Job: 123 Fake Street, Anywhere

This is a little bit of a follow up and follow through to my Cable Modem entry. As I mentioned, cable RF drop splitters are a necessary evil that need to be taken into consideration in your house. There is another thing that should be discussed. RF Signal Amplifiers.

What are they and what do they do?

A RF Signal Amplifier or house amp, is a device used to raise the signal level. They come in all flavors from many different manufacturers and amounts that they amplify. Very often, if you have a large number of television sets you will be using one of these devices. If you ever had Dish Service you may also have one of these in your attached garage or basement. While they are very useful when used properly, they often are the cause of trouble with your television or cable modem.

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This is a very common thing I see. Maybe its the full moon. Who knows. But from time to time there is a rash of “my modem no longer works or has a hard time connecting”. This could very likely be due to a simple fact. When it gets really hot really suddenly coupled with electrical storms electronics can get, shall we say, hinky.

At least that’s the technical term for it AFAIK. Now, it must be human nature that whenever electronics that you don’t understand in the first place start acting up you just have to poke at them. The favorite method seems to be to randomly change things and then feign ignorance.

Tech: “Did you do anything recently?”

Cust: “No, it was always like that.”

Tech: “Are you sure, we usually don’t attach the television to the microwave.”

Cust: “Nope, been like that for years. It used to work great!”

OK, I’m not here to throw stones, I’m going to try and help you avoid simple problems with your cable modem that I see over and over (and over) again.

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One of the more common problems with cable in underground neighborhoods is damage to the buried cable. There are many reason for this but far and away the most common is something physically striking the cable. Perhaps you or one of your neighbors put a new fence in. Maybe an invisible fence was installed. New sidewalks, driveways or a myriad of things are common culprits. That is why there are programs in place for this very problem.

Call before you dig!

A good practice is to investigate the One Call Centers around the country. While researching this entry I found out something new. The 811 service. This is a handy way to find out contact information for your area. Here’s what happens.

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This is a just a quick one this morning before I head out to do some fishing.

Many times people say that their internet connection is slow. So testing to the point where the fiber gets out of the system and into the world beyond can be very helpful. In my case, it is a matter of testing to NYC or Washington DC depending on where I am at the moment. So periodically I will run tests to one of those two places. Speakeasy just so happens to be in a common physical location for me and gives good results in an overall kind of way. That’s why I added the button to the sidebar. So instead of remembering where I put the *&%@ link, I can just do it here. Maybe it will be helpful to you, maybe not. But I do know it will be helpful to me.

Now, off to do some fishing. Happy Birthday to me! As they say, a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work…