Can I just cut the cable?

[aliferste]

Hiya - I am moving my cable modem from an upstairs room to downstairs. I have bought a splitter for the box on the wall downstairs so should not have any problems with that.

However in my spare room/study which is now being turned into a nursery the cable that used to attach to the cable modem is very long. Can I just cut that cable to make it shorter so it is not coiled up anywhere?

[MovedGoalPosts]

Changing the length of a cable can affect the resistivity and thus the signal strenght. Most of the time it won't be noticeable but if you are on the edge of a tolerance....

The greatest issue is how you are going to remake the termination end. Screw on DIY types are inadequate. Get it wrong with just a strand of wire out of place and you'll risk messing up your entire cable service, and potentially that of your neighbours too if you introduce noise to the cable network from faulty wiring.

[Kymmy]

As Rob says the attenuation of a cable can be altered via length.. It would help if you told us how long the cable is now and how much you want to cut off. Also unplug the cable at both ends before altering the length otherwise you might find that you'll short out equipment at the cab end..

[weesteev]

If the cable is redundant (as your comment suggests) then cutting it shouldn't be a problem. If you want to re-use the connection then you may have some issues I would imagine. Does the cable not plug into a wall socket or does it run directly from outside the home into the room?

[aliferste]

I am pretty glad I posted this before getting the wire cutters out.

Right - downstairs I have a wee white box attached to the wall which is then attached to the V+ box - my plan is to use a splitter and attach the cable modem to that.

Now upstairs it is a bit strange - I have a cable coming in from the ceiling and when I go up to my loft I see this cable trailing somewhere, I have no idea where this goes however it does not connect to another box. Does that male sense?

I am now wondering whether I should just wind the cable up in the Nursery as small as possible and cable tie it and tell the wife lots can go wrong.

[Pauls9]

If the cable is redundant (as your comment suggests) then cutting it shouldn't be a problem. If you want to re-use the connection then you may have some issues I would imagine. Does the cable not plug into a wall socket or does it run directly from outside the home into the room?Is it OK to leave a cable connected but unterminated? You don't get reflections causing upstream problems at cable frequencies?

[weesteev]

I would say that unless you can disconnect that cable from the splitter that its attached to then just cutting it may cause problems with your signal (potentially, worse case scenario). Realistically nothing will happen but if you can locate where that cable is plugged into then I would disconnect it from there and the cable. Ideally a cap should be placed on the open port of the splitter to prevent ingress.

Is the cable loose enough to pull back into the roof? Rather than cutting it why not pull back the slack into the attic?