Broadband Tech > General Questions > Combining OTA with Cable Internet

Combining OTA with Cable Internet

The powered splitter could feed noise back to the cable company.
not advisable.
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2012 red envelopes: 02 actually deserved: 00

reply to HarbingerX
Cable and OTA use the same frequencies so you cannot use the same cable for both.

If you want to reuse inhouse Coax wiring move the Cable modem near the Cable point of entry. Disconnect everything else from the coax and connect the TV antenna at that point. Depending on signal strength and how many TVs you need to feed may only need a passive splitter.

/tom

reply to dvd536
The splitter was installed by the cable operator when I original purchased digital cable and internet. So I assume it will meet their specifications for noise. Thanks for letting me know though, so I won't try a different one.

reply to tschmidt
Doesn't cable internet operate in a different frequency range than OTA? I won't be receiving any cable TV.

What about using a diplexer?

Moving the cable model and wireless router to the point of entry is my fallback solution. I have some work that requires a low-latency connection and wireless just makes it so much worse.

Ok, I think I've found another potential setup.

1) Hook cable modem directly to incoming internet coax.
2) Use an Ethernet-over-coax adapter on the RJ45 output.
3) Combine OTA and Ethernet-over-coax with a bi-di splitter
4) Put combined signal through my existing amplified spliter for distribution
5) Use another Ethernet-over-coax adapter where I need my ethernet termination.

Anyone see any problems with that? There can't be any signal propagation back out the cable, but would the ethernet-over-coax signal reflect back to the antenna and cause me to broadcast?

reply to HarbingerX
You cannot combine an OTA antenna cable/output with anything on that cable.

There is no such thing as a Ethernet to Coax adapter, there are Ethernet to MOCA bridges, but you would need another bridge for each network device.

You can't combine MOCA and OTA. You have to have separate networks

erased double post

reply to guppy_fish
I am referring to MoCA bridges. All the vendors seem to call the 'Ethernet-over-coax adapter', so I used that terminology.

Can you tell me the specific reason you can't combine MoCA and OTA? MoCA is specifically design not to use the frequencies less than 1Ghz and my understanding is that OTA channels top out around 800Khz.

Thanks.

reply to HarbingerX

Right, so that's my I'm now proposing a MoCA bridge.

My DOCSIS modem and the external cable would not be on my internal coax network. It would terminate at the DOCSIS modem and then I'd use RJ45 and a MoCA bridge to translate the signal.

It would go:

Providers Cable Signal -> Docsis modem -> (RJ45) -> MocA Bridge -> Internal coax -> MoCA Bridge -> My computer

I'd then attach the OTA to the internal coax through a reverse splitter.

So only OTA and the MoCA signal would be on my internal coax. They should be using different frequencies and not interfere.

Is there any other reason I can't put OTA and MoCA on the same coax? Would the MoCA signal travel back up the antenna and broadcast?

reply to HarbingerX
Why not just run new coax or ethernet to your computer from the inlet of the coax? It would solve your problem and you wouldn't have to worry about interference anywhere. Even if you have to pay someone to do it you should come out cheaper than two MoCA bridges. A friend of mine charges $125 per run turn-key for an ethernet drop (single drop, multiples probably get quantity discounts) last I heard.

Yeah. I think that will be best. My current coax is run terribly, someone was really lazy - it runs from the outlet in the basement along the floor, through the bottom of the stair riser, over my furnace, below duct work to come out of the FLOOR (no outlet) in a room on the ground floor at the opposite side of the house. Then it runs along the floor and up the side of the fireplace and comes out again in the bedroom above, then through an adjacent wall to where my computer is.

So none of my coax is hidden behind walls.

reply to HarbingerX
Do you need TV in the same room as the cable modem? If not get a barrel connector and connect the cable coming into the home into the cable that goes to the cable modem (worst case, process of elimination) and then plug the input of the splitter into the output of the amplifier.
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PRescott7-2097

reply to HarbingerX

Thanks everyone for your help. As there is not really a great coax only solution, I'm going to look at running cat5 to the one room I want a wired Internet connection.

Thanks again!

reply to HarbingerX
In my house, we just have cable internet. We still get all our local channels in HD over the same line for free. I found this out when hooking up my media card with windows media player.

I was going to do the same thing with a OTA ant. outside. But no longer needed. Might be something to look into, could save you a lot of work.

That was the case years ago with my provider, but they've learned and now roll a truck to put a frequency blocker on the line. Which makes for a funny situation that I need a scheduled service call before I can discontinue service.

reply to HarbingerX
Curious, how much do you get OTA? What sort of equipment are you using?

I'm using an Antennas Direct DB8 mounted in my attic. Then 50' of coax takes that down to my basement where I hook it into an amplified splitter - this was existing equipment put in by Rogers. I bought the antenna from »www.saveandreplay.com/ - after explaining where I lived and that I wanted an attic mount, he recommended getting the highest gain antenna I could while still not limiting myself to a directional antenna.

As for the channels I get, they are:

Cdn - CICA (TVO), CFTO (CTV), CBLT (CBC), CITY, CFMT (OMNI), CBLFT (CBC French), CIII (Global)

US - WNLO (CW), WNED (PBS), WUTV (FOX), WIVB (CBS), WKBW (ABC), WNYO (MyN)

During my initial test, I also saw WGRZ (NBC) but have not managed to pick it up since. WNED and WUTV are also limited, I tend to lose WNED at night and WUTV starts getting choppy.

This is way better than I expected mounting in my attic and based on the channel report on TV Fool (»www.tvfool.com/).

Of course, your mileage may vary as you're in a different location.