Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 12 years and 8 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

I’ve been having issues with my Netgear MoCA adapters lately and since they are now out of warranty (no more free replacements) I decided to look into other manufacturers. I picked up two used ActionTec ECB2200 adapters on eBay for a good price, figuring this way I would have spares if (when) these Netgear units die again.

The ECB2200 is slightly smaller and more compact than the MCAB1001, and has connections on both sides (the Netgear has a definite “front” with all of the LEDs and “back” with all the connections). It has three green LEDs on top to indicate power, ethernet, and coax connections. Unfortunately, you can’t turn the LEDs off (a feature I really like on the MCAB1001) which means more black electrical tape is needed to cover them up.

Normally you just plug in the adapters and you’re off running, but similar to the Netgear units if you need to get into the web-based configuration for the ECB2200 you can connect it to your PC via ethernet, slide the “config/run” switch to “config” and then access it with the included software utility. The configuration pages match the Netgear ones almost exactly so I was able to change the access password, encryption key, and channel quickly and easily.

What I discovered, however, is that the second unit I purchased on eBay was missing the “config/run” switch (see the photo to the right)! As a result, I had no way to get into the web configuration to change the encryption key so it could communicate with the other MoCA devices on the network. Everything printed on the labels of both devices was exactly the same (even the hardware revision level) so I couldn’t figure out why that switch would be missing. All I could dig up on the internet were some vague references to unconfigurable ActionTec adapters that were meant for use with ActionTec routers with MoCA built in (used by FIOS customers). I contacted ActionTec and their response was to return the unit for one with the “config/run” switch. Unfortunately, the seller didn’t have any other units to swap with me and wouldn’t take a return 🙁 so I am going to have to re-sell it on eBay (noting the lack of the switch). I’m just writing this to warn others to watch out for units missing the switch (when buying used … I’m assuming if you get these new from retail the switch will be there). It’s not a big deal if you never change any MoCA settings and so probably wouldn’t effect most people, but it’s something to be aware of. Yes, I could just set all my existing MoCA adapters back to factory defaults and this adapter would probably work, but I’m not interested in changing my network to accommodate one piece of gear (and one I don’t need yet, at that).

Other than that small snag, I haven’t noticed any difference in performance between the existing Netgears and working ActionTec unit. I still love MoCA networking.