Coaxial Cable to Cable Modem

[GhostGT]

I have a coaxial cable line going into my Charter cable box downstairs.

Simple question: If I were to buy my own cable modem and router, split the tv connection, and connect it to the new setup, would it work? I have a cable modem/router upstairs but want to set up a second network downstairs.

Cheers

 

[rifle]

I don't think it would. I tried that with my extra cable modem and it didn't work. For me it had to be activated by the cable company. Maybe it's different for you but I'm not to sure.

 

[root]

short answer, no.

the cable modems record the MAC address of the modem so that you have one cable model going to one account.

it's possible that you could have a second cable account and pay twice as much, but I don't see the point in doing that.


if you buy a second account, and second cable modem, and second router, then yes, I believe that you can just split the cable, (this is how it's done in the street as well).


However, if you just want a private network set up upstairs and a private network downstairs then you'd do better to do things slightly different.

use your existing cable feed, and cable modem.

use the first cable modem to create a stub network to connect 2 independant networks to the same internet connection.

I'll try to represent this with ascii

                     cable feed
                            |
                      cable modem
                            |
                           router
               10.0.0.1 /      \ 10.0.0.2
                 routerA         routerB
192.168.0.x/24                     192.168.0.x/24
independant network 1            independant network 2

of course the downside there is that both your networks share the same internet bandwidth, though the two networks are completely independant of each other, and you can set up access rules on routers A and B to allow cross network traffic through the router attached to the first network.

Alternatively, you may be able to implement the same kind of thing on a good cable router.

I believe that some Linksys routers are hackable so that you can remove the factory standard web interface and run a linux distro called tomato on them that allows you to set up multiple networks independent of each other and set up QOS rules for each network so that you could give your network preferred bandwidth whilst giving a restricted bandwith to the rest of the house.

this would look like this

          cable feed
                 |
           modem
                 |
             router
             /      \
         eth0     eth1
        |vlan1        |vlan2
switch(or WAP)    switch(or WAP)

the switches or WAPs, (possibly combined) may be cheaper than buying seperate routers,
and you may be able to use your existing router as a switch/wap
(of course, you'll only need a switch if you plan to use the seperate vlans over multiple machines, if it's just one computer you could just plug it straight into one of the linksys router ports).

*there may be other routers other than linksys that you can hack like this
*i've not done this, I was just talking about this at work yesterday and someone else had said that they were planning to do something like this for applying QOS to different people in and around their house.

 

[Tommy Boy]

That seems pretty complicated hacking a router like that though. What is the reason you want 2 networks?

 

[GhostGT]

Thanks for the thorough explanation guys.

I basically wanted a second network downstairs for these reasons:

1. The wireless connection downstairs is really weak; my iPhone struggles to get it, my laptops never get anything over "good", and my xbox 360 always lags a little.

2. We started using netflix from the xbox and the connection can get choppy at times. Therefore, i wanted to be able to directly plug-in an ethernet cord instead of having to either rely on the wireless signal from upstairs OR to route a wire all the way downstairs.


Hmm..

 

[root]

have you tried repositioning the router?

when I had problems with signal strength downstairs, I ended up putting the router on the floor next to the wall at the centre of the house so that it was physically in the centre of the house,
I also managed to make this actually hidden under a desk as well so that people weren't tripping over it, just being physically a few meters closer, (across the other side of the room and down on the floor) made a big difference to the wireless strength.

also have you thought about the ethernet over mains adapters?

they may be able to help your predicament.

I know this is a UK site, but I'm sure you'd find the same in the US.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?menuno=12210

 

[J03]

You can get wireless extenders aswell, which pick up one wireless signal and mirror it.