Rogers wiring question

[stonn909]

When I moved into my home six years ago, Rogers came and wired the internet upstairs for me. But now that I'm moving my internet to the basement, I called Rogers and asked that they send a technician to do move the outlet. I already have a cable outlet in the basement for TV but I remembered the last technician told me internet and cable should be on separate lines for better connections.

The new Rogers tech comes and says it's okay for internet/cable to be on the same connection with a splitter and proceeded to make it happen. But then he told me the signal coming in my home is terrible and that he needs to put in a "new line" or something like that. He didn't have time that day and said he would return in a couple of days. He asked if I get a lot of macroblocking and I said yes. He assured the new line would fix all the internal signal problems.

Still, I can't help but be suspicious. Why mixed messages from Rogers techs. I thought he was just too lazy to move the line into the basement. But it would be a lot less work than running a new line from a pole on my neighbour's property. On top of that, if the internal wiring is already problematic, a strong signal may not help much at all. Then again, why would I say not to a new signal line. Any thoughts out there?

[monkeyhunk]

Without seeing the setup and wiring in question it's hard to say. It is pretty much fact that it's best to have phone and or internet on the first splitter to get the best signal possible. It's not necessarily true that it can't be on the same split as a TV outlet. The other thing to know is that phone and internet can't be on an outlet that is ran off an amplifier as that causes problems.

It's not unheard of for a large signal loss to be caused by a drop (line from pole or pedestal box to the house) or an old inline (line from outside box in to first splitter). The only part of your story that strikes me as fish is him being scheduled to come to your house and get it done but "not having time" as though he'll have more time in a couple days?

Just my $.02

[57]

Some people do things properly and others do things so that they are "good enough". The first tech (and monkeyhunk) are correct in that the internet should be (the first) split upstream of any amp or TV splits, same for phone.

Although everything may work the other way, it's not "proper".

[JamesK]

^^^^
In my condo, the cable comes into the living room and is split there for the TV and the cable to the room, at the other end of my condo, where my cable modem & phone terminal are located. There is a 3 way splitter there, as I also have a STB for TV in that room. I don't see that they had much choice about doing it that way.

[monkeyhunk]

James it really depends on what he had for signal if it was acceptable or not. On the other hand in a lot of condos you're most likely going to run into severe limitations as far as what you can and cannot do.

I do Bell installs for a living and have had to cancel condos sometimes because the dish couldnt be done within their regs and often times you can forget about making any new penetrations.

[timlocke]

Rogers have replaced the overhead cable from the pole to my house 3 times in 6 years. 1st time the connections had been done badly, 2nd time the cable was faulty and 3rd time the box on the pole was leaking water and a few feet of the coax had water inside it and was full of ice. On the 2nd and 3rd occasion the tech had a signal strength meter to check the frequency response of the cable as it was the "higher" frequency stations ( 700Mhz range) that were failing.

then they added an amplifier for my tv cables inside and ran new internal cables for tvs and internet.

[stonn909]

I thought I would tell everyone what finally happened.

First, the tech never showed up at the time he promised! I called his number (which was still on his display from the time he called me when he was outside my home) and left a message and he never called me. Nothing. To say I was upset was an understatement.

I called Rogers and raised hell. I had to make a new appointment for the weekend (when I would be home). A couple of days later I called back to see if I could get a Friday night appointment and was told I didn't have an appointment at all!

So I raised hell again and got an appointment for the weekend (again).

Then I got a call from the first tech's supervisor saying he was off for four days and blah blah blah. I said the tech told me he was going to be off but would come anyway as he does this often because he gets a ton of cash for overtime. The supervisor said he would send him right away. He never came.

The next day I called the supervisor and complained. He said he would send someone else - and he actually came!

This tech was great. I explained the situation and he thought hard about the right way to go about solving the problem. He said my "drop" had a good signal. Not bad, not great, but in the middle. His solution was to move the Internet cable line to the basement (as I suggested) and install a signal amplifier to boost the signal all around the house. I said I didn't like amplifiers because they can also cause noise in the picture, but he assured it would not be noticeable and eliminate the macroblocking on video and provide a strong internet connection.

It took him two hours to complete the job, but in the end I was extremely satisfied. He did a great job, was professional and courteous, and I made a call back to his supervisor to tell him so.

I guess all companies have good and bad people working for them, including Rogers. I'm just glad I finally found someone that knew what they were doing.

If anyone has thoughts about signal amplifiers let me know. It seems to be doing the job to me. Now the only problem is my wireless router is in the basement but I not longer get a connection in the upstairs bedroom - looks like I need a repeater.

[m3repair]

Glad to hear you got your issue resolved, perhaps you could post a picture of which amplifier you got from rogers and how your setup is exactly now (unsure of the amount of tvs, or if you have digital terminals or not)

As to having an amplifier, I myself have one and its been over a year and bit without an issue, I don't notice any difference in terms of picture quality, so I wouldn't be worried there, the only concern I would have is ensure it is amplified enough and not too much. But I am sure the tech checked or knew what his db levels where and used the appropriate amplifier to resolve the issue.

[stonn909]

I can't remember the manufacturer of the cable amplifier. But I can tell you the incoming signal is split five ways - 1 cable internet modem, three digital TV terminals (2 HD PVRs, 1 standard digital box), and one outlet that is not currently being used. (I suppose if I eliminated this outlet, which is in the kitchen, I could have got a smaller splitter and increased the signal to the other terminals, but you never know down the road.)

I tested the signal for one of the TVs (using cable box data) and found a reading of -1dcb and 35 S/N, which I understand are excellent.

[m3repair]

Well the levels you indicate are great levels! if anything let us know what amplifer they are giving out still, when you get a chance of course, and if possible also post a picture. As for the techs, well they are a hit and miss bunch, awhile back I had to get 4 techs to come out to finally get my signal levels resolved, but thats another story in itself...

[stonn909]

I will try to take a picture tonight.

I think the first guy just didn't want to bother with the work. What else he had to do I don't know.

[stonn909]

As promised, the pic is here:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/album.php?albumid=1031

[m3repair]

Thanks for the picture!