I live in a duplex, and I've always had cable internet, while the new tenant below me was struggling to connect their router because their coax cable was cut a long time ago. Instead of running a new line from the telephone pole, the technician disconnected our cable temporarily and put a splitter on it, sending one coax line to my router and another to the downstairs unit. I'm worried—will splitting the coax cable like this affect our internet speed, latency, or reliability? Is it really okay for the technician to do it this way instead of installing a new cable line?
2 Answers
The splitter’s position doesn't matter much—it can be at the pole or your house. Cable internet is shared across homes, so you're already on a shared medium with splitters involved. Each modem just tunes into its own set of frequencies for uploads and downloads, so generally, it shouldn't cause issues unless your signal is already weak.
Every time you split the coax, you lose about 3 dB in signal strength. If your initial signal is strong, you likely won’t notice any difference, but if it’s borderline, that loss could become an issue. Just a little tip—if your signal is marginal, keep an eye on your speeds and performance.
That reminds me of my own experience! I had to stick with a cable provider during a fiber rollout, and despite what everyone told me about slow speeds, mine was surprisingly fast! Sometimes, even with a splitter, you might still get decent performance depending on the circumstances.