The following steps may help determine why two devices cannot communicate via ethernet over the powerline. They assume that you have successfully installed the Powerline Toolkit but are having trouble forming a powerline network.
On Linux, run program ifconfig to determine available interface names as described earlier. The default interface name is eth1 on Linux. You must use interface names, not numbers, on the Linux command line.
On Windows, run program pcapdevs to determine available interface numbers as described earlier. The default interface number is 2 on Windows. You must use interface numbers, not names, on Windows command lines, even under Cygwin.
In either case, Linux or Windows, if a powerline device is connected to any interface other than the default interface then you must specify the name or number on the command line each time you run int6k. In the following examples, we will use device numbers 3 and 4 to indicate two different interfaces on the same host.
Make sure both devices respond to int6k -ri3 and int6k -ri4 as described earlier. They should each display the software revision information. If you get no response then check your connections and network configuration. If you see “Bootloader” then the connection is good but the firmware is not running. If the firmware versions are different then make them the same.
You must have running firmware to continue and the firmware revisions should be the same.
Make sure both devices respond to int6k -Ii3 then int6k -Ii4 as described earlier. They should display about 10 lines of information showing their MAC, DAK and NMK.
If the MAC is 00:B0:52:00:00:01 then either the default Atheros PIB was stored in NVRAM or you downloaded and flashed the generic Atheros PIB without changing the MAC address beforehand.
If the MAC is 00:B0:52:00:00:03 then either no PIB was stored in NVRAM or you downloaded and attempted to flashed an invalid PIB. The firmware will disable powerline communications in this case.
If the devices have different NMKs they will not form a network.
One way to form a network is to manually set the NMK on each device to a known value with int6k -Mi3 then int6k -Mi4. Each device will reset afterwards and may reset again when the other device is changed. Repeat Step 3 and confirm that both devices have the same NMK and that “(HomePlugAV)” appears next to the NMK.
Another way to form a network is to physically press the push-button on each device for 2 to 3 seconds or simulate a push-button press on each device with int6k -B1 -i3 then int6k -B1 -i4. The devices should reset several times and then form a network.
Make sure each device knows the other one is present on the network with int6k -mi3 then int6k -Mi4. Each device should show that a network exists and identify the other device as a station on that network. It may take up to 120 seconds for one device to find another and up to 5 minutes to recognise that the other device has left the network.
Step 5 should also show the TX and RX PHY rates for each device. Ping each host Interface from the other several times to generate traffic. The PHY Rates should then be non-zero. We use efsu to generate traffic inside our own scripts. You may elect to use another method.
Power down both devices then power them up. Wait about 20 seconds and confirm that you can ping in either direction.