Virgin Media - Router Signal Restrictors?

Soldato
Joined
4 Nov 2003
Posts
4,496
Location
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Long story short, I had Virgin Media first installed over 10 years ago when it was NTL. However, the last time I had an engineer round to install the new (then) Virgin Media box, they replaced the old NTL router. Happy days, but he then told me that the signal was way too strong and that the last engineer had done a poor job. He then proceeded to add a series of signal restrictors to fix this, pictured below.

photoxkp.jpg


Today, I now have the Virgin Media super hub after upgrading to 60MB which I've installed myself. What I would like to know is... does the above picture look ridiculous in terms of its length especially, or is this just me? What would happen if I were to remove some of the restrictors? Would it improve speed? Would it damage the new router? Can I remove them altogether? Should I request that an engineer come out or just leave it as it is?

Any help much appreciated. Thanks in advance! ;)
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
26 Jun 2007
Posts
261
Location
London
From what I know, using Attenuators on fibre, if your light (dB) level is either too high or too low it will affect the total speed of your line, but you shouldnt have to worry about damaging anything.

But as for virgin cable, I have no idea, I guess the same rules apply.
 
Associate
Joined
4 Jun 2011
Posts
529
Location
Wolverhampton
If the power level is too high it will increase the total AGC% which will greatly reduce the life of the equipment and also leave you at risk of other issues.

Also the high end and low end frequencies are required to be within 6dBmv of each other. If you are on a low attenuation tap port and live close to the cabinet or slot then your high end will likely be at least 10db higher than your low end since the high frequencies suffer more attenuation over longer distances.

Nobody can be sure if they are required without seeing the entire signal coming down the line. I would say that if your downstream power levels on your modem are within spec then leave them.

The 12db equaliser will attenuate the higher frequencies by 12dB in a slope so for example the mid frequencies will drop by about 6dB.

The 3dB forward path attenuator will decrease the whole signal by 3dB.

The 4dB Simulator decreases the low end by 4db in a slope (opposite the equaliser)

Sometimes it is what is required to get the signal perfect.


If you require them then removing them will likely cause connection issues and equipment failure in future. And it should not affect the speed either so I would just leave them
 
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