No TV on any channel

[mmurley]

Do you have any MoCa adapters, MoCa router, or is possible you might be getting some interference from one of the neighbors? If so, do you have a POE upstream of the tuners? The zero gain should have a filter built in, but you never know...

And, How do you have the TA/ETH cabled....Like this?

No MoCa. Neighbor interference? In what way?

I didn't have POE upstream of the tuners, but do now that I've moved them.

This diagram is what my network looked like before moving the tuners. Now the InfiniTV 6 ETH and the Cisco STA1520 TA are in the " (living room - my bride calls it "the beach room"). RG-6 run into that room and the TWC cable box is not shown.



And my TA is wired with the cable coax going into the TA first, then to the InfiniTV 6 ETH, not split as you have it. The cable goes into the cable in on the STA 1520, then coax from the cable out on the STA 1520 to the cable in on the InfinTV 6 ETH.

Right now I can't tell you why - I think TWC told me to do it that way.

[Crash2009]

No MoCa. Neighbor interference? In what way?
I didn't have POE upstream of the tuners, but do now that I've moved them.
This diagram is what my network looked like before moving the tuners. Now the InfiniTV 6 ETH and the Cisco STA1520 TA are in the " (living room - my bride calls it "the beach room"). RG-6 run into that room and the TWC cable box is not shown.
And my TA is wired with the cable coax going into the TA first, then to the InfiniTV 6 ETH, not split as you have it. The cable goes into the cable in on the STA 1520, then coax from the cable out on the STA 1520 to the cable in on the InfinTV 6 ETH.
Right now I can't tell you why - I think TWC told me to do it that way.

As I understand MoCA, if (and it's a big if) the neighbor is within 300 ft, and, is running MoCa inside their home, and, have forgotten or didn't bother, to install a POE on their home (to keep the signal in), your signal can be polluted with MoCa signals from the neighbors house.

EDIT: ^^^^That little tidbit is in one of the manuals in my Moca page. http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 949#p88949

I realize the instructions with the TA say to wire it the way you have it, however signal problems have been eliminated by numerous guys here, wiring it the way in my picture. The RF cap on the TA may or may not be necessary. This will likely solve your problem, or at least get you closer.

[mmurley]

I'll try it. I don't have an RF cap though.

But now the Echo in the sun room won't come on... or rather, it comes on, maybe shows the 'ceton' splash screen - and then ges black...

[Crash2009]

I'll try it. I don't have an RF cap though.

But now the Echo in the sun room won't come on... or rather, it comes on, maybe shows the 'ceton' splash screen - and then ges black...

unrelated to what you just did. Boot all 4 - TA,ETH,HTPC, Echo. echo last

RF cap is optional. Some or all TA's have a built in filter that acts as a cap. It's more of a dot the I, and cross the T, type of thing.

[mmurley]

I set the InfiniTV 6 ETH and the TA up like your picture. The TA diagnostics RF statistics page showed a drop of 1 db in S/N, from 33 to 32. After rebooting it was still 32.

And I now the Echo going dead isn't connected to what I did, but it's pissing me off. I did a 73268379 recovery on it and it came on but the TV is still black - no 'ceton recovering' (and I check the TV with a DVD), so maybe the HDMI port is dead?

[Crash2009]

Another tidbit. The RF out on the TA is likely amplified. Quite possible ETH don't like that. Finicky little @#$%.

I forget. Is 32 SNR a good thing?

Anything improved on the ETH?

One more thing...Use 2 wrenches on all connections. Tighten like a double nut.

[mmurley]

The lady at the TWC cable card desk said it should read between 35-53 and it was 28 - so 32 is better, but not 'good'.

And the problem is signal at the TA (as far as TWC cares).

So far it's okay except for this Echo dying. Nothing matters if the wife can't watch TV on the big TV.

[Crash2009]

Check out these training videos. You have to register to get in to the library. I have not got any SPAM from these guys.

Cable 101 Videos shows common imperfections and the problems associated with each. I think there is one in there somewhere on how to improve your SNR. One thing that I thought would never be a problem, is using side cutters on the copper center, rather than the square cut of a wire cutter. Apparently the squashed cut from the side cutter scratches the interior of the connection it attaches to. You can't see it....its inside.

EDIT: The TA might be damaged inside. Who knows who had it before you. See Path Distortion

http://www.extreme-broadband.com/training.html

Here is an example of Return Loss. Not saying you have it, just a sneak peek of common cabling errors and the resulting losses, explained in Cable 101.

One missing RF terminator on a splitter can throw you out of whack. This is why I ran all new. The less connections the less chance for errors.

[mmurley]

Well, more to learn. Besides networking, vsat internet, surveillance cameras, SCSI, CAt-5/5e/6 cable making, POE, building computers, rebuilding a Kohler 200 Kw diesel generator and all the other self-taught wizardry... damn. I'm 60. Why do I have to do the cable company's job too?

And my 'dead' Echo came back to life (I'd replaced it with my float DMA 2200, pulled a diagnostic and submitted a ticket to Ceton and then I thought... let's try it...) but i'm not convinced it's really resurrected - it might be a zombie.

[Crash2009]

It aint that bad. The movie is only 15 minutes long. Watch it twice and you'll know twice as much as your wire monkey.

[Crash2009]

There's two kinds of POE. I should have been more specific. Point Of Entry filter keeps your MoCa in your building. (operates like a check-valve) Not sure how to keep neighbors MoCa out. and then there is Power Over Ethernet, special switch that eliminates the need to run a 120 VAC outlet for Ethernet devices, often used for surveillance cameras.

[mmurley]

Aha. I'm using Power Over Ethernet POE to power a switch in my crawlspace.

[Crash2009]

That crawlspace looks like a nasty little spot. Looks like all your wife's critical stuff is relying on the single wire between the 16 port and the 5 port in the crawlspace as well as Coyote2. As I'm sure you know, there is no easy button reduce the traffic going across the POE Bridge.

^^This might be why Sunroom Echo took so long to get through. The on-ramp was bumper to bumper, and the freeway was backed up.

You might be able to run a wireless bridge between Coyote and Coyote2. The other idea is a sunroom to office pipeline around the perimeter. 3/4" or 1" conduit.

http://ownersrepny.com/2011/07/07/how-m ... e-conduit/

[Crash2009]

To test the capacity of the POE Bridge, place Pathtest in C:\ of the Server or HTPC and run the command to turn on pathtest server. Then place Pathtest in C:\ of the wired laptop and run the pathtest client. Throughput in mbps can be measured from anywhere the laptop Ethernet is plugged into.

I'm pretty sure you will be surprised at the difference in mbps measured, when the laptop is plugged into:

1- the bedroom 5 port
2- the sunroom 8 port
3- the kitchen echo line

[Crash2009]

Here is the pathtest file.

to run the server:

pathtest -s

to run the simple test from the client

pathtest 192.xxx.xxx.xxx (the ip of the Server or HTPC)

[mmurley]

All good and I will do it, but the issue (as verified by TWC) is the signal strength at the TA - from the cable. I have to get that resolved first.

The TWC 'advanced technical support' desk called today and is sending a 'higher level tech' out Tuesday.

[Crash2009]

Yeah, I know. I sort of blew off the echo problem when we were in the middle of the signal thing. Then noticed the POE bridge on the diagram after you confirmed we were talking about 2 different POE's. Anyway got thinking about it, and it appears to me that you got too much stuff for that little wire. Pathtest will tell you how much traffic that wire can handle. In the simple test, basically, you are telling the laptop to send as much as you can in 5 seconds (there is not much interruption to the wifes TV). Pathtest measures the amount and divides by 5, that tells you your line speed or throughput in MegaBitsPerSecond (mbps). The other test is a little more extreme, and you have to run as Administrator, pathtest --packet-size 1500 --packets 1000000 --unidi 192.xxx.xxx.xxx sends 1 million, 1500 MTU packets, to the server and back. That's a Gig and a half each direction(about 15 minutes of a TV show there and back). If the line is fast, it takes about 30 seconds. If the line is slow, it will keep going till its done completing your orders (which might be awhile). All other traffic will be delayed until its done. It takes the whole line (floods it). So don't do it when the wife is watching TV or using any of those devices in the kitchen or sunroom.