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| Why Cable Guy Slapped On A Splitter? Just moved to Corpus Christi, TX.
Using Grande Communications Cable Internet.
»www.grandecom.com/ProductsServic···ates.jsp
Chose the "Standard High-Speed 3.0" service.
The installer put about a 8 inch cable piece from the wall to a 2-way cable splitter. Then, a cable to the cable modem.
I asked why he did that, and he said something to the effect of, "To slow down the transmit speed".
I'm usually pretty savy, but I wasn't sure if he meant to slow it down because I'm not paying for anything faster, or because it's something that has to be done to correctly moderate the transmissions.. or whatever.
Usually when I've had problems in the past with signals, first thing the techs ask is, "have you added in splitters". I know it degrades the signal.. that makes sense.
If anything, I thought he would give the excuse, "So you can hook a TV up to the other end." But it was the "tranmit" comment that got me wondering...
Suggestions/thoughts? | |
j4yj4y
join:2004-06-29
Austin, TX | The technician's verbiage was a little misleading. More than likely, the reason that he added a splitter off the tap was to adjust the Tx / Rx Power levels and bring you closer to unity. When bringing a cable modem online, our tech's will try and get your Rx Power level as close to '0db' as possible. More than likely, you were probably Rx'ing at ~+3db and the tech added the splitter which caused 3db's of impedance on the line. This would have brought your Rx Power down to 0db and increased the Tx Power level by 3db. In a nutshell, he was just performing some final balancing before connecting the HFC interface to the Cable Modem. In doing this, your CM is now more acclimated to Power Fluctuations thus resulting in a more stable connection.
Adding / Removing attenuation won't have any effect on the speed that your Cable Modem Tx/Rx's at. All of that information is stored and verified in the MD5 Configuration file located on your Cable Modem.
Hopefully this answers your question and feel free to reply if you would like a more in-depth explanation. =)
JJ Stonebraker
Packet Networks // Grande Communications | |
| JJ,
Yeah, think that's it. Did some more research, ashed some friends, etc... they all said it was the "lazy" way to fix it. lol Meaning, he should have climbed a pole or something.
It's all good, hides behind my desk.
I must say, I love Grande.. I had MediaCom before in Florida, and while they were fast, Grande just seems a tad quicker.. of course, my upload is a tad quicker, and for about $6 less.. so I'm very satisfied.
Can't get the ESPN Broadband web site to let me in. I have the Standard 3.0 which is what is supposed to be required, and, eh.. won't let me budge.
Ah well.. hockey season is still a little off.. not much, though 
Thanks again!
Brad | |
| reply to j4yj4y
ESPN Broadband working this morning.. woot. | |
j4yj4y
join:2004-06-29
Austin, TX | Well I'm glad your enjoying the service and happy that the ESPN BB Site is working for you now! =)
As for the balancing process... It's not exactly that the tech was lazy... Think of it this way:
You have 24 Drops that are coming off the ONU (Optical Network Unit) that services your house. Depending on where you're located off the drop, there will be different levels of impedance causing the Signal Strength to fluctuate. In other words, if your close to the ONU, you're probably running pretty hot and need to have additional padding added to bring you closer to 0db. If you're further from the drop, we might have to add an amp to increase signal strength (This is actually very rare in our network since we're running Fiber all the way to your curb, rather having huge, lengthy drops of HFC all over the place.)
Our tech's will balance the lines so that we can get the most even power distribution for all 24 houses. Once that's established, you have to take into account the amount of loss that occurs when we drop the LM (Last Mile) HFC to your house. Again, this number can fluctuate, depending on how far the HFC Cable has to be run. When the tech finally gets everything run, he'll take a level reading to find out where here's hitting at the CM / Digital Receiver. Granted, he could climb the pool and add the additional attenuation up there, but he can actually get more granular by adding a small amount of pad right at the end of the drop. Some devices are more sensative to power levels (Cable Modem) than others (Digital Receivers) so by adjusting on the poll, you're making a global change to every drop when you could actually be adjusting Taps on an as needed basis. Make sense?
One more analogy... Say your sitting on a football field and you throw a ball towards your receiver. Unfortunately, you throw it a little short and it falls a few yards before your intended destination. Would it be easier to get the ball back, walk to your starting yard line, throw it again and hope to make up those few extra yards... Or just pick up the ball walk one yard and hand it to your buddy?
Hope this explains the idea a little better and feel free to let us know if you have any problems. We're here to help. =) | |
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