Surfboard Details. Is my signal OK?

[J Thinkpad]

Frequency 615000000 Hz Locked
Signal to Noise Ratio 36 dB
Power Level 4 dBmV The Downstream Power Level reading is a snapshot
taken at the time this page was requested. Please Reload/Refresh this Page
for a new reading



Upstream Value
Channel ID 3
Frequency 30400000 Hz Ranged

Power Level 53 dBmV

[John W Montgomery]

Yes,your levels are OK.

[stevech]

My experience says that your upstream power, at 53dBmV is quite high. If you
check it several times on several days and it stays this high, you should
take corrective action.
The RoadRunner head-end system commands the power setting for your upstream.
It does so for every subscriber's modem so their signals all arrive at the
head-end at about the same signal level.

The modem can set the power level for the upstream to at most about 59dBmV.
So at 53, the modem is nearing max, meaning there is little margin.

All you can do to reduce the upstream is to:
1. Assure you have at most one two-way splitter between the modem and the
incoming cable. No 4-way or 3-way.
2. If your house has a cable amplifier, make sure that this two-way splitter
for the cable modem is AHEAD of the amplifer, that is, don't connect the
cable modem to the amp's output.
3. The usual admonshiments about short/good quality coax. The upstream modem
signal is vulnerable to "ingress", this being leaking INTO the cable o f
broadcast TV stations in your area. In dry, clear high pressure days, the
broadcast propagation can cause ingress to increase and your margins will
diminish. Your 53 might go to 59 and then the RECEIVE light on your modem
may flash and you lose connectivity.

Ingress is a real problem in my area. Causes me lots of down-time in certain
weather. TWC does't care - they say it's a flaw in the customer's (condo
assocation) routing and they walk away.



"John W Montgomery" <***@san.rr.com> wrote in message news:OW3sf.8104$***@tornado.socal.rr.com...
Yes,your levels are OK.

[Scott Lindner]

Post by stevech
3. The usual admonshiments about short/good quality coax. The upstream modem
signal is vulnerable to "ingress", this being leaking INTO the cable o f
broadcast TV stations in your area. In dry, clear high pressure days, the
broadcast propagation can cause ingress to increase and your margins will
diminish. Your 53 might go to 59 and then the RECEIVE light on your modem
may flash and you lose connectivity.
Ingress is a real problem in my area. Causes me lots of down-time in certain
weather. TWC does't care - they say it's a flaw in the customer's (condo
assocation) routing and they walk away.

I never knew about this ingress effect before. Do you have any links to a
good discussion of how the weather causes the problems? I'm intrigued.

Scott

[stevech]

sorry for not reading this list more often...

The weather affects on local RF propagaton is an ill-defined set of physics.
Propagation for long distances (thousands of miles) at lower frequencies
(like ham and shortwave radio) is fairly well understood, being tied to the
Troposphere and Sun Spots.
All I can tell you is that San Diego TV channels 8 and 10 and ? make ingress
to TWC's cable very badly in clear, high-barometric-pressure times. You can
often see it on TV picutures on cable channels 8 and 10 as ghosts.
The cable modem is unable to overcome the ingress at times and loses "SEND"
synch. for hours.
Way too often.

Post by Scott Lindner

Post by stevech
3. The usual admonshiments about short/good quality coax. The upstream modem
signal is vulnerable to "ingress", this being leaking INTO the cable o f
broadcast TV stations in your area. In dry, clear high pressure days, the
broadcast propagation can cause ingress to increase and your margins will
diminish. Your 53 might go to 59 and then the RECEIVE light on your modem
may flash and you lose connectivity.
Ingress is a real problem in my area. Causes me lots of down-time in certain
weather. TWC does't care - they say it's a flaw in the customer's (condo
assocation) routing and they walk away.

I never knew about this ingress effect before. Do you have any links to a
good discussion of how the weather causes the problems? I'm intrigued.
Scott

[John W Montgomery]

There should be NO ghosts visible on your ch 8! If you see ghosts call TW. I had a new run from the pole put in and only 1 splitter on the house and I have NO ghosts on ch 8 at ANY time. Your cable run is defective and you are not getting the quality signal you are paying for!

[g***@san.rr.com]

My experience was the opposite. I had (braided-shield) RG-59 coax
cable inside the house, and I always had ghosts on channels 6, 8, and
10. My solution was to replace the interior cable with the fully
shielded stuff TW uses for their outside runs (at least through
conduit). No more signal leakage in (ingress sounds too pedantic), and
no more ghosts.

Is it possible for you to test (with a portable TV) to see if you have
ghosting near the point where the TW cable enters your buildings? That
might help locate the problem. Or did TW already do this before
declaring it an "inside cable" problem?

Post by John W Montgomery
There should be NO ghosts visible on your ch 8! If you see ghosts call TW. I had a new run from the pole put in and only 1 splitter on the house and I have NO ghosts on ch 8 at ANY time. Your cable run is defective and you are not getting the quality signal you are paying for!

[stevech]

Time Warner's service techs say their policy is that if the ingress seems to
be due to the customer's coax, it's not their responsiblity.
My condo's coax runs through three other condos' attics to reach me.
The homeowner's association won't agree that there is a problem (no one else
complains) well duuu, it MY coax. They think it's one shared coax.

This has been the source of really bad cable modem service for years here. I
am really p.o'd at paying high prices to TWC/RR for a cable modem that goes
out of synch frequently.

And they have the nerve to telemarket me for their digital phone service -
like I would want that on top of a bad cable modem service.

flame off.

Post by g***@san.rr.com
My experience was the opposite. I had (braided-shield) RG-59 coax
cable inside the house, and I always had ghosts on channels 6, 8, and
10. My solution was to replace the interior cable with the fully
shielded stuff TW uses for their outside runs (at least through
conduit). No more signal leakage in (ingress sounds too pedantic), and
no more ghosts.
Is it possible for you to test (with a portable TV) to see if you have
ghosting near the point where the TW cable enters your buildings? That
might help locate the problem. Or did TW already do this before
declaring it an "inside cable" problem?

Post by John W Montgomery
There should be NO ghosts visible on your ch 8! If you see ghosts call

TW. I had a new run from the pole put in and only 1 splitter on the house
and I have NO ghosts on ch 8 at ANY time. Your cable run is defective and
you are not getting the quality signal you are paying for!

[Scott Lindner]

Post by stevech
And they have the nerve to telemarket me for their digital phone service -
like I would want that on top of a bad cable modem service.

I'd like to add that it's excessively overpriced even if it were perfectly
flawless digital phone service.

[stevech]

TWC's digital phone service is likely going after people who don't know
about Vonage, Packet8, ViaTalk, et al.
I tried ViaTalk - they have a perpetual beta test program with revenue
subscribers. I dropped it because touch-tones to access banks, prescription
renewals, etc. don't work but for some retailers. A friend with Vonage
reports similar but less so problems. ViaTalk was $15/mo unlimited minutes
nationwide.

Post by Scott Lindner

Post by stevech
And they have the nerve to telemarket me for their digital phone service -
like I would want that on top of a bad cable modem service.

I'd like to add that it's excessively overpriced even if it were perfectly
flawless digital phone service.