Questions For The Best Coaxial Splitter Placed Before 2 Cable Modems.

Hello.

You may or may not of heard of an American cable telecommunications company called Time Warner Cable I subscribe is charging a rental fee for its cable modem in the immediate future that previously offered its hardware cable modem to its customers for no charge.

Now, there is a loophole in order to avoid this fee -- buy your own cable modem for the company's Internet service. In addition, there is an exemption to rent the cable modem without paying the fee -- if you use the company's combination (Internet and digital telephone) rental cable modem ONLY for the company's voice service (digital phone) and use your own purchased one for the company's Internet service. The charge is specified to those customers that use the company's cable modem rental for Internet service only. Therefore, I will be using TWO (2) modems -- the company's cable modem with the phone and Internet integrated for my voice service ONLY and my own purchased simple Internet ONLY cable modem for the Internet Service to avoid the fee. My cable modem is on the company's list of compatible hardware devices for Internet service.

NOTE: You can NOT have a combination (Internet and digital telephone) cable modem OF YOUR OWN to COMPLETELY REPLACE the company's combination Internet and digital phone cable modem to essentially avoid the new fee. Regarding the voice (digital phone) service, the programming I am told for the company's voice service is ONLY available on the company's combination cable modem rental. Commercially available combination cable modem's voice component does NOT have the company's voice service programming encoded internally forcing you TO KEEP the company's combination cable modem for your voice service; but you WILL NEED YOUR OWN basic Internet cable modem for the company's Internet service too to avoid the fee.

Questions: Now this presents hardware setup questions for me. I know I will need a coaxial splitter for my cable line JUST BEFORE EITHER cable modems in order for both modems to interact with the data streams from Time Warner Cable. In terms of proximity of the coaxial splitter to both cable modems, it will be approximately a 3 foot coaxial cable between the coaxial splitter and each cable modem. For your information, MY cable modem for the Internet service portion is a DOC SYS 2.0 if that have any relevance to you answering my questions. My current Internet service from this company has download speed set to 3.0 Mbps and 1.0 Mbps upload speed.

1. Will I have any broadband width or signal strength loss for my Internet service portion resulting from adding one (1) coaxial splitter inline?

2. The same is said for my digital phone service as well -- will signal strength be lessened by the addition of adding one (1) coaxial splitter inline?

3. I need to know what kind of coaxial splitter is best for this kind of arrangement? There are many different coaxial splitters for different applications with physical characteristics like construction and shielding, plated material (silver or gold), isolation ratings (db), frequency ranges (MHz and GHz), etc.. NOTE: I need to maintain the best broadband width and signal strength possible if there are more than one possible splitter application readily available for this arrangement.

Please reply.

Thank you.

 

I don't have any answers to your questions because Time Warner isn't offered in my area.
According to this newspaper article
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/time-warner-cable-modem-fee/

No spliiters involved. Hook your purchased modem into one of the ports on TWC's modem.

You might want to sign up at https://secure.dslreports.com/forum/timewarnerdirect
so you can ask questions of other Time Warner Cable users.

 

Based on my experience working for TCI 10 years ago...

1. As long as you signal is strong enough to split you won't see any problems. With digital it's either on or not (barring intermittent signaling or hardware failure which does happen).

2. Same as 1. It's digital, either it's working or it's not. Chances are good that it will work just fine.

3. You will want a splitter that allows for a return path, usually the return path is 5-50mhz. You'll want it to include all of your upper spectrum as well, which when I was at TCI it was 1000mhz. So we used 5-1000mhz splitters. I see that 5-2300mhz splitters are not uncommon, but they are usually used for satellite systems (as of my experience at TCI 10 years ago).

Gold plating isn't mandatory, but gold doesn't corrode, that's it's selling point. You won't have to replace it due to rust any time soon.
Most any splitter is "return path capable" meaning it sends and receives or allows for 2 way communications, but some have a power passive leg. That's usually for satellite (to power the LNB antenna on the dish on your roof) and you shouldn't need that.

Most 2-way splitters have a db rating. It's a measurement of loss, any time you split you get loss. If you're going to split multiple times it's far better to get one 4-way splitter than a 2-way and a 3-way and connect them together. Less loss. If the splitter you're looking at doesn't specify loss it's usually not worth the money. Standard is 3.5db per split. Some have 3db, others have 4 or more. I'd just go with 3.5 unless you find a 3db splitter at a good price. Unless you start getting spotty reception you won't notice the difference.

There's also another thing called a tap. It doesn't split the signal in half but rather directs more signal to one leg compared to the other. These aren't usually needed. But if you have great signal on one device but not the other it's one solution.

If you use an amplifier make sure it covers your mhz range like the splitter does and also make ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN it supports and passes the return path (5-50mhz typically). When you use an amp use it at the beginning of the line, not the end. By the time the signal is to the end it's too weak and all you'll amplify is noise.

Hope this helps.

 

http://www.frys.com/product/5980244?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
This one covers all bases for less than $3.

 

Hello. Sorry not to reply sooner.

@ plodr:

Hello. Nice to meet you. Thank you for replying. Interesting. I need to know more about what you said in your comment above.

I see you indicate, "No splitters involved. Hook your purchased modem into one of the ports on TWC's modem." To help you explain your suggestion, let me tell you my modem hardware specifically. I have TWC's rental cable modem combination (digital phone and Internet) model: Motorola SBV5220. MY own modem I plan to use is: Motorola (Internet ONLY capable) model: SB5101. Please explain your reasoning for the setup. I would love to hear what you have to say in terms of connecting them besides using coax cable and splitters.

Please reply.

Thank you!

@ cabbiinc:

Hello. Nice to meet you too. Thank you for what I would need specifically in terms of a coax splitter. Good explanation and great information on signal strength!!! ..and thanks for the weblink to buy a good one too! Thank you!

 

It isn't my reasoning this is what a CS rep from Time Warner said to a customer in the same position you are in.

 

@ plodr & anyone:

Hello again.

I see what you mean, plodr. I just wonder what the TWC customer service rep. meant? Hmmm...

I am thinking maybe the TWC customer service rep. meant that the hardware (the two modems) in a "series" instead of "parallel" (The latter, the way I am doing it with a coax splitter.) like what we learned in Electrical 101? A good idea to try to see what I get in terms of success -- nothing to lose. I am curious what I would achieve signal strength wise and bandwidth wise between the two setups too?

In a "series" running your coax cable line from say the either MY modem first or the TWC rental combo modem first, and the other modem second, WOULD it even work or not???

Any thoughts?

Thanks!