Understanding the signal levels on a Motorola Surfboard Modem

This tutorial will show you how to access and understand the diagnostic cable modem level page on a Motorola Surfboard Cable modem. Great information to know if you are having problems with your modem connection dropping offline.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Motorola
• Surfboard
• 5100
• Cable
• Modem
• Levels
• troubleshoot

[MrTotallyRad]

Any reason as to why if my modem is running really clean (44/-3) Im seeing my modem dropping offline every 30 minutes? The levels are not spiking or dropping. Levels into the apartment are solid too.

[rhet38]

@m4carbineshooter1 Try replacing your old 2 way with a quality 2 way splitter. a four way normally raises upstream versus a 2 way. If its 54 on a 4 way, should be about 51-52 on a quality, HEAVY 2 way

[rhet38]

There seems to be some misunderstanding on the upstream power level among other things. This number represents the power required to send signal back out of the modem (lower is better, down to about 38 dbmv). Anything over ~55 is usually problematic. If it's ALL cable company wiring inside your HOUSE, they have a responsibility to get it inside a standard that is always lower than this, usually around 53dbmv or lower. In an apartment your mostly on your own.

[ExtremeSilver2000]

wow dude speak the heak up cant hear you!

[conijoo]

@m4carbineshooter1 your particular lecture is a negative number, but it's nothing bad, it has to be as the video explains from -50 to 50, so don't worry, if by any chance you need those adapters the one I have are made by a china company named " Aska", you may want to ask around where to get them.

[conijoo]

@m4carbineshooter1 If you have out of range signals you need some special adapters that normalize the signal,

[ssavoy0329]

@dana44s Each splitter adds about 2-4dBmV of upstream power onto your cable modem. You want your cable modem off the first possible split from the main line.

[dana44s]

Is it possible to do some mods to fix this? I know when the cable guy installed the cable at my house, he put some line duplex thing (Or something) and was saying it affects the Frequencies that it operates at. My upstream power level usually sits at 54-55dBmV at any given time.

what things can I personally do to help that? The cable company isnt very helpful.. My friend said something about installing a filter / Inline cable booster, but that seems like it'd case more problems than fix.

[TestingJeff]

Thanks for the quick run-through! Good stuff to know.

[ugkngz24]

i have a premoded SB4100 cable modem and its works fine on one computer, but if i were to connect it to my laptop, it would say that its an obsolete modem, can anybody tell me what i have to do... my desktop computer has XP and my laptop has Vista...THANKS!!!