Self-Install Internet Service

[EtaCarinae]

 Hello,

Modulation: UNSUPPORTED (cannot acquire downstream channel lock): 

I signed my parents up for Rogers 1Gb internet yesterday. The modem arrived today.

But it can’t acquire a downstream channel lock. When I login to it and view the Rogers Network status, it has zeros across the board and for Modulation it says UNSUPPORTED.

On one cable jack I still cannot acquire downstream lock but I at least get power, which is -47.7dBmV. 0.0SNR. Modulation “other”

I really want to avoid a technician coming into their home. Can I resolve this myself? They had Rogers DTV within the last ten years and all cable lines, jacks, and splitters were installed by Rogers back then.

There are also four separate coax lines coming into the house from the outside grey Rogers box on the side of the house, which strikes me as unusual because my house (and I was under the impression most homes) only has one coax from the Rogers panel and one fibre from the Bell panel.

Of note - those four coax lines from outside go to different termination points in the house, further which I can only determine one location for certain (basement fuse panel area). The others are cable managed in the garage by a Rogers tech years ago and enter the house at different points but are hard to trace. The one that goes to the basement is connected to the input of a powered amplifier. The amplifier is powered by a short coax cable that is connected to a wall plug. The output goes to a two way splitter that is also right beside it. But there are certainly more cable jacks in the house than two (in fact there is around ten in total).

Any suggestions? Did Rogers forget to connect their line in the green neighbourhood box on their front lawn (it is a Rogers one)? The lady I ordered from said the line appeared to be “hot” already so I should be able to activate immediately... maybe it wasn’t?

Cheers

*Added Labels*

[-G-]

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@EtaCarinae wrote:

On one cable jack I still cannot acquire downstream lock but I at least get power, which is -47.7dBmV. 0.0SNR. Modulation “other”

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That's not really any power at all.  I don't think that the Rogers service is even connected.  (Normally, the downstream power levels across all channels should average out to 0 dBmV.

The only thing that I can suggest is to take the incoming Rogers line, disconnect it from the splitter and connect it directly to the modem.  If the modem registers on the Rogers network, then you at least have service; we can figure out how to proceed with a "proper" installation from there.  If the modem still will not register, even when directly connected to the incoming feed, then you will need to call Rogers for assistance.

The Rogers tech may not need to go into your parents' home and can probably do all required work outside.  The tech can also provide you with everything that you will need to replace old splitters and connect the incoming Rogers coax cable to the coax line feeding the wall jack where you currently have the modem connected.

[EtaCarinae]

Hello, thanks for the reply. I am new to DOCSIS modems. I appreciate the info.

And you are right, ONE of the lines coming in from outside that I know the location of did in fact allow the modem to connect, but this is at the basement fuse box and is an extraordinarily inconvenient location as some ethernet services are also required.

I added some info to my post as well. Basically, that incoming line that I know works connects to a Rogers-supplied powered amplifier. The amp gets power from a short coax that connects to a DC wall plug next to it. The output goes to a Rogers-supplied two way splitter, but where those outputs go I have no idea as no other jacks in my house get a connection that I can gather. Yet there remains the mystery of four separate coax lines coming in from outside that theoretically should all be live I would assume if the house is live. All of them terminate inside the grey Rogers panel on the side of the house, but per the cable management in the garage the enter the home in different locations. Only one I have found for sure that obviously enters at the basement and is the one at the fuse box. 

FWIW I tried removing the amp and connecting the definitely live coax to the two way splitter, but no cable jacks seem to go live from doing so. For now I have a makeshift solution since that line works but again, very inconvenient and would like to try and sort out the root issue.

The strange thing is they had Rogers DTV until about four years ago and had six active STBs throughout the home. Ten cable jacks (all worked as the boxes were frequently moved around the house). Of note, they did not have Rogers internet at the time, only digital cable. Maybe there’s simply too many splitters in the walls and attic to deliver a good enough signal to the termination points? Looking like I’ll either need a tech or I’ll have to just figure out the best way to run a cable from the live line in the basement through the walls to the desired location. 

Also, is it normal to have multiple coax lines coming in from the outside Rogers panel? In my neighbourhood there is only one - on every house. So it has me worried that maybe maybe my parents home has poor wiring and that’s why in the past a technician maybe just added lines from the outside? Not sure if that’s normal or not...

Kind regards

[-G-]

@EtaCarinae  Since you now have working Internet, what you should do is disconnect the output lines from the powered splitter, one by one, to see which causes the Internet to stop working, then connect that line directly to the incoming feed using an F81 barrel connector.  (A Rogers tech can provide you with one free of charge, and Rogers can probably arrange for one of these to get dropped off in your mailbox.)

If the powered splitter is a "0 dB gain" device, then it only boosts the signal enough to maintain the same output power as the incoming signal to all wall jacks, and it can (and should be) removed.  However, if the powered splitter is required to boost the incoming signal, then it may or may not be possible to remove it.  (The problem with powered splitters and amplifiers is that they also boost noise, and they can also be a point of failure.)

[EtaCarinae]

@-G- 

Thanks, but to be clear: this far, I have only gotten the live wire to work directly connected to the modem. Connecting it to the powered and non-powered splitter as the input seemingly does nothing, other than take away the one line I know is live. No cable jacks go live when it is connected to the splitter input. Important note: the two coax cables that are the splitter outputs at that location go into the wall and I do not know where they terminate but I can find no live cable jack. 

I’m at the point now where I’m taking faceplates off the cable jacks on the walls to try and find the other three from the outside panel, as two of them are a different colour so that might help me find them this way. 

Also note that I haven’t opened the grey box on the side of the house as I don’t think customers are supposed to, but there is most definitely four different coax cables coming from that panel into the house. (Only one of these goes to the basement fuse box which is the live one; don’t know where the other three go but the cable management done by a Rogers tech years ago in the garage shows they all enter the house at different points - which has me worried that even then the tech must have thought the wiring was horrendous and just decided to bypass all the existing cable infrastructure in the house, so now it’s kind of a hot mess trying to find them all as it’s likely some of them got covered with spackle and paint when they renovated a few years back, so now trying to find obviously covered holes lol).

Cheers

[-G-]

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@EtaCarinae wrote:

Thanks, but to be clear: this far, I have only gotten the live wire to work directly connected to the modem.

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Ah, okay.

I’m at the point now where I’m taking faceplates off the cable jacks on the walls to try and find the other three from the outside panel, as two of them are a different colour so that might help me find them this way.

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If you happen to have an ohmmeter, then install one of the coax terminator caps that came with the cable modem on the wall jack and test for continuity at the other end, down in the basement.