Cable hookup

rearnold · Post by **rearnold** » Sat Nov 24, 2001 9:08 am

Right now I'm limited on my cable to a 256K connection, but I was wondering about the outside hookup. The cable company installed a 4 way splitter at installation. They never checked the signal or anything, just that the modem synced and that the internet was up.I eventually figured out how to get the readings from the SURFboard modem.
Signal to noise Ratio 33dB
QAM 64
Power Level -19dBmV

I tried something outside and used an old 2 way splitter to run the modem cable on one side and the 4 way splitter on the other side. The power level then went to -15dBmV. Did I do good or harm by doing this and if good, should I go out and purchase a new 2 way splitter or tap? Also I see there are 900mHz and 1000 mHz splitters available. Would a tap be better? Sorry for al the questions, but the only answers I get from Charter is DUH.
Thanks

fail66 · Post by **fail66** » Sat Nov 24, 2001 1:25 pm

-15 db is not the best, however it is better than -19 db. As for increasing your speed, I doubt it. cable modem speed IS NOT dependant on signal, less it is really bad and your modem losses sync all the time. I have been on many trouble calls where the customers added an amp to try and make it go faster, yet either got a cheap Radio Shack amp that wasn't bi-directional, or got one that was to strong, and just caused problems.

If you want more bandwidth, Pay for it. Or maximize your bandwidth by using the tweaks from this site. What is the advertised speed for your area?

rearnold · Post by **rearnold** » Sat Nov 24, 2001 4:31 pm

All I can get out of them is that it's 10 times faster than 56K.
When I check my connection using DSL Reports, it says that I have a few retransmissions, but my pings are usually good. My speed runs from 395 to 465 kbits/sec. With my RWIN set at 7300, I usually I have a transfer efficiency of 94%. I tried to get more bandwidth, but I think that what I have is all I can get right now.

blebs · Post by **blebs** » Sat Nov 24, 2001 6:42 pm

If you do some tweaking, I think you'll see a large improvement over your speeds. 8760 is the default receive window for standard ethernet. 7300 is way too low.

Take the DSLreports retransmissions deal with a grain of salt. It is very difficult to get a 100% on that test. You'd have to have near perfect conditions to get the 100%, and that is few and far between.

If you don't mind my asking, who do you have for a provider?

rearnold · Post by **rearnold** » Sat Nov 24, 2001 6:50 pm

My provider is Charter Pipeline. In my area, all services aren't available in all areas. I can get digital cable, but I can't get "On Demand", but a few miles away "on demand" is available. Some parts of town have options for 256k, 512k, and 1MBit.
I'm glad to know about DSL Reports, maybe I've been overtweaking trying to get my efficiency up.

blebs · Post by **blebs** » Sat Nov 24, 2001 6:57 pm

Originally posted by rearnold
I'm glad to know about DSL Reports, maybe I've been overtweaking trying to get my efficiency up.

HeHe, you wouldn't be the only one. I think we've all chased ourselves silly over there, at one time or another.
I would set my RWIN to 8760 and see if the speed improves. If it does, why not give the guys in the tweak forum a yell and see if they can't get you a little more fine tuned.

If you have no choice about the 256k line right now, it probably isn't going to do a whole lot of good to go higher then 8760, but hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Just so you can have a good laugh, I just took the test and you can see the results here.
Just to clarify, I'm not knocking DSLReports site. They have some very useful tools however, the tweak test there, isn't one of them.

rearnold · Post by **rearnold** » Sat Nov 24, 2001 11:06 pm

[quote]Originally posted by blebs99

HeHe, you wouldn't be the only one. I think we've all chased ourselves silly over there, at one time or another.
I would set my RWIN to 8760 and see if the speed improves. If it does, why not give the guys in the tweak forum a yell and see if they can't get you a little more fine tuned.

Thanks, I'll try that.

XenaRule · Post by **XenaRule** » Sun Nov 25, 2001 12:32 am

For the 4 way splitter... what are the other 3 for? If they're for TV. You may want to try to get an uneven splitter which could give the cable modem a better signal. I have a 3 way splitter at home and it's split into 7-7-4 (I think those are the numbers). The 7s are for the TVs and the 4 is to the cable modem. I think the receiving signal is like a 3.

rearnold · Post by **rearnold** » Sun Nov 25, 2001 7:02 am

Originally posted by XenaRule
For the 4 way splitter... what are the other 3 for? If they're for TV. You may want to try to get an uneven splitter which could give the cable modem a better signal. I have a 3 way splitter at home and it's split into 7-7-4 (I think those are the numbers). The 7s are for the TVs and the 4 is to the cable modem. I think the receiving signal is like a 3.

The other three are for TV'S. I haven't looked around a lot, but the places I have looked, I haven't noticed that type of splitter. I haven't looked at Radioshack, but I keep noticing where people say avoid the cheap splitters there.

NetworkTech13 · Post by **NetworkTech13** » Sun Nov 25, 2001 9:56 pm

Well let me enlighten you. I work on the digital and fiber optics as well as the return path for cox communications so i can help. The prefered siginal level hitting the modem is 0dbmv.(decible with a voltage reference)You also have to snr to worry about. The recieve and transmit snr.(signal to noise ratio). I say call your provider and let them fix the low signal as thats what your paying them for. By the way, 1 gig splitters are the norm for cable companies now.

martialcomp · Post by **martialcomp** » Sun Nov 25, 2001 10:15 pm

The power level of -15 is still too low. The information I have says that -15 or lower is not acceptable. I am surprised that you could even connect at -19. Your S to N is fine. However, I did not see your transmit power. I suspect it might be high due to the low receive power. Not sure though. Definitely looks like a truck roll might be needed for low receive power.

NetworkTech13 · Post by **NetworkTech13** » Sun Nov 25, 2001 10:21 pm

Thanks for the back-up, but i am concerned with his snr. Is the 33 his recieve or transmit snr. ..........if it is his transmit snr then he fine but if his transmit snr is below29 then there are problems and if it drops below 25 he will have packet loss and at 21 he starts loosing connectivity.

rearnold · Post by **rearnold** » Sun Nov 25, 2001 10:35 pm

Thanks guys, I just looked again and right now it's...
Downstream
S To N 33dB
Power Level -14dBmV

Upstream
36dBmV

NetworkTech13 · Post by **NetworkTech13** » Sun Nov 25, 2001 10:39 pm

Both look great 'cept for the recieve level. I would rather see it as close to 0dbmv as possible.

ChuckDees · Post by **ChuckDees** » Mon Nov 26, 2001 12:58 am

Sounds good.

rearnold · Post by **rearnold** » Mon Nov 26, 2001 4:34 pm

Thanks guys, I really don't think I'm gonna improve much with what I'm offered right now. After my years contract, I'll probably go with DSL if it's available by then. With my employee discount, I can get it for exactly the same price and it will probably be a tad faster than 256K.

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