"Signal Conditioner"

[Wallace]

Hi, Saturday night at around 22:00 the BB LED started to flash on my 4000 series STB. Sure enough my BB connection had died. A couple of STB reboots later and all was well, for half an hour. The same happened again. Out of curiosity I removed the signal conditioning filter (6dB forward) from the I/C co-ax and the BB link is up and has stayed up since.
What does this conditioner do? Am I just masking a true fault? Should I report it? What do you think?

Thanx.

[Shaun]

Bump, I'm sure someone will be along soon to answer your question, but my hunch is to ring them and get someone out to check your signal levels.


HTH :)

[John Doe]

Its used to fine tune the signal power evel entering the modem. These conditioners usually reduce the power.

Thats a simple explination.

[Wallace]

Thank you. BB still OK with conditioning filter removed. I have checked readings on engineers menu and all seems OK there too.

[Rone]

This is interesting. Mine has 6db attenuator in line with the modem.
a: does everyone have this?
b: ive run the tests on robin walkers page, and get nearer the optimal specs with it removed.
c:so why was it fitted, can these line specs change?

So should i remove it [you would think so] and would it do any harm if did, and i had'nt interpreted the results correctly?
I dont fancy having a small fire here you know. :)

[Rone]

Heres a joke. As the support line was another over 30 minute wait, i gave in and tried Broadband Medic as the wingeing bint on the line suggested. [as all support staff were busy etc etc]
So i tried it and it tells me its all spot on. Then i spotted the online tech support but of course they were all busy, try later etc. :(
So i now know Medic is a great tool if your connection works.
And when i tried to come here to pen this note, my connection had died and came back on 10 secs later as it keeps doing.
Plusnet is looking inviting atm ;)

[schiller]

This is interesting. Mine has 6db attenuator in line with the modem.
a: does everyone have this?
b: ive run the tests on robin walkers page, and get nearer the optimal specs with it removed.
c:so why was it fitted, can these line specs change?

So should i remove it [you would think so] and would it do any harm if did, and i had'nt interpreted the results correctly?
I dont fancy having a small fire here you know. :)
In the past i have had a 6 10 1.5 4 and a 5.

The engineers seemed to check the signal power levels at different frequencies accross the band, becuse they seem to want to obtain specific ranges.

By modifying or messing around with any of ntls equiptment you breach part of the contract. Its up to you.

[SMHarman]

From my non tech understanding the signal strength can very due to temperatue and other factor, so if the filter was put on during a sunny day then it could be incorrect in the middle of winter...

[greencreeper]

I have a Forward Path Attenuator 10dB and a Forward Path Equaliser 8dB.

Attenuate - "to reduce (the amplitude of an electrical signal) with little or no distortion"
Equaliser - "electronic equipment that reduces frequency distortion"

The green box is at the side of the house so I suspect that the signal strength is really high and needs reducing, hence the attenuator. I guess that the equaliser is fitted to reduce the distortion caused by the attenuator.