Coaxial cable splitting questions

[SpencerC]

Hi there!

Do I need a signal booster for my coaxial cable, which is for cable TV and internet? My provider is Xfinity. They recently came out to upgrade my internet and moved my modem from my office to my garage because the signal was stronger in the garage than where it was originally and the guy said to move it to the garage if I want the fastest internet, so in the garage it is. NOTE: I do not have a signal strength tester.

Original setup: Coax coming in from the street enters my garage. In the garage it splits into 2, leaving one end in the garage for the garage TV and the other goes under the house to where the floor access panel is located in my office. Still under the house, under my floor access panel, it splits 3 ways. One end goes to the bedroom TV, one goes to the family room TV, and one goes into my home office. In the home office it splits 2 ways, one going to my internet modem and one going to my HDHomeRun Prime. Ah ha! And you guys were thinking, what does this have to do with Silicon Dust! Sorry, it just took me a minute to get there.

New current setup: Same thing, but remove the garage TV and replace it with the modem. The garage TV never got used anyway. Now instead of the HDHomeRun having a 2 way splitter in front of it, it goes directly to the 3 way splitter under the access panel.

New planned setup: I recently acquired a full size 19" rack that I am moving all of my gear into in the garage. Yes, I know, it gets hot in the garage. I'm working on it. My modem will be in this rack. I am getting a custom made 3d printed 1U 19" rack kit that will hold 2 HDHomeRun Primes side by side. I bought a backup Prime in the event my original dies, I might as well put it to use. Coaxial wise, I care little about what is downstream from the garage.

What is the best way to split this coaxial cable to provide the best single to my modem for internet speed and without hurting my tv signals. Do I need a signal booster due to all the splits? I've seen some boosters that are also splitters with some warnings about OTA and Satellite. I know nothing of these devices or how coaxial stuff even works. I do know a little about networking switches though. Do they make something like a coaxial switch that behaves like an ethernet switch where one port is gigabit in and multiple ports are gigabit out? I'm imagining a powered coaxial switch that would take the signal in and boost it out to multiple output ports instead of the signal being reduced every time it is split. Am I imaging something that doesn't exist because things just don't work like that? Am I over thinking all of this?

So while not totally silicon dust related, it is because it can impact my primes. For those interested in my rack kit, once I get it and get it racked, I will post pictures and let you know where I ordered from.

Thanks!!

SpencerC

[KeithAbbott]

I use an Extreme Broadband IPA1008DL-RSVF. It has eight zero-loss amplified outputs, along with a pass-thru (non-amplified) output that connects to your cable modem. I've been using it with my two Primes for six years now, with no issues. There is at least one other company that makes a similar product, if you prefer. Put coax terminator caps on all unused outputs.

If it were me, I would push back on the cable provider about the garage installation. Garages are warm and dirty, not the best for electronic devices. Unless it is an extra-long cable run from their distribution panel, they should be able to get acceptable signal strength at your original location.

I also have a rack-mounted UPS that powers my coax amplifier, cable modem, Primes, and an 8-port ethernet switch. This was all installed during the pandemic, when my adult children needed extra-reliable internet due to college classes they were taking. I think I got around four hours of internet before the UPS runs out of juice during a power outage.

By the way, your Primes have a built-in webgui that displays signal strength, signal quality, and symbol quality. Silicondust also has a free Windows app that displays those metrics real-time.