Comcast Service Question

[busia12]

Hey Anandtech,

My parents just moved houses and had Comcast come set up their telephone, internet, and cable TV. Comcast gave them a box that acts as their telephone modem, AND as their internet modem, and placed it in a terrible location in the house. (Gigantic coax cable draped across the living room, box sitting on the floor in the corner)

Can I relocate this box without calling Comcast out to do it?

Can I use this box solely for telephone access, and place it in a very remote corner of the house, and then use a 'standard' cable modem in a central location of the house for WiFi and internet access? I'm worried that the Comcast won't like us having two modems plugged in at once... but that's what they had at their old house.

IDEAL SETUP:

The box that Comcast gave me, solely hooked up for telephone placed in their garage.

Their standard cable internet modem in the middle of the house, along with their wireless router.

Will Comcast hate me if I try to do this?

Thanks!

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Go ahead, Comcast won't know or care.

 

[busia12]

Go ahead, Comcast won't know or care.

Thanks for the reply. I'm going to give it a try now. If you don't hear back from me, it probably means I've broken something.

 

[somethingsketchy]

As long as you don't attempt to mess with the software of the modem/phone box or otherwise interrupt with the physical wire from the telephone pole to your house, I'd doubt Comcast would care...just as long as you don't do anything stupid....like placing the modem near a water source haha.

 

[busia12]

Okay everyone, I just got off the phone with comcast.

After about 45 minutes of trying to explain myself, I finally figured out that they have no problem with me doing what I'm trying to do (split from 1 modem that's doing both internet and phone to 2 modems, one for each) but a service man needs to come to the house to "register" the second modem.

Does anyone know what this entails, or if it's something that can be done here at home without the service man?

 

[somethingsketchy]

Asides from the technician "registering" the second modem to your billing account, not much else. Probably run some signal checks so the cable splitter doesn't affect the signal quality to and from the second modem.

And no, it's not something you can do. You would need a technician to do "the work" for you.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Asides from the technician "registering" the second modem to your billing account, not much else. Probably run some signal checks so the cable splitter doesn't affect the signal quality to and from the second modem.

And no, it's not something you can do. You would need a technician to do "the work" for you.

Bull. There is no "registering" to be done. If that were the case, I wouldn't be posting now. You pay for the account. The number of connections has nothing to do with it. The OP will notice if there is signal degradation due to the splitter when connection is dropped too often. There is no technician needed.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Okay everyone, I just got off the phone with comcast.

After about 45 minutes of trying to explain myself, I finally figured out that they have no problem with me doing what I'm trying to do (split from 1 modem that's doing both internet and phone to 2 modems, one for each) but a service man needs to come to the house to "register" the second modem.

Does anyone know what this entails, or if it's something that can be done here at home without the service man?

Pick up a cheap splitter and put it on the cable. one line runs to the original box and the other to your own modem. Some folks have better luck with the 2400 mhz splitters than the 900 mhz kind. The signal for television, phone and, internet are all carried on each cable. All you need to do is connect to your ISP's homepage and input your address and account number.

 

[busia12]

Thanks for your help, everyone. I've concluded that it will be easiest to just relocate the whole sha-bang to the 1st floor coat closet. There's a junction box there of sorts with all of the cable and telephone inputs/outputs for the whole house. The WiFi reception appears to be strong as ever, and I don't have the problem with the cables lying out around the house.

Thanks for all your help!