Signal splitting.

[takethemoneyrun]

Okay I realise all these problems are of my own making and I have broken numerous contractual terms and conditions etc, and requesting help on a public forum with ntl staff on it is about as stupid a thing as i could do... but still, here is my story:

I got an ntl broadband connection sept 2003, when it was installed, the guy split the cable as we have a ****ty reception off our roof aerial.

My friend moved in next door and again the same was done (no bribes exchanged hands!)

Then she moved in here, and after all the problems she had trying to get connected next door (service not available in this area! ), we (on the advice of the ntl guy who was round to fit a telephone connection) put her modem onto the splitter. She has a mac and I don't have the money for a router, her contract ends this month so it should be sorted by then.

We had been running, 3 tv's and 2 modems off one connection.

Obviously the signals have been diluted too much.

However it has worked fine for months at a time, every 6 months or so, the ready light starts to flash.

We had an engineer visit and he saw the whole setup, he blamed my poor plug connections on the fault, as well as having the signal split too much, and said next time he is called out I'd have to pay the £25 charge.

Downstream Receive Power: Ideally +/- 3dBmV

Mine was at -13
When i swapped it onto the split which says 3.5db, it shot down to -5 and has been working fine.

Now its the other modem on the 7db socket which is not working.

Can you get splitters which have 2 sockets at 3.5db and is this whats the making the difference?

When I get a router and network the two computers, I take it this problem will end?

[Ignition]

Originally Posted by takethemoneyrun

Can you get splitters which have 2 sockets at 3.5db and is this whats the making the difference?

When I get a router and network the two computers, I take it this problem will end?

Yes, you need to actually buy a splitter rather than a coupler which is what you are buying at the moment, splitters split the signal evenly, couplers don't.

You'll lose about 4dB on each split, 3dB for halving the signal plus about another dB for insertion loss on the splitter.

Yes a router will resolve this.

No comment at all on the original installer.

[paulyoung666]

i am amazed you aint caused more problems than you have , to the site btw

[takethemoneyrun]

what sort of problems might those be?


i live right in town so i haven't really got any residential neighbours to be stealing bandwidth away from.


the couplers have the word splitter written on them, although one doesn't have a decibel indicator, would that be an actual splitter whereas the other one is merely a coupler?

that could be another thing, i've had to use a 3 way coupler (suppled by ntl) and feed that into a 4 way coupler/splitter (delete as appropriate)

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by takethemoneyrun

what sort of problems might those be?

oh just the small point of ntl cutting you off for ****ing about with there cabling , just a small matter of course

[takethemoneyrun]

aye.

i guess i've got good reason to be one of those rare happy ntl customers then.

they gave free telephone line rental for a year too, for helping them become #1 broadband supplier

[Halcyon]

Somehow it just doesnt seem too fair though, with me paying loads of money and your mate getting it free.
Correct me if I am wrong, buts thats how I see it.

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

Somehow it just doesnt seem too fair though, with me paying loads of money and your mate getting it free.
Correct me if I am wrong, buts thats how I see it.

seems happy to be bragging about what i reckon maybe theft of service

[allieyoung666]

that is so illegal!!

[takethemoneyrun]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

Somehow it just doesnt seem too fair though, with me paying loads of money and your mate getting it free.
Correct me if I am wrong, buts thats how I see it.

Nope, she's still paying for her service as they recognise the modem and not the connection.
__________________

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

seems happy to be bragging about what i reckon maybe theft of service

how is it theft of service?

we pay subscriptions for both modems, and only get terrestrial channels from 2 of the 3 tvs!

and i wasnt bragging either, i was asking for advice.
__________________

finally, most of what we have done has been on the advice of ntl engineers, although perhaps not with their official hat on!

[badnbusy]

we pay subscriptions for both modems

Why not ditch one of them? Then you will have enough for a router and save lots of cash. A router is < £40 these days

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by takethemoneyrun

Nope, she's still paying for her service as they recognise the modem and not the connection.
__________________



how is it theft of service?

we pay subscriptions for both modems, and only get terrestrial channels from 2 of the 3 tvs!

and i wasnt bragging either, i was asking for advice.
__________________

finally, most of what we have done has been on the advice of ntl engineers, although perhaps not with their official hat on!

sorry , it must have been the way your posts read

[jonifen]

Let me get this straight for myself...
You had NTL broadband installed, but you have a poo TV aerial, so the engineer nicely split the incoming NTL signal and plugged it into your 2 TVs allowing you to get clear channels 1 > 5.
NTL's area is bordering on the wall between your house and next door so you can get NTL no problems, but the physical cabling wont go to next door as it is outside of an NTL area? Therefore, the NTL engineer who installed their modem split the line going to your house off into theirs to stretch the boundary by 1 property?
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I would get a router and share 1 connection between the two of you - would certainly make sense to do so and it could resolve future problems with engineers raising eyebrows at how your incoming cable is split. I mean, it has been done genuinely as a favour by an engineer for you to receive a clear terrestrial signal on your TV but any future engineers may not choose to do it themselves and may think its a bodged up home job with a nicked modem or something. Plus it'd work out cheaper too

[Ignition]

Nonono, OP is saying that he has digi TV, 2 cable modems in the same home, one that is his and one that's his other half's (both being paid for) and a couple of TVs that are running straight off the cable MATV style.

No theft of service involved, just some 'interesting' internal wiring.

Anyway onto the issue in hand, what you need to make this work reasonably is a nice 4 port splitter a la http://www.hometech.com/video/splitters.html. Use 3 of the ports to service the 2 cable modems and the digibox, split the remaining port again and use it to service the 2 TVs.

That's a guesstimate on my part as I've no idea how much the tech who did the installtion juiced your signal, but that should work quite satisfactorily, and will replace the quite titanic multiple splitter loss you have now with a single 7dB kicking for the digital stuff and 11dB for the analogue.