# Too Many Splitters ? Weak Signal ?



## PRisoNR (May 26, 2005)

Is there something I can get that will amplify my coax cable signal in my house?

I just moved into a new townhouse with cable tv/internet. There is only one cable wall connection in the living room downstairs.

Cable Jack ----(2 way split)----Downstairs digital cable box
.............................\
..............................\----50 Ft coax to upstairs

Now if I run the 50 ft coax right into my cable modem upstairs my connection is fine and uninteruptted. But I need to split it again to the TV's upstairs. If I attach anything more than a 2-way splitter, I get no internet connection at all, so ...


----50 Ft coax---(2 way split)----25 Ft coax to cable modem
..............................\
...............................\------(3 way split)----- 15 Ft to Master Bedroom TV
................................................\
.................................................\---- 25 Ft to 2nd Bedroom TV
..................................................\ 
...................................................\----- 15 Ft to 3rd Bedroom TV

With this setup my internet connection is very sketchy. You never know if you have a good connection, a very laggy connection, or no connection at all. In addition all the upstairs TV's get fuzzy. (If I ping my ISP, on average 1/4 of packets get lost)

Im using 5/1000mhz splitters at all the splits .... but I think I need some kind of signal enhancer ... any ideas ???


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## Memnoch322 (May 11, 2005)

I would call the cable company.


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

Not sure I understand how the townhouse is wired .... Will this help ???

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog_name=CTLG&product_id=15-2506


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## Memnoch322 (May 11, 2005)

I would give it a shot. If it does not work return it and call the cable company.


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

There's also this one .... http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog_name=CTLG&product_id=15-2505

That you could use after a two way split ... to drive a splitter to run the TVs.

I use an older model booster (uni-directional) to run my TVs - but never tried one of these bi-directionals to also hook to a modem.

My internet modem is the first output after a two way split.

Would like to know if these work.

The Cable companys have the bad habit of providing barely enough signal to run a TV.
They're afraid of radiating and affecting someone with an antenna.
A booster in front of the first splitter almost always helps.

Our cable company also likes to have a filter inline with the TV(s) to stop a dirty local oscillator in a TV or VCR from back feeding thier amps.


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## O111111O (Aug 27, 2005)

Don't bother with Radio Shack.

Call your cable MSO, they'll sell you an amp (fairly cheap) that'll provide you the correct return. This is very important as their reverse amps have diplex filters that will accept a return signal on a specific frequency. 
(The return is important, as this is the spectrum that YOU send data to them.)

WRT the cable companies' bad habits...... Totally unfounded. Signal quality at the house is 100% a function of finances. Best signal quality with very little composite triple beat is fiber to nodal amp, and then taps to homes. Unfortunatley this is expensive, you'll see upwards of 12-13 analog amps in line to provide cable to homes. This degrades signal quality.

In any case, like I said. Call your cable company, I'm sure they'll be happy to help you out. If you run the cable your self, many of them will show up, terminate, insert amp, and test for you for free of charge. They're more than happy to improve your house wiring (this helps with noise on the reverse side of their cable plant.)


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## O111111O (Aug 27, 2005)

One more note;

If you purchase something on your own, I'd suggest: Gain and return are adjustable (You can "overdrive" signal. Again, with CTB at some point you're just amplifying noise."

http://www.hometech.com/video/amp.html#CE-6001


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