On Wed, Aug 27, 2003 at 05:09:00PM -0500, Chris Schumann wrote:
> Hi all,
> 

[snip]

nope, but we can help.

> In any case, I have cable coming into my home office. I
> have a cheap crappy splitter then one side goes into my
> cable modem and the other goes to a cable amp then to
> two cable tuners (soon to be three).

Remove _all_ those crappy splitters, grab the nearest
Comcast tech and ask for a handful of splitters, or visit
best buy/radio shack/etc and find some 5mhz-1ghz splitters,
usually it's 3.5dB loss per connector, and 7.5dB loss for
every split after the first 2 (on any given splitter).

Simplified, throw them in the trash, put in new splitters,
remove the amp, and see how it does. If problems persist,
put the amp back on.

> 
> Often, in the early afternoon, the cable modem will
> disconnect and I'll have intermittent use for hours
> and then it just as mysteriously comes back and is solid
> for many hours again.

This is typical, you're within ~10dB of your minimum signal
level to hold block sync on your cable modem, and during the
afternoon the signal fluctuates due to heat, housewifes watching
soaps, and cosmic rays emitted by chipmunks. The signal level
dips below the minimum, and poof goes your connection.

> I'm using a LinkSys cable modem, and the CD that came
> with it is useless. Can someone point me to a utility to
> let me know what the box is doing? (SNMP?) I hope to
> monitor signal strength while changing cabling.

Cable modems are meant to be black boxes, the cable company
doesn't want you knowing what's going on, and in fact, will force
new software onto your cable modem without your permission.

At best, try searching google to see if it has some kind of minimal
web diagnostics page.

> 
> Many thanks,
> Chris Schumann

-- 
Matthew S. Hallacy                            FUBAR, LART, BOFH Certified
http://www.poptix.net                           GPG public key 0x01938203

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