Making ISP prove speeds/signal strength?

[cctaylor88]

Long story short paying for speeds of 100 down, getting between 2-5down Spectrum is stating my coaxial cables are old/weak they can't do anything I need to replace all the coax in my walls. Home was built in 1996. So while ~23 years old.. I find this hard to believe.

I'm having a tech come out in the near future and I want them to prove/show me the "strength" or "signal quality" (or w/e the lingo is) of the coax coming into the home if that makes sense. Last time they were out I was shown a foreign looking little machine that I had no idea how to read "see your coax is a 7 it should be at a 9" etc.
Please guide me with exactly what i should be looking for/the right questions to ask etc.

 

[JackMDS]

Take the Spectrum Modem and connect it directly to where the Coax is coming into the house. Connect a computer directly to the Modem and test the speed. It is the ISP resposibilty to come and show you that the "Speed" out of the Modem is according to the contract. If the Speed declines after the Modem Output it is your responsibly.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

What Jack said. Anytime I have internet issues the very first thing I do is take my modem, plug it directly into the home input, then connect my laptop to that and test. If it's working there then the problem isn't with your ISP.

If the connection works well at the entrance to your home, but doesn't elsewhere in your home, then the problem, as unfortunate as it is, is in your home. A home built in the mid-90s still has a chance of having been wired with RG-59 vs RG-6 Cable. If there's RG-59 in your home, it's not ideal, as it's designed around the <50Mhz signals often used with Analog distribution. The loss of signal in the Ghz+ bands is substantially higher vs. RG-6.

 

[KentState]

Depending on how the coax is distributed, it may be those points that are causing your issues as well. As silly as it sounds, a splitter or lack thereof can cause issues. I had new lines ran from the road to our basement when we moved in. The tech actually added a second splitter near the modem itself which greatly improved the overall speed. May be counter intuitive or crap, but I get the advertised 1Gb with downloads and the 100Mbs up to actual sites/services like Steam and MS.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

If you have to pull new Coax, just take a coupling and connect it to the old coax and pull the new one threw the wall.