Network state diagnostics for a home phoneline networking alliance media access controller (HPNA MAC)

Aspects for performing localized diagnostics in a station of a home phoneline networking alliance (HPNA) network are described. The aspects include providing a network state and control register comprising a plurality of bits to indicate status of a network state machine of an HPNA media access controller (MAC). A test mode bit is also provided as one of the plurality of bits in the network state and control register. The test mode bit allows overriding of one or more other bits in the network state and control register to direct changes to the network state machine logic state and diagnose performance in response to the changes.