I got a letter today from the cable company saying they detected a signal leak in my house and that if I don't schedule an appointment within 3 days to investigate they will cut off my service. Has anyone received one of these before? From what I gather, the cable company can detect when a signal is leaking out..and apparently it can interfere with communication systems on airplanes and other things. I recently started hosting a group of LEGAL torrents on my computer and have been using lots of bandwidth over the past week sending the data out. There are no limits on bandwidth from my provider, however I'm wondering if this activity could be what they are really suspicious about. I'd like to keep seeding the files since it is great educational content that I want people to see, but not at the risk of having my service disconnected. So I guess my question is, are signal leaks in any way related to internet activity, or is it just a fluke that they want to inspect my house after I started uploading data to the web?
There are FCC restrictions relating to the FAA's usage of similar frequencies to those carried over your coax cable network. Most line techs and some instalaltion/repair techs carry devices which alarm them when a leak is a certain level. It is FCC law we fix the leak if it sets off that alarm. The only way to fix is to get in your house or TERMINATE your service at the TAP.
Granted if your house is open for access, I have simply disconnected the outlet causing the issue and tagged the house, but often its fenced, guarded by dogs, or an apartment where the network is mainly housed in side [including splitters].
Regardless, the usual cause for this is loose fittings, broken cables, or old poorly connected fittings.
Take a 7/16 wrench and do not try to BREAK the damn things but basically hold it so you can let the weight of your arm tighten it, if it stops moving your done. Do this and basically the tech that comes out will probably be scratching his head as to why you were flagged. Often times the threads in cable bind and consumers put them less than half way on, this causes couple BAD conditions. 1 leakage [egress] and 2 noise [ingress], poor connections of the center conductor and the connectors. inside eq/outlets/f81's.
In any event the only real thing you stand to have happen is your cable signal improving by letting them fix the leak.
As to having issues with torrents, it is possible the egress leak is also causing ingress noise in the return path [5-42 Mhz] range, causing the modem to have t3 time outs [packet loss for network jargon] and loss of sync with the CMTS - Cable Modem Termination System, [a reboot of the modem].
if you don't trust the cable techs ask the ham radio operators, they will have your head spinning so fast with information of ingress and egress its not funny.
Short answer yes there are regulations governing leakage and it must be fixed, if they cannot access your cable inside your house to fix it, they can terminate you as required BY LAW. Wat is so bad about leakage? Airplane navigation/911 interference.
You can find out some info here
http://www.fcc.gov/guides/cable-signal-leakage