself

B) an issue with the MoCA signal itself (it is a townhome with pre-run coax, and I do not know currently where the splitter(s) associated with my lines are)

C) an issue with the outbound signal from the router (though I would assume not this one, since I don't do anything to the router to fix the issue)

Any help or something to point me in a direction would be appreciated.

[dexman]

Does the trouble also affect WIFI? 🤔

[Freezetrap]

Nope, the WiFi is unaffected, and the stream tv device I have which is directly plugged into the router is not affected either.  It's only the MoCA adapter and devices connected to it that lose connection.

[Cang_Household]

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@Freezetrap wrote:

(it is a townhome with pre-run coax, and I do not know currently where the splitter(s) associated with my lines are)

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I would definitely check out the splitters and whether the coax line in your home is isolated from that of neighbors'. With unencrypted MoCA link, anybody on your shared coax line can piggyback on your Internet.

[Freezetrap]

Yea, I know it's definitely a missing piece to the puzzle, I'm just not really sure where to find it.  There's only 6 units that are part of the building, and there's a box on one side where I can see cut ends of 6 different coax connections.  I'm assuming based on that, that everyone is isolated at least.  But I have no idea in my unit itself where the splitter(s) are, and at this point I'm afraid it's inside the drywall somewhere.

That being said, could a faulty splitter cause the issue I described?  Where the connection works just fine for periods of time before cutting out, and simply rebooting the moca adapter fixes it?  I'm more inclined based on other IT experience to point the finger at the adapter itself but I'm new to moca so I'm not sure.

[Cang_Household]

Splitters can be at issue here. Until you identified all the pieces of your coax network, we can hardly troubleshoot.

[dexman]

As part of the inspection, check for unused/open ports on splitters. Unterminated ports can & do cause problems.

[Spider210]

I have the exact same issue I have been dealing with for almost a year. 

I have 2 pairs of these conencted with each a separate run of coax. Every few days 1 pair the COAX light will drop out on the pair. I have to power cycle both to get to come back online.

Same thing happens with the other pair.

I had both pairs exchanged under warranty and guess what? The replacements have the same issue!

Now before I installed these I used ECB6200 on the same coax so I know they work just fine.

Now I have removed all 4 of my ECB5240M  and now using the newer ECB6250 on the same coax lines with no issues what so ever.


Moral of the story is there is an issue with the ECB5240M and no one is able to resolve this. This in its self should be a recall, a firmware upgrade to fix the issue or at least reboot the units when a signal is lost (watchdog client).