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New Modem doesn't have a phone jack

S

Showtime

Platinum Member
Hi,

I am finally getting around to upgrading my modem. The internet speeds are decent, but there has been some slow downs at times, and I'm hoping a new modem will help make a more consistent connection.

Charter Spectrum modem with phone jack.

Upgrading to a Netgear CM400 modem without a phone jack.

The problem is my old modem has a phone jack, and the new one doesn't. From my research, there seems to be only one solution; that is to split the coax line, and send one to the old modem for phone, and the other to the new modem for data. I read that splitting the line could affect the speeds, and that could defeat the purpose of upgrading to a faster a modem.

Does anyone have any experience setting this up? How did it go, and are there any other options?

TIA!
 
Yes, You'll need the help of your ISP. They will need to add your new cable modem to your account as the Internet modem and disable your old modem for Internet, but leave it as your phone modem. You will need a good 2-way coax splitter and the two coax cables after the split have to be the same length. Don't skimp or go cheap. In my experience when the ISP comes out to install, they use great parts for the cable runs/splitter that I often ask for a spares, even ones they have removed from a previous install in their truck/van.
 
Would be better to just lose the landline phone. Do you need it?

They might be able to give you an ATA device to put behind your modem.
 
razel said:
Yes, You'll need the help of your ISP. They will need to add your new cable modem to your account as the Internet modem and disable your old modem for Internet, but leave it as your phone modem. You will need a good 2-way coax splitter and the two coax cables after the split have to be the same length. Don't skimp or go cheap. In my experience when the ISP comes out to install, they use great parts for the cable runs/splitter that I often ask for a spares, even ones they have removed from a previous install in their truck/van.
Click to expand...

Thx! That's kinda what I figured, and will give it a go later after business hours.

Ichinisan said:
Would be better to just lose the landline phone. Do you need it?

They might be able to give you an ATA device to put behind your modem.
Click to expand...

That may be the next step, but for now, I don't want to change what working for phone and fax.
 
Are you aware that Cable Internet is Nodes based and their divination in Speed between off time and time when many users sharing the Node. I.e., new Modem might not do any thing for you.




😎
 
JackMDS said:
Are you aware that Cable Internet is Nodes based and their divination in Speed between off time and time when many users sharing the Node. I.e., new Modem might not do any thing for you.




😎
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Cable has smaller, more-manageable network segments than most other options.

A DOCSIS3 modem can work with faster packages than a DOCSIS2 modem. Also, having more simultaneous downstream/upstream channels helps with load balancing.
 
Ichinisan said:
I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Cable has smaller, more-manageable network segments than most other options.

A DOCSIS3 modem can work with faster packages than a DOCSIS2 modem. Also, having more simultaneous downstream/upstream channels helps with load balancing.
Click to expand...

He's pointing out that the OP is replacing his modem due to time based slowdowns not for a general speed increase. A new modem won't fix an saturated node.
 
XavierMace said:
He's pointing out that the OP is replacing his modem due to time based slowdowns not for a general speed increase. A new modem won't fix an saturated node.
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It's unlikely that Charter Spectrum has over loaded a node. OP didn't say if his performance issues coincide with peak hours.
 
I forgot to mention that many Internet cable companies agressively push you to use their combo modem/WiFi router. They do this since it's an additional WiFi modem charge of $10 a month. If the OP is in this situation and plans on staying with cable for awhile, then it's a very wise decision to buy your own.

The only problem is in my experience the modem/WiFi combo they often include has a decent amount of channels. Mine and in 2 other homes use 16 channels. When the average joe wants to buy their own they usually go cheap and buy the 4 or 8 channel which means a greater chance of things getting very slow at very busy times.
 
Ichinisan said:
It's unlikely that Charter Spectrum has over loaded a node. OP didn't say if his performance issues coincide with peak hours.
Click to expand...

One of the tendency that we have online is the psychological, ""l'état, c'est moi""

Between family and business I have Spectrum in two different locations/areas, and FIOs in two others. All under my personal technical care. All four are functioning with the state of the art hardware DOCSIS wise and the like.

Never the less, both Spectrum installs fluctuate grossly during every 24 hours cycle. On the other hand FIOS is grossly stable through the cycle and its Upload is always better than spectrum..


😎
 
JackMDS said:
One of the tendency that we have online is the psychological, ""l'état, c'est moi""

Between family and business I have Spectrum in two different locations/areas, and FIOs in two others. All under my personal technical care. All four are functioning with the state of the art hardware DOCSIS wise and the like.

Never the less, both Spectrum installs fluctuate grossly during every 24 hours cycle. On the other hand FIOS is grossly stable through the cycle and its Upload is always better than spectrum..


😎
Click to expand...
The small cable ISP I work for has had no bandwidth issues since the DOCSIS3 transition many years ago. We don't even use switched digital, so all of our channels are broadcast in parallel. For each node, we probably don't have as many downstreams enabled as Charter and we definitely have fewer upstreams (some areas only have 1 upstream). In this region (and probably all regions), Charter has transitioned to a switched digital system for their TV channels. There should be way more than enough spectrum to dedicate 16 or 32 downstreams per-node. There's no good reason for Charter to have a performance bottleneck.

You might consider that the services you're accessing have increased load during those hours, so the performance bottleneck can be on the remote side.
 
At the local thrift store, I got an Arris TM1602A recently for just a few dollars. It has some Charter stickers on it.

I don't need the phone feature, but the modem works great!
 
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