# Inline booster for cable modems?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inline-booster-for-cable-modems/259455>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 11, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inline-booster-for-cable-modems/259455 "2004-08-11T23:38:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inline-booster-for-cable-modems/259455/1 "2004-08-11T23:38:54Z")

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I live in an apartment and only have one cable outlet. Before, I had the outlet split between my TV and my cable modem… I was getting 29-30 dB SNR ratings for the cable modem and it functioned okay.

Recently I’ve had to add another TV (with another splitter), and the cable modem is getting 25-26 dB SNR ratings and is losing signal a few times a day.

Is there some way I can keep both TVs and boost the cable modem’s signal? An inline booster or something?

Another, related question:

If I have one cable line, and split it, and have outbound lines A and B… and then I take B and split it and now have outbound lines A, B, C, and D, with C and D off the B wire - does device A (split once) have more power than device C and D (split twice)? The cable tech told me all that matters would be the net drain and they’d all suffer the same no matter which way you split them - is this true?

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**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inline-booster-for-cable-modems/259455/2 "2004-08-11T23:56:02Z")

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Go to Radio Shack @

\<[RadioShack.com Official Site - America's Technology Store](http://www.radioshack.com/category.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F003%5F010%5F001%5F000&Page=1)\>

Cat # 15-2506 is a 1-to-4 Bi-Directional Cable-TV Amplifier @ $49.99  
One input, 4 outputs. You can also use the splitters/combiners you now have if you don’t want to run separate lines from each point of use to amplifier. 🙂

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**Author:** ![cstamets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/958977/32.png) [@cstamets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cstamets)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inline-booster-for-cable-modems/259455/3 "2004-08-11T23:56:28Z")

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> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> If I have one cable line, and split it, and have outbound lines A and B… and then I take B and split it and now have outbound lines A, B, C, and D, with C and D off the B wire - does device A (split once) have more power than device C and D (split twice)? The cable tech told me all that matters would be the net drain and they’d all suffer the same no matter which way you split them - is this true?

That’s the way the cable company set me up. The line into the house is split. One goes straight to the cable modem. The other goes into a 3-way splitter. All the TVs in the house come off the 3-way.

Maybe the cable company boosted the signal coming into the house or something, but I haven’t had any trouble.