I bought one of these Motorola Broadband signal boosters because we are always having problems with our cable modem dropping its signal, sometimes there's no problem sometimes lots of disconnects. Comcast has come out a few times and changed some wires and fittings to our house. Inside our house we have lots of splitters, nothing we can change without it being very costly. I have run an almost direct line to our cable modem, goes like this. Telephone pole > splitter right before it enters house>line to a splitter> cable modem. If you think having 2 splitters before it is bad, before I put a new line in it was something like 5 or 6 (big house, lots of cable jacks). So I'm wondering if that broadband booster is going to increase latency?
![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
Do cable signal boosters increase latency?
- Thread starter munkle
- Start date
shade_star
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2007
- Messages
- 340
Its justa signal regenerator which takes time. It has to repackage the signal and send it out.
It shouldnt be anything you notice though. If this is such a big deal you could always have your cable company run another cable line just for internet. So it would go from the junction box to your cable modem.
Also depending on where you live FIOS may be available.
It shouldnt be anything you notice though. If this is such a big deal you could always have your cable company run another cable line just for internet. So it would go from the junction box to your cable modem.
Also depending on where you live FIOS may be available.
Only thing I can get is Comcast 8mbs, or Dsl at 1.5mb and the dsl in our area blows hard, you get maybe half the speed and constant down time. I'll see about running a new line to my house but that would only reduce 1 splitter, and since they already ran a new line I don't know if it would do much except reducing 1 splitter.
Its not really Comcasts problem, they ran all new lines to my house which helped greatly, we used to not get alot of channels because they were to fuzzy. They did all they had to do and then some, basically Comcast makes sure that the signal is getting to your house fine and then once it goes into your house its your problem which is fine with me, they did give us a few new splitters, some cables, and a tv signal booster (not broadband though) for in our house so they did more than they had to do at no charge.
Its just we have an old house with lots of old wiring and old splitters. The splitters before the cable modem are all new and from Comcast which they gave them to us for free (which they don't need to do since its in my house). The line to the cable modem is 125 Feet+2 splitters + the line to the pole so that may be causing some problems also since its like a 300+ foot run.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand cable technology it's not quite the number of splitters you have on the line. It's the number of devices on the line. So even if you only had a single splitter before the cable modem, if you have 10 other devices off that first splitter, you are still degrading the signal enough to cause problems.
I would test this theory before calling comcast. Start disconnecting devices ( well, wires really. You lose signal through the wire ). See how your disconnects do.
I would test this theory before calling comcast. Start disconnecting devices ( well, wires really. You lose signal through the wire ). See how your disconnects do.
See thats the problem I can't disconnect much really because all the wires and splitters are in the walls which is why it would be very costly to replace all the old wiring and splitters. We have a cable jack in every room of our house (yes in the bathrooms, tv in the tub
) and some times 3+ cable jacks in some rooms. We only have 4 tvs, but our house was built to be versatile I guess.I guess a new line would help more then since the first splitter does have quite a bit on it, but I wouldn't be able to remove the second splitter before the cable modem since there is other stuff that depends on the new line also.
Orinthical
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2004
- Messages
- 1,635
The amplifier is not going to harm the situation but it may not solve it either. The way you describe your housing situation, I think the culprit here may very well be the splitter in the wall. Many older splitters were not designed to effectively transmit the range of frequencies used by today's digital cable services.
Bring your cable modem down and plug it into the line directly - do you have intermittent signal loss right where the line comes into your house? If not then you may be faced with having to replace some splitters in your house.
Edit: IF this is outright impossible, how about running a CAT5e cable through the wall? You could plug your cable modem into a splitter right where the cable comes in and then run a CAT5e cable from the modem to your wall plate.
Bring your cable modem down and plug it into the line directly - do you have intermittent signal loss right where the line comes into your house? If not then you may be faced with having to replace some splitters in your house.
Edit: IF this is outright impossible, how about running a CAT5e cable through the wall? You could plug your cable modem into a splitter right where the cable comes in and then run a CAT5e cable from the modem to your wall plate.
I made a little diagram of how my house is wired.
All I need to do is remove to splitter right before the cable modem and I'm directly into the new splitter, this will be the best connection I will ever get inside my house (I could plug it in outside but no point because no power and does me no good) unless I run a separate line from the pole just for the modem.
The line that goes to the rest of my house is where all the old crappy wire (rg59?) and old splitters are. Which is why I have the new line with new splitters that will work with a broadband signal. These are splitters and cables provided by Comcast (at no charge) so I would assume that they carry the signal just fine.
The signal booster would go right before the the splitter before the modem and pc. This is the best I can do without having Comcast run a second line from the pole. I will have to call them and see if they will run a second line and how much it will cost.
How much latency will the signal booster add? A few ms? Or a couple dozen ms?
All I need to do is remove to splitter right before the cable modem and I'm directly into the new splitter, this will be the best connection I will ever get inside my house (I could plug it in outside but no point because no power and does me no good) unless I run a separate line from the pole just for the modem.
The line that goes to the rest of my house is where all the old crappy wire (rg59?) and old splitters are. Which is why I have the new line with new splitters that will work with a broadband signal. These are splitters and cables provided by Comcast (at no charge) so I would assume that they carry the signal just fine.
The signal booster would go right before the the splitter before the modem and pc. This is the best I can do without having Comcast run a second line from the pole. I will have to call them and see if they will run a second line and how much it will cost.
How much latency will the signal booster add? A few ms? Or a couple dozen ms?
Orinthical
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2004
- Messages
- 1,635
It has nothing to do with "latency" and will not add any. Latency is completely up to the cable modem, your network, computer and the rest of the internet. Boosting your signal will not increase of decrease your speed or latency on the internet. The only thing it will do is increase the amount of signal in dB that reaches your modem's RF port.
The keys you have to worry about with splitters/amplifiers is how many dB of noise you add on the line and how many dB of signal you lose with each split. Each time you add a splitter, you lose several dB of signal. The amount varies by the quality of the splitter but is typically around 3-5dB worth of loss for each splitter.
e.g. Comcast brings 18dB of signal to the side of your house.
The first splitter decreases the amount of signal by 3dB for each leg, delivering an average of 15dB to each leg. Add another splitter, you're down to 12dB, another? 9dB... and soon you may have trouble with the more demanding devices like your cable modem and digital receivers.
Amplifiers take what you have coming in and amplify that signal by a set amount. When you amplify a signal you also incur a bit of noise - think of a hiss in a speaker, if you turn the volume up the hiss doesn't go away - it only gets louder. With a good quality amplifier and plenty of shielding you should not be adding much noise.
Keep in mind that many less expensive amplifiers are not two-way (the one you purchased is) compatible therefore should not be put in-line before any digital receivers or cable modems. You also need to look at and consider the "return path" when choosing a splitter; many will only amplify the forward-path, leaving you with a ridiculous amount of loss on the return-path side. The return-patch is necessary for digital services, including your cable modem.
My suggestion would be to place the amplifier right when he signal comes into the house. This will minimize the amount of noise being amplified with the good stuff. Also, try placing the modem close to where the signal comes into the house. IF you have better luck at this location you may just be losing too much signal over the 125 cable to keep the cable modem up or there may be something along the path of the new cable that's causing a lot of interference.
You could also have a bad modem - have they/you tried replacing it?
The keys you have to worry about with splitters/amplifiers is how many dB of noise you add on the line and how many dB of signal you lose with each split. Each time you add a splitter, you lose several dB of signal. The amount varies by the quality of the splitter but is typically around 3-5dB worth of loss for each splitter.
e.g. Comcast brings 18dB of signal to the side of your house.
The first splitter decreases the amount of signal by 3dB for each leg, delivering an average of 15dB to each leg. Add another splitter, you're down to 12dB, another? 9dB... and soon you may have trouble with the more demanding devices like your cable modem and digital receivers.
Amplifiers take what you have coming in and amplify that signal by a set amount. When you amplify a signal you also incur a bit of noise - think of a hiss in a speaker, if you turn the volume up the hiss doesn't go away - it only gets louder. With a good quality amplifier and plenty of shielding you should not be adding much noise.
Keep in mind that many less expensive amplifiers are not two-way (the one you purchased is) compatible therefore should not be put in-line before any digital receivers or cable modems. You also need to look at and consider the "return path" when choosing a splitter; many will only amplify the forward-path, leaving you with a ridiculous amount of loss on the return-path side. The return-patch is necessary for digital services, including your cable modem.
My suggestion would be to place the amplifier right when he signal comes into the house. This will minimize the amount of noise being amplified with the good stuff. Also, try placing the modem close to where the signal comes into the house. IF you have better luck at this location you may just be losing too much signal over the 125 cable to keep the cable modem up or there may be something along the path of the new cable that's causing a lot of interference.
You could also have a bad modem - have they/you tried replacing it?
I know my signal cutting out has nothing to do with latency, I asked if the signal booster will increase latency because it boosts the signal going back which would mean there is an action going on and I was wondering if that action increased latency. I know the reason the my cable cuts out is because of lots of noise and signal degradation, hence the new lines/splitter and buying a signal booster. I just wanted to know that the signal booster isn't going to delay the signal somehow when it amplifies it.
This is a new modem we bought our old one was a sbg900, basically a wireless model of what we have now, it had the same cut out problems every now and then, we have a wireless router now and no need for the wireless on the sbg900 (yes you can turn it off but its still like having 2 routers, which creates a problem with port forwarding).
As I said before where the cable modem is in the house is the best its going to get since anywhere else will be old wires/bad splitters. I have no way to pin point exactly where the first jack is off the splitter that leads to my house. Anything off the splitter that goes to the rest of my house is just a rats nest of old cables/splitters.
Edit: Is the booster I bought rated for outdoor use? Because the first splitter is outside our house, the cable used to go just straight in but to add the new line we ran it on the outside of the house and its hooked up to a splitter outside. The new line comes in through a small hole in the weather stripping on a door of a deck we have on our second floor.
Orinthical
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2004
- Messages
- 1,635
The "it" I was referring to was 'adding a signal booster.' Adding a signal booster has nothing to do with latency. In short... it won't add any.
Nope.