We have been called in to provide Internet access at a resort due to issues with the current provider. The initial plan was to use a DSLAM but we have found that the telco wiring is terrible and the same guy has been maintaining for 20 years and according to everyone on the property only he can work on the phone system and get issues fixed. That being said we are investigating utlizing the coax instead. We are bringing in the Intenet but we dotn provide the cable TV which goes to all the rooms.
My question is since we are not the cable TV provider can we still utilize the coax wiring with a CMTS without disrupting the cable TV service. By disrupting I mean totally interfere with it if we tap in. We know we will need cable modems and splitters on the room side but our concern is with the transmission over the lines.
Does the cable TV provider not provide internet service? Or are they the "issue"?
That being said, you could utilize the the coax in the building... under most circumstances, the property owns the cabling in the building, though, there are some companies where the Cable Co. claims ownership - however, if you keep it tidy and take measures to prevent your stuff from ingressing back onto the cable system, then you should be fine. So thats the first thing you need to check - who owns the coax? If you did this in one of my systems, I'd cut your lines out - so make for darn sure who owns the coax FIRST.
First, you need a signal meter with a spectrum analyzer - you need to know what channels the cable company is feeding to the building so that you can avoid using the same channels. Once you have a map of their spectrum, you can select the channel (or channels) you want to use, and you will want to buy some drop traps for those channels (the channels YOU will be using). Also, with the spectrum analyzer, assuming that several people inside the building may have digital boxes from the cable provider - you'll need to use your max hold and find the peak for the Digital box return (this might take a while if the boxes aren't polling at that time - but most are between 5-15mhz, though they can be anywhere in the return band - don't mistake their modem return for their digital box return - the digital box return will be a very narrow carrier, and could be mistaken for a noise spike in a noisy evironment but typically will be taller than most noise - you hope.) - and order window-filters that allow that frequency to pass, but block everything else in the 5-42mhz spectrum. And select a return frequency to use for your cmts in the range that is blocked by the trap. - and hope they're not using DSG, which if thats the case there will be no box carrier and you'll have to work around their frequency, and instead order a trap that traps out YOUR return frequency instead of the above window filter. Eagle is excellent about making custom traps.
Assuming the CMTS will be located in the building somewhere, and assuming all the cables run to an MDU enclosure outside, you'd need to run the line for the CMTS feed back outside, and mount your own enclosure next to theirs. In your box, your CMTS feed will come out to a set of splitters, so that you can feed all the outlets for each apt, any amplification it may need based on the number of outlets, etc. From there, you will run a jumper from your box, to the cable box, where for each room, you can use a two-way splitter (backwards, with the input going to the customer outlet - turning it into a combiner rather than splitter) with your cmts feeding in on one side, and the other side of the 2-way you put your channel trap and window filter on the cable-tv input side - this allows their boxes to talk back, and prevents your forward & return channels from going back on theirs. Between the traps and the isolation in the splitter itself, you should do pretty good to keep your stuff off their system. Likewise, you could get a trap to block all the cable company channels from your side of the splitter(combiner) as well - but at 7bux a piece, just trapping their side is sufficient and less expensive.
You'll have to make sure your levels match up with theirs also.
Thats just assuming an ideal standard MDU setup - your mileage may vary depending on how things are. All this being said, if the building is 20 years old, that wire might be old 59 wire, and you probably don't want to run a modem over that, with its sub-par shielding and high loss characteristics - you'd probably end up pulling new wire anyway. (and if thats the case, if the cable provider was the problem, are you sure they were the problem and not the old wiring in the building?)
If you don't have a spectrum analyzer of any kind - don't even attempt it. You need to scan the entire available spectrum that your cmts supports.
... You sure you don't just want to rig it with wireless AP's? Ubiquiti has a nice line with free management software (you just need to have a machine to run it on) - http://www.ubnt.com/unifi
Hi,
Just call me. It's easier to explain on the phone.
Eric
989-239-0446