Signal strength & signal boosters

[carage]

I just saw this at Best Buy yesterday and made me start to wonder about some potential issues.

http://commerce.motorola.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=247496&prmenbr=126&bcs_cgrfnbr=230509&zipcode#Detailed_Features

Given my recent situation with unstable speeds (http://forums.speedguide.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=103156), this signal booster made me think about the other possibility. Perhaps my cable's strength is either not strong enough or there is too much "noise".

Exactly how do I check my signal-noise ratio for my RCA cable modem?

If the problem is weak signal, I guess this might help. But if the problem is high noise ratio, wouldn't the signal booster amplify the noise as well?

Would anyone recommend this product?

[Respice]

Bigmo66 touched on the boosters in another thread. Personally, I have no experience with them.

Now I'm NOT suggesting this ;) but you could find a NICE cable tester at your local electronics shop that has a 30 day money back warranty (Circuit City) that will do all this for you. You can test the noise ratios in your house, but I'd stay away from the phone company's stuff. I'd just have them come out and check them. I

I'm not sure if they can do much for you as far as noise goes, it all depends on the source of the noise. Providers aren't too keen on hunting down these problems. If it's signal strength they can adjust the levels to help you out.

[DaveM]

set your IP on your nic to 192.168.100.2
set your default gateway to 192.168.100.1
set your subnet to 255.255.255.0
This CAN NOT be tested through a router, you need your computer's NIC to be connected directly to your RCA Cable modem.

The following URLS give you status reports from your RCA cable modem.

http://192.168.100.1/moreInfo.html
this page will have your modems connection properties in it.

http://192.168.100.1/diagnostics.htm
this is the basic info page

[carage]

Thanks, here are the results, looks normal???

Forward Path:
Signal Acquired at 645 MHz
SNR: 34.3 dB
Received Signal Strength: -0.0 dBmV
Micro-Reflections: 20 dBc

Return Path:
Connection: Acquired
Frequency: 23 MHz
Power Level: 33.2 dBmV
Channel ID: 5


Data Service Details

Provisioned Address: Yes
Provisioned Time: Yes
Provisioned Configuration: Yes
Registered: Yes
BPI: Enabled

[DaveM]

A signal strength of 0.0 db is perfect. get a negative number down to -15db should work. If you put an amplifier on that line you are probably going to over modulate the incoming signal and actually cause you problems.

My signal strength is -1.4db on the average and runs exceedingly well.

the outbound signal strength is based on your incoming. So the lower your incoming strength, the higher the modem will set the outgoing. Again yours is normal and there is nothing you can do to change it, because your incoming signal strength is so, well, perfect!

Also the Micro reflections and signal to noise ratio are all well within the specs.

Your cable signal to your house is very, very good.

[carage]

So this means my connection issues are most likely due to overcrowded nodes... Don't know what will my new 3com cable modem and ethernet adapter do... I probably won't get them before Friday though...

[chpalmer]

quoted by DaveM-" the outbound signal strength is based on your incoming. So the lower your incoming strength, the higher the modem will set the outgoing."

Just a little clarification.. :) The outbound signal strength is set by the headend. They like to hear everyone at about the same level. This frequncy is so much lower than the downstream and will have very differnt characteristics on its return trip to the node. Things such as connectors splitters and such will attenuate frequencies used for the downstream side, differnt from those used by the upstream side.

My downstream for instance is -3dBmV all the time. But my upstream goes from -40dBmV to -43dBmV throughout the week.
( I smell trouble as it used to be -37dBmV.)

But for these reasons, it would be about impossible to set upstream based on downstream.. CP

[Sava700]

I have that Signal Booster inline on the same brand of modem Motorola 4200 and I can't say I saw a difference at first..but after a random amount of speed tests and checks throughou the system in the way of Diag... it seems to be helping more than hurting.. after all it does BOOST your signal..if you can afford it hell why not get it and try it for yourself. But just remember even the posts by everyone here might say no or say yes to it being any help only your system and your hook up will tell the tale! :)