# [SOLVED] MediaCom cable internet service nightmare



## Raylo (Feb 12, 2006)

I am down in FL tying to square away my parents' technology and have a major issue with their cable Internet service. Service was dropping intermittently all day. By service I mean the modem was losing its connection and was constantly rebooting itself... 1 light, 2 lights, 3 lights, 4 lights, then the cable activity and PC link lights blinking to indicate that it was online and transferring data. Happened a couple dozen times an hour at first and now is doing it constantly.

Long story short after unproductive calls to Mediacom support they agreed to give me a new modem. I activated it and have the same problem.

So I started tracing back and came to a splitter/filter that connects the cable to the modem and a TV in the room. I unplugged the input cable and plugged it directly into he modem and voila, perfect Internet connectivity.

So either a bad filter/splitter or connected improperly, eh? Only thing is the device has one coax terminal labeled "in", one labeled "out" and the third one is unlabeled. So wich one is suppsoed to go to the TV and which to the modem? I tried both outputs to the modem and neither one worked. Constant modem resets again...

Also, the thing has a ground terminal that the Medicacom installer had not connected to anything. Could that be the issue?

BTW, if I connected either output to the TV it worked fine.

I don't use any sort of a filter with my own Comcast service back home, just a garden variety splitter. Maybe I'll just go to the shack and get one to try.

Any ideas/opinions? The splitter/filter is a CommScope SV-DCW-6G if that matters.


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## makinu1der2 (Jan 1, 2008)

*Re: MediaCom cable internet service nightmare*

What model cable modem?

Try to access http://192.168.100.1 to see if able to get into the modem configuration.

Most likely cause is that the signal level are weak and bypassing the splitters increases it enough so the modem can stay online.

Or it could just be a bad splitter. 



> So either a bad filter/splitter or connected improperly, eh? Only thing is the device has one coax terminal labeled "in", one labeled "out" and the third one is unlabeled. So wich one is suppsoed to go to the TV and which to the modem? I tried bothe outputs to the modem and neither one worked. Constant modem resets again...


That depends on the signal level.

The the leg that is not labeled usually will decrease the signal more than the out (pass thru) leg of the splitter by a few more db.



> Also, the thing has a ground terminal that the Medicacom installer had not connected to anything. Could that be the issue?


The cable usually should be grounded outside where it attached to the house.


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## Raylo (Feb 12, 2006)

*Re: MediaCom cable internet service nightmare*

Modem is an RCA DCM425. I was able to get into the modem admin page as you suggested. Not much there meaningful to me and some of the lines of text run over each other so not very readable.

Low signal strength due to bad splitter or a cable system issue external to the house makes sense. But I don't understand why they would use a splitter that intentionally attenuates the signal to that unlabeled terminal unless it also does some frequency filtering. Otherwise why not just use a plain pass through splitter like I use (successfully) at my house?


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## makinu1der2 (Jan 1, 2008)

*Re: MediaCom cable internet service nightmare*

While in the modem admin page did you see a listing for signal/levels


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## Raylo (Feb 12, 2006)

*Re: MediaCom cable internet service nightmare*

Unfortunately the information isn't readable as I mentioned above. Here is a snip:


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## Raylo (Feb 12, 2006)

*Re: MediaCom cable internet service nightmare*

Well, it just dropped out once with the cable connected directly to the modem. So it is most likely a signal strength issue. I will trace the cable outside to find the junction box or wherever they have them split off to the various locations in the house. If nothing obvious there I'll call the cable company for a service visit to evaluate their signal strength.

Just once in a couple of hours... At least it is useable like this for now. With the splitter in place I couldn't get past my home page w/o the modem crashing.


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## makinu1der2 (Jan 1, 2008)

*Re: MediaCom cable internet service nightmare*

I would also suggest having the ISP check the signal levels (they should be able to verify them)

Not sure why the diagnostics page is jumbled together can't see the power level and receive power.


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## Raylo (Feb 12, 2006)

*Re: MediaCom cable internet service nightmare*

I looked at the outside splitters and they looked pretty corroded. Also, the cover to the plastic enclosure was gone exposing the connections to the salt air. So we had them come out for a service call and they found that the signal strength in the house was indeed low. They replaced the splitters and we are back to solid full speed operation. Marking this one solved.....


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## makinu1der2 (Jan 1, 2008)

Glad you got it sorted.


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