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Edited: Jan 31, 2022

MA2500D 'Network Cable Unplugged' Drops

Hello,

I got my adapters set up about a week ago and they've worked great for the most part. However, I've begun to run into an issue where if I'm performing activities with a lot of network traffic, the connection will reset (showing 'Network Cable Unplugged) in Windows and then reconnect a second later.

Setup:

ONT (Fiber Gateway) <-> Cat6 Ethernet <-> GoCoax MA2500D <-> Coax through 3GHz Barrel <-> GoCoax MA2500D <-> Cat6 Ethernet <-> Intel I211 Gigabit Adapter/PC

Firmware: 2.0.11

Link speeds look great as far as I can tell, and I assume maxed out:

But it does appear to be generating dropped Rx packets when this happens:

I can recreate this failure mode by doing something network intensive (like running a speed test) and then changing between web pages. I've noticed some video games will also exacerbate this effect.

Any help/settings to tune would be appreciated!

EDIT: Think I may have found a fix... I disabled 'energy efficient ethernet' on my adapter in Windows and haven't seen the problem come back. Will continue to monitor...

25 answers4 replies

Comments (29)

The Tech Geek

Jun 19, 2023

I've given up and removed them. When they work they are great but they are so unreliable it's just been an expensive test and a waste of $170.

RJ Kucia

Jun 19, 2023

Replying to

Did you have the same issue? And what troubleshooting steps did you try, if you don't mind sharing? I should still be within the return window if there are no good fixes for this, but I'm still trying to see if I can do anything before resorting to that.

RJ Kucia

Jun 18, 2023

Hi, I'm also seeing this issue, even after updating to the latest firmware. I'm using the 2500C (not D). I did not see a setting for disabling Energy Efficient Ethernet in my NIC's settings. I'm trying a USB ethernet NIC for now to see if that behaves any differently, but are there any other suggestions for figuring this out?

ManniX

Jun 20, 2023

Replying to

I don't see anything about it in the changelog, seems this issue is not going to be fixed.

Unfortunately EEE is a mess and this kind of issues are very frequent with most NICs.

Same on latest generation Broadcom SoC for STB, latest drivers.

Nobody is willing to fix it, the solution is always the same, disable it.

If your NIC is Realtek and you are using Windows download the latest drivers from Realtek website, go to Device Manager, find the NIC in Network Controllers, go to Advanced tab, set: Energy-Efficient Ethernet, Green Ethernet, Gigabit Lite to Disabled

RJ Kucia

Jun 24, 2023

Replying to

Thanks - my USB NIC is Realtek, and I updated the drivers. I now see the EEE option and disabled it. Hopefully that makes it work!

RJ Kucia

Jun 25, 2023

Replying to

Just happened again, even with EEE disabled. Strangely this time was even worse than previously - I had to restart the adapter to have it reconnect. Usually it reconnected itself with a couple seconds. At this point I'm going to try to return it to Amazon. Thanks for the help though!

Lois Brown

Aug 19, 2022

Wow I like you!)

ManniX

Aug 09, 2022

I did a check since I have a Realtek 8125 2.5G NIC (MSI B550 Unify-X) connected directly.

I've run a long iperf test to my NAS which is connected at 2.5G via a QNAP switch to the other MA2500D.

Couldn't reproduce the brief disconnections with EEE enabled.

But then I left a ping running toward my NAS server while running the iperf transfer and noticed the latency increasing from 3-4ms to 40ms.

Disabling EEE on the NIC brought back the latency to 3ms while running iperf.

It's definitely recommended to disable it in any case.

ManniX

Aug 09, 2022

Replying to

Yes if it's an unmanaged switch with EEE you are doomed.

But even if you have one without EEE, like my QNAP QSW-1105-5T, and you don't have any network disconnection doesn't mean that it's working properly.

Better to disable EEE in any case, at least till it's fixed.

BTW when running iperf the latency it's not 3ms, wanted to say one-digit, fluctuates between 6ms and 8ms mostly.

goCoax

Aug 09, 2022

Replying to

Thanks for your update.

We saw the chip vendor released some new firmware to fix some issues.

If you need any support, please let us know.

ManniX

Aug 10, 2022

Replying to

Do you mean Realtek? Or Maxlinear?

To be honest never had problems.

I could only notice this weird higher latency while running iperf.

It's a signal that something doesn't work as it should but quite a corner case, I guess nobody is playing games while running iperf :)

Andrew

Aug 08, 2022

I'm experiencing what I think is the same issue.

MA2500C <-- 30ft RG6 --> MA2500C

The issue occurs when there's a switch that supports 802.3az/EEE in between. Have rotated in different brand switches (all of which support EEE - all behave the same). No frames dropped per the web interface in either adapter. The problem exists with different RG6 pulls. I wonder if perhaps most users don't even notice it since the interruption is brief. Fantastic performance outside of the 1-2 second drop every 30mins (though the drops seem to be based on traffic load).

To help diagnose this issue, would it be possible to release a firmware with the ability to disable 802.3az/EEE?

Andrew

Sep 16, 2022

Replying to

Just wanted to share that my issues are completely resolved. I have a fairly complex environment but there were two contributing factors - either EEE or STP (spanning tree) enabled on a switch connected to any MA2500C/D. With EEE enabled anywhere, there are symptoms similar to this. With STP enabled, the symptoms are periodic packet loss (but otherwise completely normal operation outside of these hourly periods of 30 second packet loss), but without any loss indicated by the web ui.

craftkiller

May 22, 2022

@goCoax I also have this issue. What are your plans for fixing or replacing the defective units?

craftkiller

May 24, 2022

Replying to

@goCoax My router is a netgate sg-3100: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/solutions/sg-3100/

My serial numbers for your adapters are:

- MA210300271 - MA210300354

- MA212600043

- MA212600048

craftkiller

Jul 14, 2022

Replying to

@goCoax any updates? I provided the serial numbers and router model in this comment: https://www.gocoax.com/forum/main/comment/72884b1b-d827-3a41-9cd6-02dba3bd65be?postId=61f80ffc38baa90017733f75

craftkiller

Aug 01, 2022

Replying to

@goCoax Still waiting for an update... Would sure love for your products to not be broken....

The Tech Geek

Feb 06, 2022

Thats an interesting fix for a directly attached device but an unmanaged switch sadly doesn’t have that option.

effluvian

Feb 06, 2022

Yeah definitely a strange issue... and appreciate the quick reply @goCoax!

Just a quick update... I'm almost a week in since I disabled 'Energy Efficient Ethernet' and I've had zero issues and the adapters have performed great!

Hopefully this helps others who may be running into issues and there could be a resolution to the Maxlinear PHYs!

J. C.

Feb 06, 2022

Interesting. When Actiontec released their ECB7250, somebody discovered the Ethernet controller too have problems with Intel NICs. I am not sure this is the same problem. Hopefully MaxLinear and/or Intel can release a firmware update to address the issue.

The Tech Geek

Feb 05, 2022

I have the same issue, devices on the far end of the setup will report a brief loss of internet connectivity (Apple TV is always the first to notice!) and then a second or 2 later its back and working like nothing has happened.

Mine are also the MA2500D, no splitters etc, just a simple setup

Device - Switch - Moca - Coax - Moca - Router

goCoax

Feb 01, 2022

Hello,

Thanks for your detailed informaiton and the foundings. MA2500D used a quite new 2.5GbE PHY from Maxlinear. There are maybe some compliance issues with current GE interface. Hope the disabling can fix your issue. If you have any other foundings, please let us know.

Thanks again.