Cable Coax Surge Protection w/ Tuning Adapter?

[willard]

I am looking for some advice regarding surge protection on the cable coax line into my TivoHD. The coax currently goes from the wall to the coax surge protection on my UPS, from the UPS coax surge protection to the Tuning Adapter (Cisco STA 1520) then from the Tuning Adapter to the Tivo.

Does anyone know if having the surge protection on the cable line will adversly affect the function on the Tuning Adapter? I know that the surge protection can reduce the signal strength, but that does not appear to be a problem for me. What I am really worried about is that the surge protection could interfere with the TA's two-way communication. FWIW I have had the tuning adapter for about a year and it loses authorization (sub expires) on a near monthly basis, could this be caused by the surge protection on the cable line?

I guess I should go ahead and just remove the surge protection from the cable line and see if it fixes the TA losing its authorization... but it worries me to leave the cable line unprotected for the couple of months it would take me to test the hypothesis.

Any help or insight as to whether the surge protection could interfere with the TA would be appreciated, thanks!

[pmiranda]

It could cause low signal strength on the RX and too-high TX power, but it shouldn't cause authorization to drop every month. In my experience, that was caused by someone accidentally removing my TA from billing, so that every month when the audit was done to reconcile the billing and network systems it would get deauthorized. I'd call and tech support would reauthorize it, but it took a few months before anyone thought to check the billing system. In the end the easiest way to fix it was to swap out the TA so the new one could be scanned into the system at the customer service desk. (The old one had been given to me as part of the beta test and has never been scanned into the normal system and the folks on phone support couldn't get it into the system.)
In any case, next time you call about a problem, get them to check that your account is "balanced" between billing and the other system.

[willard]

It could cause low signal strength on the RX and too-high TX power, but it shouldn't cause authorization to drop every month. In my experience, that was caused by someone accidentally removing my TA from billing, so that every month when the audit was done to reconcile the billing and network systems it would get deauthorized. I'd call and tech support would reauthorize it, but it took a few months before anyone thought to check the billing system. In the end the easiest way to fix it was to swap out the TA so the new one could be scanned into the system at the customer service desk. (The old one had been given to me as part of the beta test and has never been scanned into the normal system and the folks on phone support couldn't get it into the system.)
In any case, next time you call about a problem, get them to check that your account is "balanced" between billing and the other system.

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it. I will call and see if they are able to check that the TA is in my account under the billing system. That is if they can even understand what my problem is. When I have called and complained in the past they have just tried to force a truck roll on me, which I am resistant to because I know its not a hardware problem and I cannot afford to take the time off work.

Thanks,

[westom]

I guess I should go ahead and just remove the surge protection from the cable line and see if it fixes the TA losing its authorization... but it worries me to leave the cable line unprotected for the couple of months it would take me to test the hypothesis. When did a surge protector become surge protection? Most say that only because protector and protection sound similar. No protector does protection. NIST (US government research agency) says what all protectors do:
> You cannot really suppress a surge altogether, nor "arrest" it. What these protective
> devices do is neither suppress nor arrest a surge, but simply divert it to ground,
> where it can do no harm.

How does it 'divert' to ground when the always required and dedicated earth ground wire does not exist? Either a protector is connected short (ie 'less than 10 feet') to single point earth ground. Or it does not connect to surge protection.

BTW, wall receptacle safety ground is not earth ground for a long list of reasons. That number ('less than 10 feet') is just one of so many reasons why that protector is not protection - is not earthed.

Now, all cables connect to protection before entering the building (if properly installed). Some protection systems have no surge protectors. But every 'system' always has the one component that does the protection. Single point earth ground.

Your cable must connect from ground block to earth ground via a hardwire. Either make that connection via a protector. Or make an every better connection to surge protection with that wire.

Protection is always about where energy dissipates. Either energy dissipates harmlessly outside the building. Or that energy is inside hunting for earth, destructively, via appliances. Once inside, nothing will avert a destructive hunt.

To have surge protection AND to avoid transients that can upset the Tivo, your cable must enter the building near the breaker box. So that the cable and AC electric both connect to single point ground (a 'less than 10 foot' connection).

Take the plug-in protector off. Cable companies recommend no protector on their cable because superior surge protection (an earth ground connection) already (should) exists. Using that protector can create hardware problems as well as an insufficient signal. (Protector can diminish some frequencies and not others meaning you have no knowledge of the harmed signal strength.)