Ok so lets get this out of the way. My cable internet has been down for some time now and I have just finished "fixing" it.
After 4 new coax lines were installed at my cost, 2 new splitters also paid for by me , and roughly 2 months (yet agian paid by me) of off and on service it is back on. It took a lowly mechanic to figure out the one line that the Cable company installed in my house was worn through due to the staple the idiot used to pin it to the wall after 5 technitions came out here and checked over the 2 months and then they quit comming so I was forced to work on it in my limited free time.

I am moving to an apartment where there is only one cable outlet and I need to hook up 2 TVs and my modem to this one outlet.

My question is will the signal be strong enough to handle the use of all three? If not can I use a signal booster after the cable modem and not have it backfeed to the modem?

I don't believe a cable modem should share a line with a TV.
I doubt if you will get enough signal.

When I installed cable for my computer last year, I did some research (looked on a couple of sites) thinking I would save bucks by installing a cable myself. I did find out that there is a piece of equipment that will boost your signal. It required a nearby electric outlet. The best I can remember was that it was $50 or $60 to purchase online.
As it turned out my local cable company replaced the splitter and added a cable dedicated to my computer for free. I was advised by the installer that though I had a TV in the same room on cable that it was only asking for trouble to split off from that cable. I am very pleased with my cable company. They are small (two installers) and allow me to change email addresses at will.
My suggestion is use the trial and error method as to hooking up your computer and would try without a signal booster first, and if necessary, try to find one locally that you can return if it doesn' t do the job.
Depending on what floor and how many turns you would have to make it might make sense to run a dedicated cable from wherever the main cable room or box is outside your apartment.

Why not have the cable company do it?
They usually don't charge for an initial hookup - ask them anyway.

That would be the signal booster that Im looking at but will it backfeed to the cable modem. The modem came the instructions that said DO NOT use with signal booster. and the booster says on the package DO NOT use with cable modem.



This is the second time Ive had to use splitters. The first was at my sisters house b/c she didnt have but one outlet in the house where the landlord had it wired 5 years ago. It worked better then what I have now.



Ha. your kidding right. They charged me $30 just to come out and install basic cable and hit the button to unlock the channels



I know what your saying but I cant get the Appt Building to add a second cable outlet to my Appt w/o alot of crizzap. But Im not pleased with my cable co. It takes 2 months 5 techs and 10 not so pleasant phone calls and they still couldnt see where the installer screwed up??

It's been my experience that the computer needs the lion's share of the signal.

So, here's what I did when I had connection problems...

Put a splitter where the cable came into the house. One side when directly to the cable modem - the other side went to the TV's (through assorted splitters).

We run 5 computers through a router to the cable modem with no issues.

We run 6 or 7 TV's through the other side of the splitter with no issues.

There is absolutely to problem with putting a splitter and just so that some people can wake up a little. People who have multiple cable outlets in there house DO NOT have multiple wires coming in from the street (or wherever the cable compagny has there main wire. This cable comes into your house and then uses splitters to send the signal to the different TVs. I am currently running my cable modem and my TV Tuner card on the same outlet in the room. There are 4 tvs (2 wich use a digital cable box) the tv tuner card and the cable modem and I do not have any trouble with signal strenght (although I did when they first installed it but they added something on the line outside... I think they added a special booster to there wires). Btw if you buy any splitters call the cable company and get them to tell you exactely what to use. I have a cheap wal-mart splittler for my cable modem and tv tuner card and the modem and tv tuner work fine but I hooked up a Digital Decoder and it would no work and the cable company said it was the cheap spliter...

But one thing is this outlet a dedicated line to your appartment from the main cable network or is this splitted to all the appartements in the building? If it is a dedicated line you should have more then enough signal strenght.

I dont know yet Klink. She keeps changing her mind over a 1 Br or 2 Br either in SE or NW. So I havent even looked yet. I just remembered form the last time I looked at the 1 Br in SE (what she was dead set on when I started this post) it only had one cable outlet. I swapped the 2 "el cheapo" splitters that the cable company "sold" (more like added to my bill) with a Philip's Gold Plated one from wally's world and its comming w/ me when I leave this Apt.

Signal strength inside the apartment is your responsibility - signal strength outside the apartment is either the apartment or the cable company's responsibility (most often it's the cable company)

If the signal sucks even with the gold plated splitters - then call the cable company up and have them troubleshoot your connection.

If you are getting a poor connection on your wall outlet and anything before that outlet is the cable compagnies problem. Call them up and they should install a special booster on their system outside of your appartement. This should not cost you anything since it is there responsibily to provide you with the high speed internet that you paid for.