Re: Determining cable tv/internet signal levels

Just for reference, here are my numbers for a SBV5120:

Downstream
Frequency: 603 MHz
S/N: 36 dB
Power Level: 5 dBmV

Upstream
Frequency: 33.024 mHz
Power Level: 30 dBmV

--
Tony Marsillo
Nutmeg Repair
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"Dan" <none@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:PMKdnTTot-1XjYfZnZ2dnUVZ_vidnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Bill Jeffrey wrote:
Dan -

This may or may not be relevant to your situation - I can't tell without
more info.

If you have high speed cable Internet (which it sounds like you do), your
cable modem measures signal strength, and you MAY be able to read the
actual measurements. For example, I have a Motorola Surfboard modem, and
whoever is out there at http://192.168.100.1/ will tell me the signal
levels at the modem, both uplink and downlink.

You can also go to BroadbandReports.com and run some error-rate tests.
These don't tell you the signal level directly, but a high error rate can
be very indicative of low signal levels. It is quite sesnitive, right
around the threshold level.


Bill et al- thanks for the replies and Bill especially for the very useful
site referral, I'd never seen that one before. I do have a Motorola modem
(SB5101). The downstream measurements are 711 mhz (so much for the 60 meg
scope ;-/ ), SN ratio of 34.9 dB & power level of -6.7 dBmV. Upstream is
23 mhz, 36.5 dBmV. If you can give me any insights into the implications
of these numbers, I'd appreciate it. Also, what are they referring to on
the page under "LOGS"? I see they go back a month, are these stored in
the modem? There are quite a few entries reading "SYNC Timing
Synchronization failure" of various types, is this a problem?

As to calling comcast, I have repeatedly, they've sent out 3 guys, the
first 2 essentially did nothing, the last "jerry rigged" (to use his term)
the connector at the box end, saying the buried cable was of a type they
no longer support, and that most "techs" don't know how to do this. This
was 2 weeks after the initially "installation", despite talking to several
supervisors & an individual at their engineering department & asking them
to at least run a temporary line until the repair could be effected, since
I need the Internet to work from home. I was told in a phone message from
engineering that though I had NO service, a temporary line "is not
required". I don't doubt they may be more responsive in areas where there
are alternatives to their service, that's limited here, especially for
true high speed Internet (6-8 meg, as opposed to .7-1.5 meg DSL), and in
my experience their customer service has sucked. On my most recent
contact, I told a "supervisor" if something wasn't done once and for all
I'd have no choice but to cancel my account. Without skipping a beat, she
replied "would you like me to go ahead and put that cancellation through
now?" What an attitude. Finally she said she'd "make a few calls & get
back to me". That was about 10 days ago, during most of which time I was
on a business trip, and I've heard nothing. I can't wait until there IS
an alternatve to the bastards. My previous cable company in another state
was Wideopenwest, I nver had a problem with them, though I'm sure there
are those with a different experience. Anyway, after replacing a wall
jack yesterday & cleaning up all internal connections involved the tv
portion is satisfactory (for the moment, knock on wood) but Internet speed
(I do use BroadbandReports.com) is still typically 60% of what it should
be.

Thanks again all for the helpful replies.

Dan


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