Had Charter basic installed today. Question about instal.

[jkglazner]

I already had internet through Charter. I was at work during the instal, and had my girlfriend here to sign off on it. When I got home to check it out, I noticed that the tech took out the old wall plate, and now there's a dual female coax plate. The bottom one runs to the input of a three way splitter. The 3.5dB output runs to the cable modem. The middle (7 dB) runs to the tv. The last output (also 7 dB) runs to the top female of the wall plate. I'm wondering, why is that? At my old apartment, a simple 2 way splitter worked fine. What's the reasoning for the extra equipment? Why would the bottom of the wall plate need a connection to go through the splitter and back to the wall place? Seems like an unnecessary loop.

Also, I was wondering why some of the expanded basic channels somewhat show up. The picture and sound are full of static, but it's almost like they could come in with some tweaking. Anyone know if that's possible? I'm obviously getting part of the signal for them, so I'd like to know if I can clean it up.

I hope I've described this clear enough.

[stardust3]

It could possibly feed another wall plate.

Traps are used to block channels in the expanded tier. Sometimes they don't completely do their job and will let some channels bleed through snowy.

Sent from my Epic 4G Touch

[jkglazner]

What's a "trap", and is there a way to remove it?

[stardust3]

A trap is cylinder type of inline device usually a couple of inches long and a little more round than a quarter. It is designed to block certain frequencies or channels. Yes it is possible to remove it, but they are usually installed at the pole or in apt lock box.

[jkglazner]

I see. I'm going to assume that if I tamper with that, they'd find out pretty quick and I'd end up in some sort of trouble.

[stardust3]

They've got to have proof, that is as much as I will elaborate on that. It was meant to be installed in a place that could not be easily tampered with. Kind of a dinosaur way of doing things but many cable companies still use them.

[royrdsjr]

I already had internet through Charter. I was at work during the instal, and had my girlfriend here to sign off on it. When I got home to check it out, I noticed that the tech took out the old wall plate, and now there's a dual female coax plate. The bottom one runs to the input of a three way splitter. The 3.5dB output runs to the cable modem. The middle (7 dB) runs to the tv. The last output (also 7 dB) runs to the top female of the wall plate. I'm wondering, why is that? At my old apartment, a simple 2 way splitter worked fine. What's the reasoning for the extra equipment? Why would the bottom of the wall plate need a connection to go through the splitter and back to the wall place? Seems like an unnecessary loop.

Also, I was wondering why some of the expanded basic channels somewhat show up. The picture and sound are full of static, but it's almost like they could come in with some tweaking. Anyone know if that's possible? I'm obviously getting part of the signal for them, so I'd like to know if I can clean it up.

I hope I've described this clear enough.

I never understood why one output on their 3-way splitters was 3.5dB & the other two were 7.0dB. When I had Charter & upgraded to their triple play & HD TV,they put up one of those splitters that fed a TV signal to three rooms,along with internet & phone service. to be honest,I don't think that they could tell the difference between which room got 3.5dB & which other rooms got 7.0dB,the picture was the same in each room. Their 2-way splitter outputs are both 3.5dB.

[RT-Cat]

A trap is cylinder type of inline device usually a couple of inches long and a little more round than a quarter. It is designed to block certain frequencies or channels. Yes it is possible to remove it, but they are usually installed at the pole or in apt lock box.

The traps they install in my area require a special tool to remove them. Before you go climbing, I'd ask charter why your picture is bad.

RT.

[markbone100]

They've got to have proof, that is as much as I will elaborate on that. It was meant to be installed in a place that could not be easily tampered with. Kind of a dinosaur way of doing things but many cable companies still use them.

Its all in the design of the splitter.

2 way splitters are balanced, 3.5db loss on each leg.
3 way can be balanced or unbalanced, unbalanced is what you have. blanced is 5.5 db loss off each leg. an unbalanced has a built in 2 way that feeds a second 2 way splitter inside it.
now for a 4 way, its 7db loss on all 4 ports, designed like a 2 way feeding 2 2 way splitters.

[TheTechGuru]

What's a "trap", and is there a way to remove it?

They look like this:



Not to be confused with a "locking terminator" which is a lot harder to remove without the correct tool.