Adding cable TV outlets without messing up high speed wireless

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Author	Message
Archie Member	# Posted: 18 Oct 2009 14:20 Hello, here is my situation. My aplogies up front - it's a bit of a jerry-rig, and that's what I'm trying to fix. I have Cox Cable service in Northern Virginia (currently on their analog TV service but the neighborhood is wired for digital). The service splits outside the house with one cable going upstairs to a bedroom (I don't think this plays into the situation, but want to be complete in my description), and the other cable going into the basement. The cable coming into the basement goes directly to the family room on the main level of the house. There it splits (on a digital spliiter supplied by Cox) with one cable going into the cable modem (also connected to wireless router with what looks like ethernet cable), and the other line going to yet another split (something I bought from Home Depot). That "yet another split" goes to (1) the family room TV and (2) a signal amplifier (again, something I bought, seems to work OK) that sends the second cable back to the basement. Believe it or not, in the basement, it splits one more time - - (1) one cable feeding the basement TV, and (2) the other cable running out to a TV in the garage (so I can watch sports when I'm out there). So to get to my point. I'm finishing my basement, and in the process, would like to add one or two more cable TV outlets in the basement, and simplify the wiring and splitting that I currently have. But I do not want to mess up the cable modem / wireless capability. What I'm thinking might work is to split the service on the cable line that comes into the basement as soon as it gets into the basement. Then, use a signal amplifer with multiple outlets / splits at the basement to send the signal to the various locations (family room, basement, garage). Will this work, and do I need to be concerned about getting a special kind of amp / splitter for the basement to ensure the cable modem / wireless capability continues to work? Thanks for any guidance / advice.
Shnerdly Moderator	# Posted: 18 Oct 2009 16:11 The more unused outlets you have on your coaxial network, the more likely you are to pick up noise on the line which is likely to create problems with your data stream. If you need to install the outlets, put terminators on the ones that are not being used. As far as the splitters go, the cable modem should be connected with no more the one splitter in the line. It sounds like you already have two.
Archie Member	# Posted: 19 Oct 2009 13:42 Thanks for the quick response. Yes, there are two splits before the signal gets to the cable modem, the split outside the house, and the split in the family room. Our high speed service still seems good though. I do notice some degrading of TV signal quality as the signal goes downstream through the additional splits, but iit's not too bad, and not my main concern. My main concern is getting the correct amplifier / splitter so that our internet service still works well. I read somewhere (don't recall off-hand) that some amplifer / splitters combos do not allow both upsteam and downstream capability, which I guess is a problem is you want to send email or upload files or other "upstream" activities. Technically, I'm out of my league here, but does this sound familiar? That is what I meant when I asked about needing a special kind of amp/splitter. Thanks again for your ealier reply and any help you can give on this question.
Helpdeskguy Member	# Posted: 22 Oct 2009 17:14 there are amplifiers that support support broadband, you would just need to ask the retailer when purchasing one. the way we hook them up is a 2-way splitter with one line to the modem and one to an amp.
dy	# Posted: 4 Nov 2009 11:40 I just got a cable amp (1 input, 4 outputs) from BestBuy that IS "bidirectional"...so it allows broadband to work. It was located near the spare video cables in the "Video" section of the store (you may have to ask for it). It was around $40. PS: be careful to hook/unhook cable connections to the amp ONLY when it is POWERED OFF!! (Unplug the AC adapter) I have blown up the bidirectional function of an amp by hooking/unhooking up cable connectors while it was powered up.

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