Cable booster? (1 Viewer)

[Dan M~]

My new cable modem has a prblem connecting due to low signal strength. The cable comes into the house and goes through a four-way splitter. It looks like Rat Shack carries a couple of four-way splitter/boosters... how well do these work? Can they pass the multidirection cable modem signals? Any other recommendations?

Thanks,

Dan M.

 

[Chris Fondoklis]

Dan, a Comcast technician told me you cannot use a booster for cable modems. I had the same problem with low signal strength. Comcast wound up replacing the cable line into my house (at their expense).
If you have to split the signal, split it once coming into you house (use 2 way spliter). One goes into your cable modem. The other one you can split again to your TV's (with boosters).
But first, your cable modem company needs to measure the strength of your signal.
Chris

 

[Dan M~]

I hope they can measure at the outside of the house so I don't have to take a day off and wait for them. Can they boost the signal from the street? I have three sets hooked up, plus the modem. Do they set the level based on the number of units connected, or is there just one level?

Thanks for the input,

-Dan M.

 

[Chris Fondoklis]

I think they need to be in your house to measure signal strength. Not sure if you have Comcast, but they did give me an evening appointment. If you do have low signal strength they need to replace the line coming into your house. This seems to be common. Two of my friends had this dome as well.

 

[Todd Hochard]

You can boost the signal, provided you use a two-way booster. They are a bit more expensive than your ordinary cable boosters, though.

However, you may be able to fix it by placing you cable modem on a different tap on the four way splitter. Take a close look at the splitter, and see if there are any labels that show the db loss. Put your cable modem on the lowest db tap (-3.5db), if it is present.

Alternately, you can do what Chris said, and use a two way splitter, with TV on one side, and Modem on the other, and then three way split the TV side.

Todd

 

[Dan M~]

Chris,

I have Comcast. Do they charge you by the number of connections in your house or by flat fee plus the box rentals? I'm at work now and don't have my bill to look at. Up to now I haven't worried about it... don't ask, don't tell!

-Dan M.

 

[Chris Fondoklis]

Dan, for TV, once the signal is in your house you are free to use an many TV's as you like. They will charge you for additional IP addresses if you want to run more than 1 computer. Do not have them do this. Buy a cable/DSL router which you can use to run multiple computers using the 1 IP address that Comcast assigned you.

 

[Dan M~]

Thanks!!! You've been very helpfull.

-Dan M.

 

[Greg Rakaska]

I recently had Comcast check the signal strength at my house due to multiple disconnections my wife was getting. It turned out someone else was assigned her IP address, once that was resolved, the problem went away.

HOWEVER, guess how he checked the strength? He simply brought up the Internet Explorer and typed the address of the cable modem in the address box: 192.168.100.1 (chances are that you modem address is the same!)

Give it a try and see what you get. Maybe they can work with that. (I would think they could get those readings remotely, maybe they have some other kind of gadget to use if the modem reading are suspicious.) Here are my readings obtained from the "Signal" menu link:

Frequency 591000000 Hz Locked

Signal to Noise Ratio 33 dB

QAM 64

Network Access Control Object ON

Power Level 0 dBmV

Upstream Value

Channel ID 3

Frequency 30000000 Hz Ranged

Ranging Service ID 57

Symbol Rate 1.280 Msym/s

Power Level 50 dBmV

 

[Dan M~]

Greg-

Yes, that address works. But since the signal is weak, I do not get a "lock" on a frequency. Seems to confirm the problem. Thanks for the address.

-Dan M.