6db Attenuator Anyone Had It Fitted ?

[shadowman786]

Hi I noticed when I had my 100mb Superhub installed by a Virgin engineer instead of putting the white coax cable direct into the back of the box he first put a 6db Forward Path Attenuator then put the cable in their ? I mean is this needed and does it effect the speed in anyways I was thinking of taking it off as am not getting stable speeds mostly between 80mb to 91mb

[AbyssUnderground]

Check your power levels. If the power levels are off then contact VM to have an engineer booked. The attenuator is used when the power level from the cab is too high and needs to be reduced. It is there to help improve signal levels and thus stability.

80-91Mbps from 100Mbps is perfectly fine.

[kwikbreaks]

Do you really think they fit bits to cut down the weight of their tool box?

[TJS]

Without wanting to start a war Is shadowman telford cable on a new account? Some of the posts are verging on as ridiculous as his; thinking that 80 - 90 mb/s out of a £45 a month consumer 100 mb broadband isn't good enough?!

[Bullstein]

I have a 15db attenuator fitted as my power levels were way too high on install. Pity the installers didn't check the power levels before they left as I then had to book an engineer visit to fit the attenuator- 30 minutes after they left

[JayJay]

Do you really think they fit bits to cut down the weight of their tool box?

Have you felt my tool bag? ;-)

[Peter_]

Have you felt my tool bag? ;-)I would hope not.
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2012/07/9.gifhttps://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2012/12/10.gif

[JayJay]

:LOL:

[JonM1988]

The first engineer that came out to install mines put a 15db one on the line instead of adjusting the levels at the box

Second guy adjusted it at the box but put a 4db on

[kwikbreaks]

None of the engineers I've had on installs even looked at the power levels (initial install and an upgrade).

[JayJay]

Our PDA's do test them....

[kwikbreaks]

PDA?

[Peter_]

PDA?

You could have just googled it but here is a link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_digital_assistant

[qasdfdsaq]

Personal Digital Assistant. Google it.

[Edit]
D'oh, beaten by Masque

[jb66]

A really crappy area I work in has 2 29db taps and the upstream is 49 at tap, add cable and an iso it's 54db. I had to fit an hdu and a 15db forward path attenuator.... Roll on the upgrades!

[DigitalShadow]

then put the cable in their?

I'm on tenterhooks, put the cable in their what?

[kwikbreaks]

Personal Digital Assistant. Google it.

[Edit]
D'oh, beaten by Masque
I'd completely forgotten the term and certainly had no idea your installers had anything to check independently - it certainly makes sense that they can. Pity the upgrade team failed to use theirs - I had to have an engineer out later to fix high upstream. He checked it on my computer.

[Peter_]

I'd completely forgotten the term and certainly had no idea your installers had anything to check independently - it certainly makes sense that they can. Pity the upgrade team failed to use theirs - I had to have an engineer out later to fix high upstream. He checked it on my computer.
I had a tech on Monday to swap my SA V+ for a Samsung V+ as the SA had developed a fault and he showed me how it worked, plus he even brought in his power level monitor and to check my levels and that was before he knew that I was technical support agent.

So I expect it depends on the tech.

[kwikbreaks]

The original install was done by a couple of lads who I'm pretty sure were contractors. They just got me as far as the walled garden and shot off pronto. They may have checked the levels on their own kit but I didn't see them do it. Maybe the pre-install team who pulled the cable did it.

The upgrade was a complete fiasco. The two installers who were VM blokes didn't seem to have a clue what they were doing with the Superhub and couldn't get the two they tried to work at all. They called their area supervisor who brought a third hub and he struggled with that but eventually got it going. They were at my place for at least 2-3 hours. The upstream was highish when they left at 54dBmV but something disturbed it and made it worse. I saw an install being done up the road the day before I had an outage and I noticed that it was up at 58.2dBmV when checking to see if anything was showing.

[zekeisaszekedoes]

I have one fitted to my VMNG300, yes. Presumably if I were to use the superhub again it would also need it, perhaps more as from what I know the superhub is more sensitive to incorrect power levels than the VMNG300 is.

[qasdfdsaq]

I had a couple of subcontracted lads doing my install too. They had a PDA for measuring signal levels and what not - but aside from tapping a few buttons, they didn't use it. Never once connected it to the cable, just sat it on the table for a while.

[jb66]

The PDA checks the signal via GPRS.

[Peter_]

The PDA checks the signal by contacting the modem via GPRS.
The tech who came last week to look at my V+ showed me how it works as it uses a mobile version of the tool we use.

[jb66]

Redrools plus dtv medic is better than my signal meter

[Peter_]

Redrools plus dtv medic is better than my signal meter
I think you now only use the meter if Redtools is down.

[jb66]

I think you now only use the meter if Redtools is down.

Your supposed to use it all the time but it doesnt measure snr or rs errors, the software is better

[Peter_]

Your supposed to use it all the time but it doesnt measure snr or rs errors, the software is better
My engineer had both but he only uses it if he really has to as like you he prefers the PDA.

[qasdfdsaq]

The PDA checks the signal via GPRS.
Ah, nice. I assumed that since it had a coax connector on the top of it one would actually connect the coax cable straight to the PDA, but I guess if you can check it OTA then it's just for when the modem can't get a lock?

[jb66]

pda cant connect via coax, the signal meter can though

[qasdfdsaq]

Hmm I must be getting confused then. Do you techs carry a seperate PDA and a signal meter that looks like a toughened PDA with a coax connector sticking out the top?

[jb66]

Yeah a signal meter in a leather case