Help with activating an internet jack in a bedroom
 

Hi Neighbors,

We have an inactive co-axial jack in one of our bedrooms where we want to activate it and put the modem and router in that room. Xfinity is going to charge $100 for the home visit. I wanted to reach out and see if any Villagers do this for cash on the side. I always thinks its nice to offer up the work to fellow Villager first before the big corporation comes Monday at 3pm for their appointment. Reach out to me if this is something anyone wants to take on.

Cheers,

Dylan

In my home, the coax from each room terminates inside the white box in the garage that also holds the irrigation controller. I only have one room connected to the cable from the street, the rest are just there with the ends not connected.

If yours happens to be this way then what you would need to do is identify which cable comes from that room and connect it to the cable from the street.

If you currently have active coax in multiple rooms then there must be a splitter which is likely also in that white box in the garage. It might be as easy as connecting that particular cable to the splitter.

Take a look, it might be easy enough for you to do yourself.

Dylan,

While I can't speak to an Xfinity tech here in TV, did they actually agree to make the jack work or just to show up?

There really is no mystery to the way Coax works. I've done the Xfinity hook up at 3 houses but all the jacks worked. Most of these houses have a spiderweb of wires above the living space, it's probably just disconnected somewhere, possibly in the garage. People more familiar with your model might have a better idea.

What service do you have. I have century link.

cable or internet connection? not spliced into the supplier box in that room where ever that is? Cable suppliers charge for the connections which means you will have to have receiver box when it’s connected. Not sure about internet service? IMO don’t think you can just hook up Jack without have supply source at both ends, prove me wrong? so I can do it? Meaning encrypted box to read the supplier service or outside antenna to receive local stations. That’s how I understand it? I was going to try that couple months ago also, but when I tried to open up the supply box outside yellow jackets nailed me. So, that plan has to wait?

Well, if your modem is currently connected to the coax close to the TV, then you will have a splitter there. Remove the splitter, modem & router and reconnect the TV there.

Then take the splitter to the white box in the garage. Disconnect the coax connection. The cable from outside goes into the splitter that has 1 input on a side. Connect the cable that was originally connected to the outside cable to one of the inputs on the 2 input side of the splitter. You should have 2 other coax cables (if a 2 bedroom). It will be a 50/50 chance of picking the correct one. Connect one. Then go to the room you want the modem in and connect the modem and router. If it all connects to the internet, you guessed correctly. If not go back to the garage and choose another coax. Keep trying until you connect the correct coax.

Want to make it easier and be able to label all of the coax in the garage? Do you have a multimeter? If not, you can get a useful one at Harbor Freight cheap - about $7. There is a harbor freight in Leesburg. 2257 Citrus Blvd, Leesburg, FL 34748
7 Function Digital Multimeter


and follow this video: Trace coax wire

Just connect one of the short pieces of coax from your original modem/router installation to the wall jack in a room and have a point there to test with the meter. Should be able to test and label 2 or more coax in less than 15 minutes.

Dylan, I have coax connectors and equipment to see which coax is which, so i can help you, send me a PM with your phone number so we can get together.

Mr. Villagetinker, I love reading your posts, you are a world of knowledge and a neighbor everyone would love.

My house has a 5 coax cables coming from the outside box to the irrigation box. One cable for each coax hookup in the house. In order to activate one of the inactive cables you have to do so in the outside box and then attach it to the splitter in the irrigation box.

No idea which xFinity equipment you have. All my boxes are all wifi based. No Cat 5 hardwire connections needed.

I have the Coax connected Decoder box ( if that is what it is called) in the bedroom in the Armoire.
This box talks to the set top boxes and the Router. I put the router in the center of my house and I get a signal everywhere, even all the way out to the curb.
Have xfinity change out your boxes.

It will be easy IF there are already connectors on the coax cables that are in the low voltage box in the garage. Either disconnect existing coax from splitter and reconnect the coax to desired room.

If the other coax cables do not have connectors, then the job is more involved:
- identify which cable goes to desired room
- install appropriate connector.

Down here in Marsh Bend, only 2 of the 10 coax cables were terminated with connectors, and none of the Ethernet cables were terminated. I had Galaxy come to our new home to properly terminate all the cables, label them, and test them. Then I added a large splitter to provide a working coax cable connection to each room. For Ethernet I just left cables as is, as I decided on whole house mesh WiFi to take care of internet.

Even though I could have done the cable and Ethernet connecter installation all myself, I decided Galaxy's price was right, as all my tools and test equipment were still at my previous home in Oregon.

It's a mystery as to why this wasn't done originally when the home was built.

If you are just relocating the modem/router from one active outlet to another, it should be easy to just disconnect the active one from the splitter in the white panel box in the garage and connect the inactive one to the splitter. But, if you are trying to increase the number of active outlets, you may need Xfinity to increase the signal strength.

I can help you but not until the first week in November. Let me know if you still need help then.

A coax cable is not an internet cable. The coax cable is needed to hook up an xfinity modem/router. It’s very easy, a 5 minute job to hook up the xfinity box to a “working” cable and configure the xfinity router.

Here’s where it gets tricky:
If his is a new home, you need someone to hook up the source coax cable in the network box to the cable going to the bedroom and then the tech will need to activate the service. Then, if this is a new house, your coax cables are not terminated in the network box and new ends will be needed on those cables.
IMO: you don’t want the xfinity box in your bedroom unless you plan on putting in another router in your other common rooms, if you don’t do this, your wifi coverage will suffer. Unless you are using a cable service for dish or direct tv service, put the xfinity box in your living room.
I’m using multiple wired routers in my house that I setup, so the xfinity box is in a room and hat also has an internet cable/phone port. I reterminated all the phone ports (the cables used were cat 6 in the walls) and then setup routers in other rooms so I can get multiple wired ports from each router and my wifi signal does not degrade going from room to room.

The outside cable box most likely has a splitter for the number of tvs that were connected when Comcast did the original hookup. Purchase a splitter with enough ports for the remaining unconnected cables and connect all of them. You won’t have to guess which room cable is “hot.”

How to move dual connector - one for landline & one for router
 

We have our router connected where there is both a landline & coax connection. We'd like to move the router to another more central location in the home to improve wifi through out the home. Is that an Xfinity or a Galaxy job?

Not exactly. There is one cable that goes from the outside Xfinity (Comcast) box to the panel box in the garage. Then, there are about 6 or 7 cables that run from the panel box to each room outlet throughout the house. When you sign up for Xfinity service, Xfinity will usually only activate the room outlets that you want and connect them to a splitter inside the garage panel box. You can only use the activated outlets with an Xfinity cable box or modem or an approved modem that you own. Xfinity can control your service remotely because the cable boxes and modems can be monitored, activated, or deactivated remotely. Also, the cable boxes are encrypted to prevent you from stealing the service. You can move a cable box or modem from an activated outlet to an unactivated outlet, but you would need to disconnect one cable from the panel box splitter and connect the unactivated cable, so you would still have the same number of activated outlets. You could do this yourself. But, if you want to increase the total number of activated outlets in your house, you would need to rent another cable box from Xfinity, and they may need to come to your house to replace the splitter, and to possibly increase the power of the signal entering your house. That is how I understand the system works in most houses.

You should be able to do that yourself. Just disconnect the router and move it to another activated outlet inside your house. Then, run a phone wire from the router to the nearest phone jack, which is probably in the same room. Another option is to buy a set of cordless phones and connect the master phone to the router. If you do that, you won't even need to use the wall phone jacks at all.

update - all up and running now :-)
 

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for the replies and offers to help. I received a reply on Nextdoor by a neighbor who lived 1 or 2 villages over and he came this morning and got us all set up. Its so awesome that everyone jumps in to help like this.

Cheers,

Dylan

IF (Big IF) you have a coax cable near the location where you want the Router located, then this is actually a DIY project. If there is no coax nearby, you are probably better off with galaxy, the last time I was involved with Xfinity they would not go into the attic.
Here is what I did, there was a coax in the guest bedroom a few feet away from where I want the modem and into opposite side of the wall. I drilled holes through the wall, connected about 20 feet of extension coax, feed it through the wall and installed to cover plates, works great.

I'm confused. If the poster just wants to move the modem to a more central location in the house for better wifi coverage, there should already be several coax outlets available. Even if one is being used by a cable box, you can connect the modem to it with a splitter.

There is a solution for the problem if you don’t have a working Eithernet connection, but do have a working coaxial connection. The solution is using two MoCA boxes.

I have fiber Internet in my garage, but there was no Eithernet cable in my laundry room which contains the distribution box for the coaxial cables and Eithernet cables. Frontier used MoCA boxes to get the Eithernet from the garage to the laundry room. The Eithernet is connected to an MoCA box at the first location, then a coaxial cable is connected to the MoCA box. At the second location, the coaxial cable is connected to the second MoCA box, and then Eithernet comes out of the second MoCA box.

I used the same MoCA solution to fix the Eithernet problem in my master bedroom. The Eithernet cable existed between the laundry room and master bedroom, but the Eithernet speed was only 10 megs. I installed another MoCA box in the laundry room and in the master bedroom. The Eithernet can then be distributed using the existing coaxial cable. The speed of the new MoCA boxes is 2,000 megs.

Most older homes have coaxial cables run to each room, but may not have Eithernet. Or, the Eithernet cable might be the old, much slower Eithernet cable. The MoCA adapters is an easy solution for that problem. I didn’t want to go through the hassle of having new Eithernet wires run through the attic and through walls. The coaxial cable can be shared between cable TV and the MoCA adapters. So, you can use the existing coaxial cable for both the MoCA boxes and cable TV, at the same time. You can easily distribute high speed Eithernet to multiple rooms using MoCA adapters. You’ll need one MoCA adapter at your distribution box, plus a MoCA adapter box at each room location.You’ll also need a high quality coaxial splitter in your distribution box. A low quality splitter is not compatible with the MoCA boxes. The high quality splitters are not expensive.

You can learn how to easily setup MoCA boxes yourself by simply searching for MoCA on YouTube. The cost for a pair of MoCA boxes is about $110, and you can easily buy them on Amazon. You probably won’t see MoCA boxes for sale at local stores, but they are easy to buy on Internet stores, like Amazon. The MoCA boxes are an easy solution to get Eithernet distributed to the rooms in your home.

My Frontier fiber Internet service is 500 megs up and down. I could get 1,000 meg up and down service for $30 more per month, but the 500 megs service is fast enough for me. Before fixing my master bedroom Eithernet problem, the speed was less than 20 megs up and down in the master bedroom. After installing the MoCA boxes, the Eithernet speed is 450 to 500 megs in the master bedroom.

You can also install WiFi access points around your house after using the MoCA boxes around your house, to dramatically improve your WiFi signal around your house. But sometimes using Eithernet connections on devices, such as video streaming boxes is the better solution than using WiFi. The MoCA boxes are an easy way to get high speed Eithernet around your house, without the hassle and expense to fish wires around your house, possibly having to repair a lot of wall damage after the wires are run through the walls.

You do t need xfinity to move their box, unplug the cable and plug in the cable to another port in the house. Just make sure the ports are hot because in new homes they are aren’t terminated. It’s fairly easy to terminate a rg6 cable, but if you don’t want to, call galaxy

This is why when I had DirecTV installed, I asked the install to put connectors on all of the cables in the low voltage box.