Looking for info on Coaxial cabling.

[iFrogMac]

Hey all,
As you know, over the past few months i've had random signal issues and dropouts with my Cox connection anything from unreasonably slow speeds to random dropout of the connection to the internet directly. I've had quite a few techs out who have checked the tap outside, and have run tests from the outlet that's active in the apartment and things would be fixed and break again within a couple weeks. Recently They had scheduled an appointment with Cox construction, to run a new line from the tap to my apartment. When the guy came out he was very helpful, and my neighbor upstairs said he had been having a similar issue. In the neighbor's case, his closet was wired wrong (wiring closet) and that fixed it for him.

So (Jim from Cox) and I checked my wiring closet and all seemed ok, and that was Thursday even. Fast forward Friday until this morning, The issues of extremely slow upload speeds and the connection dying on upload started again.

So, I took the panel off the wiring closet and look at how it was set up. Here is what I found:

There are about 4 cables in it. One was connected straight to another cable by a coupler. One was connected to an inactive splitter. One was not connected at all. I unscrewed the cable that was on the coupler, and put the one not connected in it's place, and my speeds came back strong, and have been holding since, and that's been a couple hours ago where when I was having the issues, the connection would go screwy again with in 5 to 20 minutes of modem power cycle.

My question would be, why would there be multiple connections coming into an apartment with signal, but one would have unreliable signal. I didn't check the cable connected to the splitter to see if it has signal. I do know the two jacks in the bedroom aren't connected, as I tried the modem on each, and it never got a connection. So there is only one active coaxial jack in here.

How are apartments typically wired, when it's a building? and is there something I can get to look at what's coming in from the other lines?

As it stands now, it looks like my apartment may have been wired wrong at some point and no one ever fixed it, but only time will tell. Jim did say he would reschedule the new cable run. He left it up to me. However, so far this seems to have fixed it, since things were consistently bad, and simply changing the cable connected to the outlet improved things instantly. I was starting to think I got a bad modem, since everything else but a new line had been done until this point. So it was between the Line and modem as to where the problem was.

 

[degrub]

Terminate any open ports on the splitter, if it is used, with 75 ohm termination caps.

 

[iFrogMac]

Terminate any open ports on the splitter, if it is used, with 75 ohm termination caps.

I was actually wondering about that. It seems like everything left unused was left open. It was behind a wall plate, but I was thinking unused wires, or the splitter should be covered / terminated. What about just removing the splitter and caping the unused cables? I also might do a test and put my modem on the spitter to see if it's even live, or if it's just in there. I'll look for termination caps either way. Thanks.

EDIT: By the way in talking to the cox representative this morning on the phone. The company as a whole seems dumb. They over provision the 1G plan, but if you want their gateway with a 2.5G port, you have to pay for the 2G plan. So they give you data on the 1G plan you can't use, unless you buy your own modem with a 2.5G port to take advantage of the over provisioning. Leaving stuff unterminated in the wiring cubby is probably the second dumbest thing, although, I didn't realized I needed to terminate the open stuff either until you mentioned it. However, common sense says it should have been, even though I wasn't 100% sure.

 

[Tech9]

Jim did say he would reschedule the new cable run.

Why don't you show Jim the box next time he comes? He knows better what's needed.

You have 2x active lines coming to your unit for whatever reason, both are connected to a splitter upstream. The one with the coupler goes directly to the room where your modem is located, the unused splitter is perhaps for the other room. You don't have to terminate unused not connected cables.

I was starting to think I got a bad modem

Sounds like it.

 

[iFrogMac]

Why don't you show Jim the box next time he comes? He knows better what's needed.

I did. we found it together, and that's how I knew what to check. He's not familiar with how the apartments here were originally wired. I have his direct number so I contacted him today to reschedule the fresh run to the apartment. I also told him what I had done to stabilize my connection until the new cable is run. When he was here the first time, He had told me that it was good that I knew enough about this, and was checking what I was to help resolve my issues. He even told me that, he's just a cable layer, and not really technical so I knew more than him on the technical side. I mainly asked here because he wasn't able to tell me how these apartments were originally wired, and I know, no one here would know the specific answer to that. So, I mainly just asked in general, if there was a standard way apartment buildings were wired. So either way, it looks I got my connection stable until they can officially get my new line run.

 

[Tech9]

and I know, no one here would know the specific answer to that

The usual wiring is one active connection and a splitter to few rooms. Since coax is mostly unused for it's original purpose most often the connection to the modem is direct to the active line (the coupler) and everything else is disconnected (the splitter you found). Changing your modem to get this 2.5GbE port wasn't the best idea in my opinion. Now the modem is your responsibility. I always use the ISP provided equipment and the ISP fixes it when it doesn't work as expected. I know some ISPs charge monthly fee in the US, but your service price is usually lower than what we have here in Canada. Our ISP equipment is included "for free" on higher service price. It's the same thing, basically.

 

[iFrogMac]

The usual wiring is one active connection and a splitter to few rooms. Since coax is mostly unused for it's original purpose most often the connection to the modem is direct to the active line (the coupler) and everything else is disconnected (the splitter you found). Changing your modem to get this 2.5GbE port wasn't the best idea in my opinion. Now the modem is your responsibility. I always use the ISP provided equipment and the ISP fixes it when it doesn't work as expected. I know some ISPs charge monthly fee in the US, but your service price is usually lower than what we have here in Canada. Our ISP equipment is included "for free" on higher service price. It's the same thing, basically.

If I had been able to keep spectrum that would have been a better deal, they give out a plain modem with a 2.5G port for their 1G tier and don't charge a rental fee. Cox charges for both the modem and unlimited data. I would much rather change to fiber when I have the opportunity and have the provider provide the fiber gateway and then just use my own router. So I'm just trying to make the best choices with limited options of providers here.

I think after digging into this situation as I have, the modem was a good decision, but having to be stuck with Cox and dealing with the poor upkeep of the apartment wiring, that I wish I didn't have to deal with. By the way, I started having issues with their own modem, that's what provoked me to get my own. That was the initial thing and not having to deal with a combo unit.

Also based on your description of common configurations. I found two active cables coming in and one connected to a splitter with nothing on the splitter. The apartment has three jacks, and the 2 in the bedroom aren't active, and based on the wiring closet there doesn't seem to be a way to activate them. I'm sure Jim will be back soon enough after the pre bury is approved and he can show me things better. I'm used to fixing my own issues, even when renting as much as I can. I just wasn't familiar with the box, or knew there was one until me and Jim found it the first time after I talked to my neighbor and him telling me that's how they fixed his same issues that I was having with changing the connections in the box. The more I can do on my own and the less I have to deal with tech support, the better I feel about getting the job done.

Anyway, I was willing to go back to their provided gateway to rule out my modem issues. However, when I pursued that, it would cost me $100 one time connection fee to have an installer come out because i got my own. So the less control I give the Cox, the better. I will consider my setup very rewarding after getting these bugs worked out. It's also a good learning experience.

 

[Tech9]

It's also a good learning experience.

You are on a rental property as far as I remember. The owner is the one to approve and arrange modifications and additions to existing systems. In a multi dwelling rental property you may never get the approval and eventual own arrangements and alterations may be restored to original condition and the cost charged back to you. Don't get this learning experience. Jim from Cox may promise you everything, but may not be allowed to do it.

 

[iFrogMac]

You are on a rental property as far as I remember. The owner is the one to approve and arrange modifications and additions to existing systems. In a multi dwelling rental property you may never get the approval and eventual own arrangements and alterations may be restored to original condition and the cost charged back to you. Don't get this learning experience. Jim from Cox may promise you everything, but may not be allowed to do it.

I forgot to mention that he talked to management of the apartment complex and they gave him the go ahead to install the jack and run the line. That was the first thing he verified before we moved forward. He was just waiting on me to give him the go ahead on my end if i wanted to proceed. So yes, I'm aware of these things. In fact, before he got to my place, he asked me if a specific company managed the property as they didn't allow new lines. So yep, all important things to take into account. Also, as a good tenant, I always ask management first before I do anything to the apartment if it's questionable. Regardless of where I've rented.

 

[Tech9]

What line they are going to run?

 

[iFrogMac]

What line they are going to run?

A fresh line from the tap outside to a new jack in the living room to make sure i have a clean run to make sure I'm not dealing with aged cable or other things not maintained as they should have been from lack of care to the property. I understand your comment about the modem above as I was thinking the same thing, if the modem was bad, or incompatible, even though it's on their certified modems list. Thankfully in terms of the modem, all my issues have been line related, so it's looking like the modem is fine and the line upkeep has lacked. over the years. especially internally.

 

[iFrogMac]

@degrub , I was doing some reading from people who have wired their own places, or dealing with old configs from someone else living there before them. Speaking of the splitter, it looks like since it's not connected to anything that it would be safe for me to just remove it, and put it a way, and then put it back before I move out. Seems like people are saying similar to you that unused splitters can cause problems. In this case would it still cause problems? it only has one cable connected to one side, nothing else on the other side. The one cable connected seems to not be connected to anything in the chain of where the active connection goes either. Basically it looks like this apartment had multiple connections configured and it wasn't cleaned up before I moved in, as mentioned due to poor management. There is a new company in charge now and things are getting much better. However still things to be cleaned up fixed, from past management neglect.

 

[GHammer]

In my last house, there were coax and splitters everywhere.
I had the cable company come out and run one run to the modem.
I later added a splitter and a run to enable MoCa.
Worked great afterward and for the 10 year run in the house.
Point is, if you are dealing with unknowns, install fresh.

 

[iFrogMac]

In my last house, there were coax and splitters everywhere.
I had the cable company come out and run one run to the modem.
I later added a splitter and a run to enable MoCa.
Worked great afterward and for the 10 year run in the house.
Point is, if you are dealing with unknowns, install fresh.

That's the ultimate plan and why I have kept in touch with Jim from Cox so he can go ahead and start the process of doing a clean run after getting the approval of the apartment management, and me giving him the go-ahead after having more issues this morning. So there is no estimated time, the whole thing being done yet. Just that it's in the process. Thankfully the changes I did in the wiring cubby, seem to have stabilized the existing connection, until the new one is done.

 

[degrub]

@degrub , I was doing some reading from people who have wired their own places, or dealing with old configs from someone else living there before them. Speaking of the splitter, it looks like since it's not connected to anything that it would be safe for me to just remove it, and put it a way, and then put it back before I move out. Seems like people are saying similar to you that unused splitters can cause problems. In this case would it still cause problems? it only has one cable connected to one side, nothing else on the other side. The one cable connected seems to not be connected to anything in the chain of where the active connection goes either. Basically it looks like this apartment had multiple connections configured and it wasn't cleaned up before I moved in, as mentioned due to poor management. There is a new company in charge now and things are getting much better. However still things to be cleaned up fixed, from past management neglect.

If there is nothing connected and active on the cable/splitter, then do nothing. It is only on active lines connected to a splitter/amp that you should cap the unused ports on the splitter/amp to maintain signal quality and not pick up noise. Rarely are wall plates capped..

 

[iFrogMac]

If there is nothing connected and active on the cable/splitter, then do nothing. It is only on active lines connected to a splitter/amp that you should cap the unused ports on the splitter/amp to maintain signal quality and not pick up noise. Rarely are wall plates capped..

I'm glad I caught you this morning. I had another look in the box. Here is what I think they did. They ran two lines into the apartment. One is a single connection to the jack in the office cubby. The other is to the splitter, and the only two things connected to the splitter are the bedroom jacks, the input is the port disconnected. So essentially what I did was switch the inputs and connect the line for the spitter to the single jack and disconnect the line for the single connector. So the line that was connected to the single jack in the office initially is what was having issues, the second one seems to be ok. However still going to have a fresh line run as mentioned to be 100% sure. Anyway, I said all this to say, the splitter isn't in the loop at all in terms of active connections, and the disconnected second live cable is just in there not touching anything.

 

[Tech9]

Here is what I think they did.

See post #6 above. This is a common situation with coax cables.

 

[iFrogMac]

See post #6 above. This is a common situation with coax cables.

Yep, just re-read and can confirm that's what they did here, and i simply changed the active line to the modem, and left the one that was connected causing issues disconnected.

 

[Tech9]

Your previous modem was connected to the same line you have issues with now. Did you have issues with the ISP provided modem?

 

[iFrogMac]

Your previous modem was connected to the same line you have issues with now. Did you have issues with the ISP provided modem?

For the first year, no, but yes they started with their own modem too before i got my own. It's mainly been this year I've had to deal with this. probably the second half of the year. Since I changed the line from the pole connected to the jack where the modem is, it's the same jack but different physical line feeding it now from the box. So, something could have happened to the line feeding the jack initially.