need a cable booster

[jdawg90 10+ year member]

anyone have a recommendation for one that's cheap and will work good?

My internet connection will fall out every now and then. XBL will go from 5 stars down to 1 star for a good minute or so at a time and a lot of the time I lag out. The cable is split between 5 tv's and a modem so I think it is a signal issue.

A weak signal would cause this right? Or is it likely to be a bandwidth issue? There's a lot of people on the network.

Click to read more...

 

[Sub Woofin 10+ year member]

does this happen frequently?

 

[jdawg90 10+ year member]

yes. It can be constantly like that or more often it will work fine for 5 min or so, then drop out and lag, and keep repeating that. when it works I have 1.8 mbps downloads on the computer, when it lags that will go down to like 50 kbps or even 0. I think it is worse when more people are on the computer/watching tv. I changed the password on the router and didn't tell anyone and it didn't get any be better.

 

[Julian 10+ year member]

faster internet? 1.8 Mb/s is only 230 KB/s. That's pretty slow especially to be utilized by so many people.

 

[jdawg90 10+ year member]

na I download torrents at 1.8mbps, the cable internet is rated at 10mbs

 

[esmokah 10+ year member]

It shouldn't matter if they are watching tv or not. if they are gaming it will. I live out in the country where I can only get 1.5 and it is not fun. I would check all your fittings and splitters from the cable modem as far as you can. you want them wrench snug. cheap gold splitters are not good either. The cable modem would ideally be on the first splitter as far as the cable wiring goes. you want it to get the most signal first. all modems have an internal page, usually at 192.168.100.1 . You want the forward signal to be +10to-10, the Reverse to be between 35 and 50, and the SNR to be >33dBmv. That may help for starters. I'll keep an eye on the thread.

I've had flaky routers too. Try it without the router and see how your problem changes or stays the same.

 

[jdawg90 10+ year member]

It shouldn't matter if they are watching tv or not. if they are gaming it will. I live out in the country where I can only get 1.5 and it is not fun. I would check all your fittings and splitters from the cable modem as far as you can. you want them wrench snug. cheap gold splitters are not good either. The cable modem would ideally be on the first splitter as far as the cable wiring goes. you want it to get the most signal first. all modems have an internal page, usually at 192.168.100.1 . You want the forward signal to be +10to-10, the Reverse to be between 35 and 50, and the SNR to be >33dBmv. That may help for starters. I'll keep an eye on the thread.

is there a way to test the signal strength... maybe with a dmm or something?

and it's not an issue from the router's broadcast signal. I don't have the usb needed to connect directly to the cable modem. The router has tomato and when it lags the bandwith history looks normal/not high.

Oh yeah and when it falls out when I'm playing xbox live, the wireless signal on my computer stays at full bars.

 

[esmokah 10+ year member]

I can check it with my dsam meter! but seriously, if you can try to go to that '192.168.100.1' it will tell you the signal strength. Some routers block me from being able to get there. What brand modem is it?

 

[jdawg90 10+ year member]

downstream:

543000000 Hz

Locked 38db

1 dBmV

upstream:

34600000 Hz Ranged

47 dBmV

 

[esmokah 10+ year member]

Ok, you have some solid signal levels there. If you called into tech support, they would say those are fine. If they are not fluctuating, (check over time + when you have a problem) I would say the modem is fine. sometimes the carrier can have hiccups and it could still be a flaky router. How old is it? Also, wireless isn't the best for solid connections. How many devices would you guess can be used at once in the residence? phones, games, computers, tablets.. If you have multiple people on and streaming, 10Mbps service will bog down pretty fast. The slowest speed my company offers now is 30Mbps. Just some things to consider.

 

[jdawg90 10+ year member]

I'm starting to think its a bandwidth issue. It was working pretty good today, and now 9-10pm rolls around and it's too bad to play online. And it's actually a 20mb connection.

I have no idea how many people, other than a lot.

speedtest.net was 18mbps at like 6pm, now it's showing .37mbps... fml

 

[iamamp3pimp 5,000+ posts]

Its definately not an equipment (on your end) issue, you should have a tech come out.

Cant verify anything with a DMM thats for sure.

Good luck!

 

[J31Rob 5,000+ posts]

Have you power cycled everything? Had ISP send a refresh signal? Hard reset the router and re-configured?

 

[Julian 10+ year member]

na I download torrents at 1.8mbps, the cable internet is rated at 10mbs

MEGABYTE (MB) and MEGABIT (mb) are two different things

 

[JoeK 10+ year member]

10Mbps is roughly 1.25MB/s, thats fast enough for basic usage anywhere. My 1.5Mbps connection at home (180KB/s) is suitable for both XBL, steam, AND netflix at the same time over Wireless.

An MB is 1/8 of an Mb. So 10/8 would be 1.25MB/s

The more you know //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

---------- Post added at 01:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:42 PM ----------

 

Forgot to mention, try another router and see how that goes... Good routers can be had for