cable extension

Gavin78 · 24-11-2010, 01:03

I wont to move my cable modem downstairs, Looking on Ebay I can get 30m of cable for around £25 and was wondering if its the same cable that the tv uses before I buy?

Wayfair · 24-11-2010, 04:24

Extending your cable can result in all kinds of bother with levels and noise, if that is the only way to go you are better off ringing VM and getting them in to do it, a far cheaper and with no impact to your levels would be to leave the modem where it is and get a long ethernet cable.

jb66 · 24-11-2010, 07:38

It'll probably be honeycomb cable which is crap

raging bull · 24-11-2010, 09:20

Agree on networkcable (cat5/6) or what about using a homeplug style device?
(My daughter recently used a homeplug to move modem as per OP)

**Chris** · 24-11-2010, 09:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gavin78

I wont to move my cable modem downstairs, Looking on Ebay I can get 30m of cable for around £25 and was wondering if its the same cable that the tv uses before I buy?

Don't do it. That length of cable run will most likely screw up your service. The only safe way to make a significant change to the length of your modem's coaxial cable is to have VM do it (at a charge of £99 unfortunately). You can have a go yourself and simply put things back as they were if it doesn't work, but then you will have wasted £25 on the cable you bought.

The best way to do this is buy a long length of ethernet cable. You can happily run it up and down your stairs as much as you like. Plus it's a little less thick than coax and so probably a little easier to run round and tack on your skirting boards.

Peter_ · 24-11-2010, 09:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gavin78

I wont to move my cable modem downstairs, Looking on Ebay I can get 30m of cable for around £25 and was wondering if its the same cable that the tv uses before I buy?

You would be better off buying a 30mtr ethernet cable from Ebay for £4.65 such as the one in the link below as that will cause no problems with connectio, I bought a similar one to run to my Bluray box a few months back and it works fine.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/30M-RJ45-CAT5e...item255e1a6c0d

MovedGoalPosts · 24-11-2010, 09:48

TV aerial co-axial cable will never be suitable. It will have too high a resistance and signal drop and being unshielded is at risk of other interference.

If you must Do It Yourself then you need good quality satellite type cable. Even so there are many different grades of this. A

suggested something like http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=275 might be appropriate. You'll need to add end fittings to that and they also need to be of good quality. Virgin Media's are all crimped on rather than the DIY screw on style. Bottom line if your cabling and jointing is not of sufficient calibre you will get signal loss and interference. You can even potentially disrupt the network serving your neighbours if its really bad. With the sort of length you are talking about there are risks that there will still be a drop that needs other adjustments to the signal strength but that will only be able to be adjusted by VM.

Bottom line the £99 VM fee might sound a lot, but if you must move the modem, and can't live with an ethernet extension from it, then the VM install could prove the best value.

Gavin78 · 25-11-2010, 00:23

Thanks I never really thought about it like that I actually thought the cable VM used was the same as any other.

As it happens I was using 50m of ethernet cable no problem, didn't actually need that much I think 25/30m would have been enough. anyway got sick of the cable running downstairs and went to use the netgear dongle supplied by VM.

I get around 2/3 bars out of 5 for signal so thought it may have been better to have the modem moved downstairs. in the hope of a better signal and the fact the pc is now down here.

Think I may just leave it as is then not that bothered at the moment to fork out £99

vanman · 25-11-2010, 13:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gavin78

Thanks I never really thought about it like that I actually thought the cable VM used was the same as any other.

As it happens I was using 50m of ethernet cable no problem, didn't actually need that much I think 25/30m would have been enough. anyway got sick of the cable running downstairs and went to use the netgear dongle supplied by VM.

I get around 2/3 bars out of 5 for signal so thought it may have been better to have the modem moved downstairs. in the hope of a better signal and the fact the pc is now down here.

Think I may just leave it as is then not that bothered at the moment to fork out £99

i see you have xl tv
were is your tv is it downstairs as well .
if it is you just need a splitter and a short length of cable.

Gavin78 · 25-11-2010, 23:57

Tv is downstairs and if I was to get a splitter I could use the cable Virgin supplied to the modem which looks around 7ft in length as the box attached to the wall for the tv is about 3ft away from it.

I'm assuming I can just use a splitter? would the BB cable not be attached to its own line or is the same feed feeding the tv as well?

*********edit*******

Looked on ebay and found a splitter but the guy said this about it.

This splitter covers the bandwidth required for Satellite signals. However when splitting a Satellite LNB to more than one receiver there are limitations as you will only be able to select one polarity at a time i.e. either vertical or horizontal

I'm just wondering which one would I order as some say 5-1000mhz others say 5-2400mhz the one above is 2400mhz

jb66 · 26-11-2010, 07:03

Can't u just use the splitter you already have and put this where the splitter was

http://wap.ebay.co.uk/Pages/ViewItem...virgin&emvcc=0

**Chris** · 26-11-2010, 09:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gavin78

Looked on ebay and found a splitter but the guy said this about it.

This splitter covers the bandwidth required for Satellite signals. However when splitting a Satellite LNB to more than one receiver there are limitations as you will only be able to select one polarity at a time i.e. either vertical or horizontal

I'm just wondering which one would I order as some say 5-1000mhz others say 5-2400mhz the one above is 2400mhz

You're not splitting a satellite signal, you're splitting a CATV signal.

Don't worry about that warning, its not relevant to a cable TV scenario.

However, do be aware that splitting your cable TV cable carries the same risk as making a major change to the length of your TV cable. If you make too much of a change to the installation in your house you can alter signal levels to the point where your service won't work any more.

Gavin78 · 26-11-2010, 21:15

I would need to get a splitter as the internet is upstairs through its own box attached to the wall while the tv has its own cable attached to a box on the wall.

I'm going to get a splitter should it effect the signal or I find poor performance with either I'll put the net back upstairs as its not a major problem. its just that originally we had a pc upstairs and its gone now as dont need it so everything is used downstairs now.