Cable Modems and You:

Filed under: General

Hey!, if you are on a cable connection check out this address:

192.168.100.1

There is a good chance you are looking at your modems wee little webserver! : )

Now for some of the technical information that you can arm yourself with.

Downstream power (or the receiving power): -15 to 15.
The closer to the middle the better, so in theory a 0 is best.

Upstream power (or the transmitting power): 30 to 55.
Again the closer to the middle the better off you are, most results in an ideal install will show the power to be in the 40′s range.

Signal to noise ratio (or the SNR): 25+.
Anything higher than 25 for the SNR level will be fine. As a help desk employee I personally witnessed users connecting to the internet with as little signal as 14 and the modem was able to keep it working…somehow.

Notes:

• The cable networks are external 100% of the time.
• This external network is under the strain of weather 100% of the time.
• Lightning, and cold weather effect cable data the worst.
  • Lightning destroys devices
  • Cold weather causes the signals to become inconsistent.

So there you have it, a little information that you can choose to arm yourself with, or make yourself look foolish with if you get it wrong. I spent a little more than a year as a voip/ISP help desk employee and answered more than 10,000 (estimated) questions in regards to residential networks and hardware.