Recently installed and got my home MoCA network running (Previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/17zr419/new_moca_network_issues/), which once installed correctly I was getting speeds up to 550 Mbps down (I pay Spectrum for 500 down).
However, right before Thanksgiving, speed dropped to around 90-100 Mbps consistently regardless of time of day or device (both wired and wireless). I figured I had a bad coax cable somewhere and replaced a few, but was still getting this speed.
Had a spectrum tech come out, and together we traced the problem from the tap through the network, and it seems to die off right at the router. The tech suggested I buy a new router but I’m wondering if its just a settings issue. For reference, I have a Netgear Nighthawk R7000. I’ve already logged in and double checked that the firmware is up-to-date.
Other thoughts I’ve had that could be causing the problem:
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I recently purchased a VPN subscription to NordVPN but have never used a VPN before, and I’m unsure if I need to change router settings for this.
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One of the ethernet ports connects to our solar panels, which only communicate at 100 Mbps, could this be influencing the rest of the network?
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Actually is the router itself, and I need to buy a new one. Suggestions?
As always, any help is much appreciated!
This sounds like a bad Ethernet cable. Standard practice is the Ethernet link will negotiate its speed to 100Mpbs (from 1000Mbps) when issues in the link occur.
Or a damaged Ethernet port. (Agreed that the drop to 100 Mbps max seems too coincidental to be a MoCA/coax issue … at least for the purpose of prioritizing troubleshooting.)
Does the router offer a dialog where the link rates for the Ethernet WAN port and Ethernet LAN ports are reported?