Corey

iTrader: (1)

I have had a weird problem popping up for the last week with my Comcast broadband connection.

On my wall in my bedroom is a splitter.
The top cable is from the wall outlet that goes outside and feeds the signal to me.
The bottom two connections are for the cable modem and my TV tuner card.

For the past week I have been loosing telephone conversations with Vonage since they are my telco.
Also loosing connections while doing email and surfing, and getting disconnected while online gaming.

Thought it might be my cable modem since it is 5 years old, and I called Comcast yesterday and today.
They said my signal appears good and they see no down time for my modem.

The guy today said running a splitter is not good, so I am running it now with just the 'Net to the modem and I am able to surf and game with no interruptions like before, so I guess he was right.
Why it would start in now is beyond me.

Now what I need to do is purchase 3 sections of cable with the ends already on them.
I will then hook up the TV tuner card via the cable to a new splittler in the living room by the TV and plug into that wall outlet.
1'
15'
30'

I have a local Radio Shack store near me, but they are not open yet.
Has anyone bought coax from them before, and can you get it with the ends already installed?
I do not want to put my own ends on, as I have never done it before
I want this plug & play as much as possible.

data

yeah they should sell it with the ends already on them. i've bought coax from them before.

Dublin

You should have no problems picking up the premade cables with connectors, except your 1" will probably be 3' to 5'. you want to look at the quality of a good RG6 cable and how the ends are attached. The connector should be either a molded type similar to a stereo monster cable or a compression fitting and not the type with a crimp sleeve. Also do not get a spliter with more connection points than you need, open connections mean signal loss. you can also find these at any electronics store (bestbuy ect) or even a home supply or hardware store.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Cool, still doing some testing.
If I loose my connection with the cable running bypassed of the splitter, then there is no need to buy new cable, as the problem lies elsewhere.

They are coming out Tuesday to test my lines and my old Toshiba PCX1100U cable modem.
I am kind of hoping it is the modem, as I would like to lease a Motorola Surfboard 5100 or 5120 from them.
That cable modem is the hot ticket for the area here.

But nothing is frustatring as talking on the phone and loosing your call, or getting kicked off the gaming server.

Silver_Truck

I'd have them do it when they come out...when we first moved into our current house they did any wiring we wanted for free. we just got a new modem (they exchange em for free if you ask) and I don't know what brand it is but is says armbit on the bottom, seem to work pretty good and is ALOT smaller then our old one.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

They told me this morning they do not do any additional wiring if needed, but that was for hooking up outlets.
They contract out for that.
But all I need is cable really, and I might be able to swing that with them.

Just got done playing some UT 2004, and no discos from the server
So what this is telling me is when I was connected to the splitter, this may have caused some high signal loss.

I will still look into the new modem though, as this one is pretty old.
I have to hook it back to the splitter later though, as I have TV to record tonight, and I use my TV tuner card to record all shows with, then play back via cables to the TV set.

mike_d

you can buy it with the ends, but you it's trivial to add the ends. make sure you buy 75ohm cable and 75ohm bnc connectors (if you need them). they often sell both 50 and 75 ohm coax. 50 is for signal processing and analysis, 75 is for cable.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the tip Mike.

Well I was just on Vonage on two different phone calls and they lost me again.
This tells me it may indeed be the old Toshiba modem, as I am still bypassed from the spliiter, not using it at the time being.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Problem solved.
The tech just left, he said the Toshiba PCX1100U has been causing fits for several months now.

He hooked up the Motorola 5100 Surfboard, and this is the result with 6 megabit service.

Last Result:
Download Speed: 7072 kbps (884 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 352 kbps (44 KB/sec transfer rate)

This is with my Linksys Vonage router in line too.
We were getting 8K with it off line, but not sure if that is accurate or not.

He tested my signal through the 2 way splitter on my wall, and all is great, right where it is suppose to be.

Happy indeed, and no dropped calls with Vonage so far.
The big test will be some online gaming with UT 2004 later in the week.

amusement

I had similiar problems with my Comcast cable service.

At the time, there was a Linksys cable modem being used. Linksys cable modem was reporting signal drops and poor signal to noise levels.

I started to research possible problems and ended up at www.dslreports.com.

In one of the comcast forums a discussion regarding poor cable modem performance sprung up. I took the chance and purchased a surfboard modem.

No problems since.

I do wish comcast would provide more upload bandwidth. 348Kbits is too small when trying to download 6Mbits of files, music, skype, and playing games.

DudeBud

my upload is around 400Kb but my download is still around 3700Kb sort of weird when comparing. maybe i need to get the m5100.

amusement

the motorola 5100 is not available any longer. m5101 is a good choice.

http://broadband.motorola.com/consum...01/default.asp

Churnd

That's the one I have. Noticed a few KB per sec difference on the DL side... not much on the UL side though.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, that is the forum I use, very good for Comcast broadbanders.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/comcast

A guy there who goes by nichols or something told me last year the 5100 would be my best choice for this area, as my Toshiba was not compliant with the new doskis 2 (spelling) upgrade they performed on the lines earlier in the year.

Funny though how the Toshiba just started to act up last week though.
Great though that I did not have to purchase a ton of coax and re-plumb my TV tuner card to the living room socket with a splitter out there.

The speed test page I use is this.
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
Sometimes I will get a higher rating going to San Francisco than I do Seattle.

Good gosh!
San Francisco
Last Result:
Download Speed: 8432 kbps (1054 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 352 kbps (44 KB/sec transfer rate)

Seattle
Last Result:
Download Speed: 6268 kbps (783.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 352 kbps (44 KB/sec transfer rate)

You can see my upload always stays at the cap, but why am I getting more juice by going through Cali?

Also 8 megabit up here costs about $10 more per month I think.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Transition day...
Quit my job Wednesday, taking today off, last Boeing orientation on Friday.
This is my day to kick back and do absolutely nothing but game, eat, watch DVDs, eat, game, watch TV, eat, game, ect

Anyway, I fired up UT 2004 early this morning and played for 30 minutes on the sever where the game is on, and I got zero disconnects or any lag.
No more seeing bots or other players standing still and running in place.

I am glad it was the modem, the speed of this new one is incredible.