It is against the law to steal cable from a neighbour. Splitting your signal within your own home is not a breach of your cable TV or Internet service agreement, but sharing your service with a neighbour is.
Is it possible to share cable with your neighbour?
The basic idea is straightforward: you (or your neighbour) sign up for Internet service through your phone or cable provider. You set up a router with secure Wi-Fi (which you should do anyway), double-check that your signal is strong enough to reach your neighbor’s house, and give them the Wi-Fi password. The neighbour then cancels their Internet service, uses yours instead, and pays you a monthly charge.
Both of you would suffer a performance impact, but this would only be an issue on rare occasions, such as when you’re both streaming HD video at the same time. Even that can be readily remedied by purchasing additional bandwidth. To double your speed, several services simply charge an extra $5 per month.
Is it illegal to use cable splitters?
As previously stated, cable companies are unable to charge more for basic service to several televisions. That’s one of the reasons they’re attempting to force digital cable on us; each set has its own decoder box, which we rent by the month. Unless you want to simultaneously watch the same station on all of your televisions….
If you’re paying for and receiving both cable TV and cable internet, there needs to be some form of splitter somewhere. Install an amplifier/splitter between the existing splitter and the television, then run all of your television equipment from there. It’s not unlawful, and it has no effect on your internet speed. This also limits snoops’ ability to figure out how many TVs are connected, because they can only assess the combined input impedance of the amplifier and cable modem.
I would be hesitant to use a service provider who restricted the number of machines that could be linked. My personal internet service provider (Viawest) accepts it but does not support it, which is great with me. In the case of cable, providers are lying, cheating, and stealing in the first place: If every user on a certain section of the grid is up at the same time, none of the consumers will receive the claimed bandwidth. Because this is essentially a bandwidth pooling system, limiting the number of computers per connection aids their cause. I pay for dedicated bandwidth with routeing or bridging mode DSL, and I expect to get it.
Is it possible to use a cable box at a different location?
Yes, it should work if the location you’re moving the box to has the same exact channel lineup from 2 to 999, from the same company, using the same branded set top boxes.
Is it possible for me to utilise the Xfinity Wi-Fi of my neighbours?
The Xfinity WiFi service operates on its own network, ensuring that your home network stays completely safe. You won’t have to share your private home WiFi network password or bandwidth with guests if you let them use the Xfinity WiFi network.
What can you do if you suspect your neighbour of stealing your cable?
Inquire about your Internet connection setup and router information with the specialist. You should see the extra users displayed in your router information pages if someone is stealing your signal.
Is the Internet on cable shared?
When asked, neighbours will usually share a cup of sugar. The ‘cup of sugar’ request was, and continues to be, a terrific way to meet and start a polite conversation with our neighbours in certain circumstances. Waving from a distance of 50 feet or across a fence isn’t as friendly or approachable. While being a good neighbour has many advantages, most people draw the line when it comes to sharing Internet access, which they usually do by adding a security key to their home WiFi network. After all, we’re now discussing bandwidth rather than sugar!
Every connection on the Internet, however, is a’shared’ connection. Sharing can happen near your home, at a fibre node, a headend, or a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) router. BGP is a routeing protocol that is used to transport data across the Internet Wide Area Network (WAN).
You’ll need an enterprise-level connection if you want to ensure that your service isn’t shared. Even with enterprise-level connections, however, they only guarantee your speed up until your ISP’s BGP router and as soon as you connect to the Internet. It’s shared, which means all bets are off!
Coaxial cable is still utilised by cable companies to supply broadband services to their existing subscribers, and it will be for many years. Cable bandwidth is shared among all subscribers in a service group on a cable operator’s coaxial access network. Service group sizes vary, however depending on location, typical coaxial access networks might number in the hundreds (300-500).
Packet congestion or bandwidth constraints can degrade a customer’s Quality of Experience (QoE), resulting in excessive network delays, dropped conversations, and distorted movies. Reduced service group size, fewer users on each fibre node, and extra capacity in the cable access network are all ways cable operators can increase QoE for their clients.
Reducing the size of the service group can also save money by lowering the number of coaxial amplifiers necessary, which are costly to operate and maintain and can limit bandwidth. Cable operators are highly familiar with the extensibility of the coaxial network and their ability to instal high capacity wherever in their network, making their customers’ QoE even better, having upgraded their networks numerous times.
The extendable coaxial cable asset of cable networks is being prepared for the digital future, in which millions of broadband-connected devices will compete for bandwidth.
So, just as sharing a cup of sugar with your neighbour is beneficial, sharing your valuable bandwidth can be beneficial as well! Ciena is all about collaboration, and as the world’s leading provider of fibre optic solutions, Ciena can assist.
Do you want to know more? Watch Ciena’s ChalkTalk: Fiber Deep to see how cable operators are using fibre to expand capacity deeper into their networks.
What constitutes cable theft?
Theft of cable television is a federal offence. Unless approved by a cable operator, no one is allowed to intercept or receive cable transmissions. You are almost certainly stealing cable if you are receiving it without paying for it. It’s also against the law to get cable TV for business purposes on a temporary basis. Pay-per-view events, for example, are occasionally available for a nominal cover charge at pubs or clubs. The owner may elect to bring his cable box from home and connect it to the club in order to maximise income. Even though the owner pays for his home cable, it is considered theft to use his cable box for commercial gain without first informing the cable operator.
Is it possible for your cable company to see what you’re watching?
Many of our video services today, whether supplied through Smart TVs (which are effectively Internet-connected televisions), cable and satellite providers, or on-demand streaming devices like Apple TV, can know and track what we view over time. This capability is transforming all televisions, as well as laptops and smart phones, into digital-age megaphones that broadcast our viewing habits in real time.
The majority of individuals are aware that advertising track their online activities. When we look for a pair of shoes or a vacation spot, we receive similar messages for days. Few people are aware, however, that their televisions and related devices collect and transmit a lot of information about them in more sophisticated ways.
“It reminds me of a Trojan horse. Bob Meyers, a New York-based executive who has previously served as president of media at Playboy, CNBC’s senior vice president of primetime programming, and head of TiVo’s research and analytics subsidiary, TRA, says, “I bring this TV into my house and it literally keeps track of everything I’m watching.”
“Even though I say, ‘Oh, it’s all unidentifiable because your personal information isn’t being recorded, it’s just your viewing patterns,’ Meyers said, “100% of people I’ve ever spoken to about this subject have gotten weirded out when I talk about what is capable.” ” They glance at you as if to say, “You expect me to believe that?”
The problem has gotten to the point where the Federal Trade Commission is holding a symposium on the subject later this year. “According to the agency’s description of the meeting, which is slated for December, “the golden age of television has come with the golden age of television tracking.”
For the most part, TV-related businesses, like online advertising companies, claim they’re only trying to figure out how to use big data to their advantage without offending the customers they’re trying to reach.
“According to Adam Lowy, general manager of advanced television at DISH Network, “a lot of us are learning on the fly.” “Five years ago, the world was very different.
Is it possible for the cable company to detect theft?
Although I am not an installation technician, I work for a cable business.
There are two types of cable boxes: analogue and digital. Analog boxes tune RF cable frequencies (physical traps connected to the cable block or allow premiums) and digital boxes tune RF cable frequencies but the channels you get are controlled by the cable company’s billing system through the digital box itself, which can be uni-directional or bi-directional. The cable company has no means of knowing whether you’re stealing their service with Analog unless something external alerts them (signal leak or someone tells them). It’s the same with Digital, but if you’re getting premium channels you shouldn’t be, the company can execute a worldwide refresh from the billing system to update the Digital boxes so that the channels viewed from the box match the services defined in the billing system. A significant portion of it is linked to the cable company’s billing system. Even Analog boxes can be “struck” by the biling system, but Digital boxes have more control.
Can two Wi-Fi routers interfere with each other?
Because the signals from wireless routers sometimes overlap, they can cause interference. You can address this by increasing the number of channels between each router to roughly six.
Is a second router better than a Wi-Fi extender?
A second router is a significantly better alternative than a Wi-Fi extender because it does not create speed drops and maximises network coverage more efficiently.