Search the original Gateway thread here as there are dimensions and pictures.

Go with the Utility room, if you read the threads most complain of the noise generated by the Gateway and in the new year you will plug your broadband 50 modem directly into the Gateway enabling DLNA and making the Gateway a 4 port router as well.

in the new year will the portals become network ready too? that is could I put a wifi router in one of my portals via the ethernet jack?

I probably know the answer already but I'll ask anyway: is there any way to inject a security camera signal into the gateway system?

If not, most people connect to another input on the TV. If you have a programmable remote like a Harmony, switching to the camera is a one-button affair.

Yes, thanks, we've done that already on one set but we have four portals and I was hoping not to pull additional cable to all the locations.

Perhaps there is a 'diplexer' to carry the analog video from the security system over the same coax as the digital signal to the portals which woudln't interfere w/portal operation.

You can use a digital modulator and send the signal throughout the house on the analog band. In Calgary, use can use Analog channel 117 (with a digital box with analog tuner like DCT 6416 can see this feed on channel 399).
Call Shaw and ask them what the analog channel for the security camera is in your area.
However, there is no consumer modulator available to do the same with a digital only system such as your gateway.

If you used a diplexer (such as the ones typically used for combining sat and cable signals) - these would cut off a lot of your channels. Shaw now has tv stations higher than 900 MHz.

I also tried in the past using a notch filter for VHF channel 4 and a simple RF channel 4 modulator. This works great, except for the fact that the IPG (tv guide) data gets filtered out as well.

Hi,
We are going away for 4 weeks, should we unplug Gateway?
Any thoughts?

Thanks

Only if you don't mind waiting for Shaw to reactivate the unit once you get home and plug it in again. It might get dropped from your account and take even longer than usual to get it all up and running again so I'd just leave it plugged in as usual.

Recently got in on a good promo for all 3 Shaw services. I have a number of questions and issues about it that I hope is OK to put into a single thread.

Can someone please tell me what the Gateway light pattern should be on a properly functioning unit? When I first had my Gateway installed, all 5 lights were on steady. A few days ago I lost cable service for several hours during which time only the first and last lights were on steady and the 2nd and 4th lights blinked occasionally. I thought this was a good indication that the gateway wasn’t working right. But when the TV channels started working again, that light pattern remained the same (blinking 2nd and 4th lights).

Is Shaw service really as bad as it seems? Multi-hour wait times and no call back?! Maybe I’ve been spoiled by Telus and Shaw Direct in the past but having to devote an entire afternoon or evening to babysitting my phone while listening to bad Xmas music seem very cruel. I’ve also tried the email service which promises a response within 3 business days – it’s been 6 business days now and no response. Is this something Shaw is supposed to improve upon? I think poor service would be by far the single biggest reason not to go with Shaw cable.

Is it normal that the remote doesn’t turn off/on the portal (only the TV)? As far as I can tell there is no way to turn off a portal short of unplugging it. Doesn’t seem very green to me.

Anyone else finding that the Last channel button on the remote doesn’t work (all 3 portals)? Really, really annoying.

Regarding power-cycling to fix glitches - what is the recommended way of doing this? Is it necessary to first unplug ALL portals, then unplug the gateway, wait for the gateway to boot-up and then plug in the portals?

What should you do when power cycling doesn’t help solve the issue? I’ve got one portal (others are fine) for which the guide displays 1.5 days behind the current time and it is impossible to make recordings even if the guide is manually moved up to the correct time?

I’ve experienced a great many audio and video drop-outs on all HD channels but that has been gradually getting better seemingly all by itself. So I guess I’ll just leave that to sort itself out.

I must say the internet (Broadband 50) has been uniformly excellent thus far. The phone has had a few minor hiccups but what bothers me is that the very day service changed from Telus to Shaw, I started receiving a huge increase in spam calls – probably 4X as many as when I was on Telus. (The number is on the national do-not-call-list but I know that does very little good.) Just coincidence or something about the transfer that made my number a target for most every spaming asshat in North America and India??

Susido, did you receive the update yet? Maybe that's why the audio/video dropouts are improving?

Yep, the Portals never really turn off because there's always stuff going on between the Portals and Gateway (how's that for a technical answer?).

If you want to reboot your entire setup, the power-cycling routine that you mentioned should probably be followed.

The Gateway should have six lights on.

As for your problems with the Last button and a Portal that has the Guide displaying 1.5 days behind the current time, if rebooting your entire setup doesn't fix it, I think you need to contact tech support. I know, you've been trying. Did you sign up with Shaw Friends (http://www.shaw.ca/shawfriends/) yet? They have a Concierge Chat service that's relatively quick in responding (probably within a few minutes).

Thanks MetroVan. I did manage to get a hold of Shaw tech support (they even offered a callback service this time!). Turns out my Gateway installation is seriously fubared - they can't communicate with any of it from their end and are amazed I still get my cable channels. A tech is coming over to investigate - in 10 days.

So no update for me for a while. I'll defiitely have to look into that Shaw Friends thing, I'll probably be using it lots.

If I want to move the Gateway to another room, can I just get a MoCa filter and put it at the outlet that the Gateway coaxial will be going into? Or do i put it somewhere before the gateway and all portals? Where can I get a MoCa filter without going through Shaw?

Without a diagram of your installation, we can't even guess what you would need to do. If you want to move it, just call Shaw and book an appointment. They're free and they have all the parts needed if you require additional splitters or filters. Just be sure to mention you need your Gateway moved when you book the call and that the tech should have extra MoCA filters, just in case.

I have it all figured out. My installation is simple, with just a Gateway and 1 Portal. The Gateway was put right at my TV in the cabinet with the Portal, and I really don't like how warm it's getting in there, so I'm going to move it upstairs.

They are both connected to a 2-way splitter together, so all I have to do is keep that setup, but have the Gateway going to another room from that splitter, and keep the MoCA filter before the splitter (where it is now) to keep the MoCA signals from getting to the rest of my cable system and out of my house.

That does sound like it should be just fine. Just be sure to make the coax connectors good and tight. Loose coax connections can be one of the most common causes of signal problems. Finger tight isn't really enough to keep them from coming loose.

LONG Post.....

okay, about a 6 weeks ago I was having problems with bad signal levels, I think that was around the time that the 3rd portal got installed, deaenforcement recommended I get a service call which I did, the tech came out and re-terminated all the cables, moved things around and labelled all the cabling in my furnace room (internal demarc). All was good for a while, but about 2-3 weeks ago, had issues with the VOD (usually P002 error), resolved by I think both a reboot of the gateway and portals, a few days later same problem, called gateway support, they did some remote stuff and fixed it. A week or so later same issue, called gateway support they said couldn't fix it and would have to send a tech as the previous tech didn't write down what he did to fix it. Full details here

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=1343063#post1343063

In a nutshell it resolved itself. Well, last week same problem, gateway support mentioned that after work done by last tech I was getting good signals which started dropping over the space of a month which led to the P002 error again, he did a remote reset and we were able to watch VOD again but he cautioned that it would probably fail again due to signal levels. then scheduled a service visit which was on Tuesday this week.

This tech took a while to get an understanding of the layout of all the cabling, and indicated that external demarc wasn't done right, this is a duplex and there are 2 lines for each suite in that box, but there's also a splitter there for my suite when I asked to have a another outlet run to the spare bedroom that shares that outside wall. Tech also mentioned that there should be a filter on my incoming lines from the street to block any (I think he said) moca transmissions. Anyhow, back to the furnance room, he mentioned putting the shaw home phone dpt on it's own cable, but I think that was like that before. He made some other changes which I didn't quite catch to clean up cabling.

In the other spare room where the gateway is, he removed the moca filter on the shaw modem, again I can't quite remember what the reasoning for that was, but it sounding like a good explanation at the time.

So, here's the current setup:

external demarc
- portal in spare bedroom
- incoming line(s) to internal demarc

internal demarc
- line to living room (2 way splitter) with 1 portal and 1 dcx3400
- line to main bedroom - not hooked up
- line to main spare room (with gateway)

main spare room
- 4 way splitter

1 leg to 3 way splitter
- 1 leg to digital cable box (dct2500)
- 1 leg to currently unpowered portal (need to get a monitor to plug it into)
- 1 leg to 3 way splitter with all 3 legs going to analog tuners in mythtv box

1 leg to Moto SB1500 modem (no moca filter)

1 leg to hauppauge analog tuner

1 leg to gateway

After all this tech measured the levels and said they were all 33 to 35db which he indicated is good.

So.... next week, I am dumping my Telus business dsl line and replacing it wtih BB50 as for the first 12 months it's 1/3 the cost of what I pay for the Telus dsl and after the 12 month promo, it's still only 2/3 what I'm paying telus. I am also getting the secondary wireless modem for guest usage. I'm going to have the tech install that in the furnace room (internal demarc), while the regular BB50 modem will go into the same room as the gateway.

I'll be dropping the current 25mb personal shaw internet back down to the regular 7.5mb high speed package, or eventually getting rid of it altogether, but that'll happen sometime in the new year.

So the question is, do I need to be worried about signal strength and issues with the gateway given the 2 new internet devices that'll be installed? Should I pre-schedule a service call from a gateway tech at the same time or next day to make sure all is good there?

Also do I need to worry about the business line's basic cable interfering with my residential cable service? I don't want to find out that all my gateway services stop working because the services will conflict with each other or the one will override the other.

So, suggestions, comments etc?

Is this the way Shaw set it up? It sounds like you have your Gateway at the furthest point from your demarcation point. That would mean it is getting the least amount of signal; not at all ideal.

<shrug>, this is how they set it up, prior to the previous 2 visits it was on a further upstream leg that resulted in low signals, the current setup was done by the tech that re-terminated all the cable ends and did the labelling.

As to being far from the demarc, that's where I physically wanted the box with my mythtv and other video gear. there isn't really room in the furnace to put the gateway box and it gets too hot in there anyways.

After the first rewiring by Shaw, signals were good onsite and good as reported by deaenforcement.

Wow it really sounds like the gateway is pretty much at the end of the line as Jetranger indicates which is not the normal set up. A little more investigation is needed. I will PM you.

it was working fine and the signals were good last time deaenforcement checked...

Personally I'm more concerned about why the signal strength dropped off over the space of a month with no other changes in the system.