[dks]

My cable TV coax wire comes from the pole on the street to my house, then it feeds into a plastic gray box. Three wires come out of that box and go inside my house. One wire is for my digital cable PVR terminal in my living room, one is for my digital cable terminal in my bedroom, and the 3rd cable is for my high speed internet connection.

I'm getting rid of Videotron thanks to the constant rate hikes, buggy PVRs by Scientific Atlanta, and their latest charges for extra terminals. I'm switching to Starchoice.

The problem is I want to use the cable wire going up to my bedroom. I plan on hooking it into the TV OUT coax jack on the back of my new 530 DVR. The problem is that I cannot open the gray box. I do not know which one of the three wires is for my bedroom. If I start cutting wires, I could cut off my high speed cable connection. I would rather route the wire in my living room through to the outside box, then patch that wire to my upstairs bedroom equipment giving me instant access to my satellite receiver from my bedroom.

What sort of a tool can I use to open that box to unhook the proper wires from the Videotron cable? There must be a tool available somewhere to do this. Nothing that I am doing is illegal. The wires feeding into that box are my wires that I had installed when my house was being built. I will no longer be dealing with Videotron at all. My high speed is still going through the cable wire, but through another company.

If anyone knows how to open this box, please explain. The screw holding the box together looks like a coax jack, but there is something inside of that which appears to be holding it together.

Thanks!

 

[57]

Tampering with that box is illegal. If you are paying for the internet, simply have the new cable company disconnect the appropriate wires - they got a "free install" anyway. The technician may even label which one goes where.

I'm assuming that Videotron is totally out of the picture.

 

[HDTV101]

What your doing is perfectly legal since your not doing anything to steal there signal. Your idea is to just connect two of the cables together so you can use the existing wiring, which you own, to send the signal from your Starchoice Box to the other TV in your home. Bell ExpressVu now has a new 2 tuner receiver, the 3200 model, that plays on this very idea utilizing a agile modulator with a high power UHF output that can be inserted at the gray box to feed to all TV’s in a home. Rogers may have invested in the RG6 wiring and gray box on your home but once they installed it, it became part of your home and you now have all the legal right to use this wiring for another purpose. The gray boxes use a terminator cylinder as a lock and can only be removed using a Cable Terminator Tool.

http://www.prosatellitesupply.com/tool_cable_termination.htm

 

[dks]

That you for that wonderful reply. So that's what the tool looks like! What a weird tool.

I'm with Videotron. They never paid for the wires in my home. All of those wires came with my home when I had the house built in 2001. The only thing that Videotron paid for was the black wire running from the pole to my house, and the gray box. Only one of the wires coming out of the gray box is in use - and that's for my high speed cable modem. The other two wires terminate in my living room and bedroom. I want to connect them together so that the output from my DSR530 connects to my living room jack, and in my bedroom, that jack will connect to my upstairs TV.

There is absolutely nothing illegal about it because I am not stealing signals from anywhere. I don't want to cut those wires because every cut in a coax cable weakens its signal, and the wire I cut just might be the high speed internet cable.

I also want to avoid paying $100+ to have someone come here to open a box. How ridiculous!

I certainly appreciate you showing me this tool. I wonder if it can be purchased at Radio Shack?

 

[HDTV101]

No this is a very specialized tool and can only be bought online.

 

[dks]

OK. In that case I bought it online. Hopefully this is a reputable company. Have you ever dealt with them?

 

[HDTV101]

OK. In that case I bought it online. Hopefully this is a reputable company. Have you ever dealt with them?

Yes they are... $25 is a very good price for the Terminator Tool.

 

[dks]

You know, I was able to get a bent coat hanger, shove it in the hole and wedge it there with a very narrow screwdriver, and then turn and it opened up.

The only thing in the box was a splitter - that's it. It split the cable from the input to my 3 wires. That's all it does. Since everything is pretty much digital and you need a digital cable box to even watch TV, I'm not sure why this is kept so highly guarded now. It must have been when analog ruled. Right now I have no analog channels on my cable line. It is nice that now I can open the box, hook my living wire directly to my bedroom wire without having to disrupt my cable going to my high speed modem in the computer room. This is going to make installing the satellite feed in my bedroom an absolute cinch!

 

[HDTV101]

I guess seeing what that tool looked like helped you with that idea of using a coat hanger. LOL!!! had to laugh at that one!.!.. It's amazing what you can do with a coat hanger... it's the best tool around

 

[dks]

I guess seeing what that tool looked like helped you with that idea of using a coat hanger. LOL!!! had to laugh at that one!.!.. It's amazing what you can do with a coat hanger... it's the best tool around

Yup, and thanks to a friend of mine who's great at this sort of thing, he created this cheap tool. Here is a photo of the tools used, and it worked easily with no fuss.

 

[Lurker]

I guess seeing what that tool looked like helped you with that idea of using a coat hanger. LOL!!! had to laugh at that one!.!.. It's amazing what you can do with a coat hanger... it's the best tool around

I think that all the modern man really needs in the way of tools is the following:

Coat Hangers
Duct Tape
Vice Grips
Hammer
One each of Phillips, Robertson, and Slotted screwdrivers

Armed with the above I don't think that there is much that you cannot "fix"!!

 

[ken0042]

Nope, all you ever need is duct tape and WD-40.

If it moves and it shouldn't, use the duct tape.
If it doesn't move and it should, use the WD-40.

 

[dks]

By the way - they will not let you order these in Canada. I tried to place an order for this tool and it was rejected stating that there was some deal with DirectTV and DishTV which states ProSatellite Supply would not ship any tools or equipment outside of the U.S.A.

 

[HDTV101]

By the way - they will not let you order these in Canada. I tried to place an order for this tool and it was rejected stating that there was some deal with DirectTV and DishTV which states ProSatellite Supply would not ship any tools or equipment outside of the U.S.A.

They’re not allowed to sell satellite receivers for Dish Net or Direct TV to Canadians however this tool has nothing to do with that. I guess they just don't want to selling anything to us? There loss!

Just did a search on Ebay for "Cable Terminator Tool" and found some for an even better price.

http://cgi.********/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4693&item=5774418549&tc=photo

http://cgi.********/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=66990&item=7515884261&tc=photo

 

[dks]

Those are better prices!

The best price of all was my coat-hanger and filed down screwdriver. I had no problem opening the box with those cheap tools. Total cost $0.00 - my friend gave them to me.

 

[Moe]

Thanks

Thanks, the screwdriver and coat hanger did the trick!

I had a similar situation, the cable company hooked up my cable modem jack and left all the other jacks in the house disconnected, so I needed access to the box to connect my other jacks to my Dish Network setup.

Anyway, a coat hanger bend at the tip as shown in your picture along with a thin screwdriver was all I needed. I had it opened in two minutes.

Thanks again!

 

[dks]

You are quite welcome Moe. I am glad that this helped you out.

 

[maxgohan]

can someone post the picture of the coathanger thing again??

 

[wtaylor35]

Disconnects...

Hey, Guys...(those that connected your satelite dishes throughout your homes, using 'your own coax feeds' within those grey boxes), here's a little heads up....if your satelite system quits one day, look back in that box to ensure someone didn't sneak around and disconnect some cables there. Fifteen years ago when I had my first system installed, I was so pleased with the available programming that I cancelled my cable. In those days, there was nothing really worthwhile on it to watch, anyways. However, serveral years later, the first time, the signal from my dish disappeared. After wasting much time to troubleshoot the problem within my home, I checked the connections outside of the house only to find that someone had somehow gotten into the box and disconnected everything. And apparently when they did that, they shorted out the center conductor against the shield and blew the fuse on my IRD. Thinking that it might have been an envious neighbour or some other miserable SOB with a little technical expertise, I re-connected everything, replaced the fuse and everything was just fine for another couple of years. Then, it happened again and I went through the same procedure. Over the following 10 years, the same thing happened time and time again and I continued to pull my hair out, wondering who the heck hated me so much that they would keep annoying me. Finally, when the signal was lost one year ago, I clued onto the plot when the cable guy left his business card in my mailbox, along with an 'invitation' to sign up for cable again! So, I phoned the guy and he explained that "if I wanted cable, I would have to subscribe, like everyone else". Doubtless to say, I did a lot of yelling and threatening (lawsuits and all, of course) unless he went back and made the re-connections as he had once again, disconnected my satelite dish. And yes, within 10 minutes, he was back onsite to fix the problem. Following that, I called the cable provider's office and gave them a good yell, too. I asked them what would happen if I came into their headend and started to disconnect their cables. They replied that they would likely call the police and have me charged with trespass and public mischief. And that is exactly what I promised I would do to them and their cable guy, the next time that they came back! Consequently, to prevent any future problems, I removed that grey box, replaced it with one of my own and put a padlock on it. Haven't had a problem since!!!

Recently, I have learned that they have guys going around from time to time to ALL HOMES, in all neighborhoods, (whether the owners have cable or not) to perform what they call 'audits'. If they see a connection that they don't like, they WILL disconnect them! So, fair warning......

 

[57]

Part of the reason for your problem is that you used the cable box for your connection. Although it's on your property, the box is considered cable company property. They have the right to access that box and should they see something amiss to "correct" that situation - sometimes they add filters, etc.

You could have avoided a lot of grief if you had:

- replaced the box in the first place
- advised your cable company in the first place (they may have removed the box or put a label on it)

I'm not saying that they aren't partly to blame since any competent installer should have noticed that the "cable feed" wasn't connected, but rather your satellite.