Comcast Internet and Splitter in the home

[Evil_T0NY {CLR}]

Okay, I've been back and forth with Comcast, and I completely had been disagreeing with them on their final solution to my problem.

Running a DIRECT line from the outside straight to my modem.

How many of you here have Cable Internet, and have your TV's AND Cable Internet coming off a splitter? And if so, had it EVER caused you intermittant LOST connections or other internet problems?

Basically the tech told me to do this, unplug my modem from the splitter and unplug the MAIN line from the outside from my splitter, and just put them together making it all come straight from the outside to the cable modem.

IT actually worked and corrected the issue.

He said "That's it you need a dedicated line run straight to the modem" of course they charge you around 40 bucks to have that line run.

I was thinking "Meh, I'm fine, I just won't watch TV while I'm using the internet" being

1. I don't buy into it, because I've never had that problem for years, always used a splitter without any internet issues for years, up until the past couple of years...I just lived with it going in and out.

2. They told me, ever since the migration from ANALOG to DIGITAL in my area, that's what's causing said problem....and there's no way around it unless I have my modem with the dedicated line.


That being said.....basically TRUE or FALSE?


I've seen blogs about this, where customers are calling "BS" on Comcast. Anyone else call "BS"?

Thanks

[BLAZE86]

It's all about signal strength now with digital..

I have some weird issues from time to time now too after the transition.

[Rand{CLR}]

I think the answer is a qualified yes. There is NO reason whatsoever why this so-called solution should do anything, but it does. I think they do something to their signal to screw things up when you start splitting it.

I ran into the same problem almost 2 years ago now, on a system that was custom run in my basement/man-cave that I wired myself. I had a single split between the tv line and the pc line from the direct outside line.

I started having signal drop and they told me the same sort of stuff. When they sent their techs out these guys took a look at the RF modulator I had on my TV side to eliminate feedback between my receiver and TV and had no idea what it was or why I had it; I also had a signal booster because even before the full transition I wasn't getting enough signal strength from their DIRECT outside line to get all my HD channels. They ran a new line to my PC direct, and it didn't solve anything, then they tried another route to the tv that seemed to solve the signal drop but was a godawful roundabout workaround.

The short of it is their techs are more or less clueless, but because of how their system is set up it does indeed look like we need to rely on separate lines until they start running more fiber.

-Rand

[DougBob]

Yes it does make sense and yes I've had the same issue. When they came in and checked the levels on my lines it was a little low on the Cable modem side. I understand what he was saying and I was able to read the test equipment with him and agreed. He ended up eliminating one of the splitters and replaced the wiring outside my house and ran new wire inside to help. He used better quality splitters outside and inside and I still have a splitter where the main line comes inside to split to the DVR and Cable modem.

An easy way to look at attenuation by a splitter is to compare it this way. It's like a water hose adapter and you split you main host to two other hoses. The water volume stays the same in the main host but the water is cut in half as it goes thru the splitter into the other two hoses. In the case of a cable splitter providing the signal to a TV/DVR and Cable modem, it's not as exact as the water, but the signal does pretty much the same thing. The cable modem has a minimum threshold measured in db and when it reaches it it starts to cause the cable modem to lose either the receive or send signal. When it does this the modem with renegotiate it's signal with the host end and you'll notice interrupts.

[Evil_T0NY {CLR}]

Good information.

I called in about it like a few months ago, when I had complete disconnect, and up until that point the modem would just "power cycle" on it's own or "reset itself" and then reconnect, it eventually would get to a point over a considerable period of time where it disconnects, it will NEVER reconnect again.

And these power cycles would only happen during mid-days, never early morning or evenings. (perhaps peak days?)

But I'm fine at certain hours.

The call center tech told me to just disconnect from the splitter and hook the modem up to the MAIN line and it worked...but guess what, I undid it all, and reconnect everything back to the splitter.

AND NOW it's working....but .....give it time, and it'll wash, rinse and repeat I suppose?

I am just wondering if I do pay the 40 bucks for them to run the line to the modem directly.....what guarantee that would clear up the issue? Full refund? How long?

Who knows.

Some people call it "Comcrap" for a reason, but a vast majority of the US Population is very satisfied with them.

I hear some threaten to quit them, and go with someone else, but they never do.

Yes it does make sense and yes I've had the same issue. When they came in and checked the levels on my lines it was a little low on the Cable modem side. I understand what he was saying and I was able to read the test equipment with him and agreed. He ended up eliminating one of the splitters and replaced the wiring outside my house and ran new wire inside to help. He used better quality splitters outside and inside and I still have a splitter where the main line comes inside to split to the DVR and Cable modem.

An easy way to look at attenuation by a splitter is to compare it this way. It's like a water hose adapter and you split you main host to two other hoses. The water volume stays the same in the main host but the water is cut in half as it goes thru the splitter into the other two hoses. In the case of a cable splitter providing the signal to a TV/DVR and Cable modem, it's not as exact as the water, but the signal does pretty much the same thing. The cable modem has a minimum threshold measured in db and when it reaches it it starts to cause the cable modem to lose either the receive or send signal. When it does this the modem with renegotiate it's signal with the host end and you'll notice interrupts.

[{ETN}Dragon{CLR}]

It's all about the proper setup and signal strength at the modem. You to access our cable modem via its IP address and read the signal strength levels in and out. For ex. Motorola 5000 is( http://192.168.100.1 ). Noise also plays a role as well. Check your levels against the one's below.

First off you need a proper splitter where it comes off the pole to the house. A good one and not one you find at radio shack or wally world. It must be 0-1000mhz or 200-1000mhz or with a 1Ghz label. Cheap splitters can't do this. Figure out how many runs you have to tv's and such. You basically will want a 2 leg splitter. One leg at 3dB or as low as possible and the other 7db or 3dB. Run one of the 3db line direct to your modem and the other leg to all your tv's and other stuff. This will keep the level up on the modem. Try to get these reading and it will work great.

Here is an example of a good splitter.
http://www.amazon.com/Antronix-CMC20...7601534&sr=8-1

Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR): 32dB-50dB
Power Level: -5 to 5
Upstream Power: 32dBmV-50dBmV

Hope this helps you understand some.