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[BullishDad]

I was on the internet when suddenly I could no longer access any web sites.  I turned off my router and cable modem for awhile to reset, but this didn't work like it had in the past.

I called my cable company and the support person wanted me to hook the coax cable directly into the cable modem without the splitter.  He suggested the splitter could be the problem, and I admit I was skeptical.

It wasn't practical for me to move the cable modem, so instead I put a different splitter in line.  To my surprise, not only did it work immediately, but pages are loading much faster than before.

Bottom line: The splitter can make a difference.  The splitter I was using was a RCA 4 way that I bought at Home Depot.  The one I'm using now is a Radio Shack 2 way.  I really need a 3 way.  Is there any spec I should look for to ensure better quality?  

[jcouch93]

It was probably the loss (attenuation) that got you.  I used to see this in places where signal was borderline.  When you look for a splitter try to find one that has the LEAST loss.  I forget how much you're going to lose on each leg (depends on the number of legs) so look for the one with the least loss.  Hope this helps...

phatrabt

[AnalogRoaming]

You can also get signal boosters at Radio Shack, and cable filters to help with the signal.

The best thing you can do is only split the line ONCE before getting to the cable modem.  That means if your house only has one cable jack, split it there using a 4 way and then go to the rest of your house from there. TV cable can be split a lot, but not cable modems.  Splitting more than once results in slower speeds.

(Sometimes the cable company puts in extra lines for you and they cheat.... they may use a standard splitter to put a new line in the den or bedroom. I've seen this and it's really unfortunate. The only option is to buy a booster.  A guy I know just did that... big wiring closet with signal boosters for his cable lines so all of his rooms would be clear.)



Call your cable company up and have them remotely test your signal. They can tell from their end what your line signal strength is.  

/many years of cable modem experience, in bad houses and good ones.

[loraan]

Put the cable modem as close to where the cable comes into the house as possible. Remember that every time you insert a 2-way splitter, you cut the signal in half. An amplifier probably won't help, and might hurt--here's why: 1) cable amps are usually one-way--downstream--which won't help so much with a two-way data link, and 2) the signals used to carry data over cable are at different frequencies than those used to carry television, so a cable amp probably won't boost them and may block them entirely.

Please take this with a grain of salt--this is just stuff I looked up on the Internet when I had cable modem problems. I defer to any better-informed posters :-)

[BullishDad]

Thanks everyone, for the comments.  

What surprised me was that I've been using the 4 way splitter about 6 months and never  had a problem.  I don't know if it somehow "failed" or maybe the data signal got weaker and caused the problem.  The signal to the TV was fine.

I'm debating whether I should buy a 3 way (which isn't too easy to find locally), use another 2 way and split the signal out to the TV into the TV and my ReplayTV, or try putting a cap on the 4 way to see if that helps.

I read online where the unused connections should be terminated with an F connector.  I probably could get one in Radio Shack.

[loraan]

What surprised me was that I've been using the 4 way splitter about 6 months and never  had a problem.  I don't know if it somehow "failed" or maybe the data signal got weaker and caused the problem.  The signal to the TV was fine.

My experience has been that the TV signal is able to be received at much weaker levels than the data signal. The data signal can be quite sensitive to loss, frankly (again, just speaking for my experience). Also, bear in mind that the data signal is at different frequencies than the television channels, and attenuation can be frequency-specific.

[BullishDad]

Update: What I wound up doing was buying a second 2 way splitter (by Monster Cable}.  I had one cable going to the cablemodem and another going to the Radio Shack 2 way splitter.  That splitter went to the TV and ReplayTV.

I noticed that the picture on the TV had degraded slightly on Channels 2 and 3 after I added the second splitter.  Out of curiosity, I swapped the cables so that the TV was running thru only one splitter and the cablemodem thru both.  The TV picture improved and the internet is running fine, so I'll leave it alone for now.