Forward Path Attenuators

[nimbus]

Hi All.

I recently moved home during lockdown. As the previous owner had Virgin, I was sent the equipment to install myself.

The cabling set-up, and original equipment was set-up as follows... Virgin cable enters the property and is split. One cable goes to the living room which had an original Virgin TiVO box attached. No forward attenuator present.

The other cable is then split again. One cable goes to Bedroom 3 and has a 3db forward attenuator attached. This had a Superhub 1 attached to it. The second cable has a 6db forward attenuator attached to it, and had a very old Virgin V+ set-top box attached.

The current set-up is I have a Virgin V6 box in the living room, and the Hub 3 in Bedroom 3. All are working ok.

Would the attenuators have been installed based on the type of device connected to the specific cable?

Ideally I'd like to move the Hub 3 into bedroom 1 as it'll be better placed for WiFi in the house.

My question is... should I swap the 6db and 3db attenuators over? Or are they needed at all?

Or should I just move the Hub 3 and see what happens?

Many Thanks... 

[VM-Jon]

Hi James,

This type of attenuated is no longer used and there is a good chance you dont need it. Please remove both of them and set up without either.
If you woul dlike to privately message me your account number once you are up and running i will run some tests on your devices to check the signal health.

Jon

[Scott_B]

Hi.

In the settings part of the hub your downstream should be between +10 and -6db. Try to get it as close to 0+3 as poss.

If you want send me a pm with your account number and two digit area code and i can run a test to it for you.

To PM me, just hover over my profile picture and click Send Message when the option comes up. Please don't post any of the info I've asked for in this thread as it's public

Thanks Scott

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[nimbus]

Thanks Jon... I'll PM you shortly.

[Sprodrop]

Hi Everyone

Just picked this up when I googled 'what does a Forward Path Attenuator do ?' I was having WiFi issues and yesterday was visited by a Virgin engineer who basically has now set up my Hub 3 with a direct feed in to the Hub through a10db Forward Path Attenuator and has reset the Downstream and Upstream settings in the Hub. I have 2 ethernet cables going from the Hub to different parts of the house connected in to 2 separate Apple TV boxes and everything is fine. However the WiFi signal is still poor in these 2 parts of the house (large bungalow). It was 'suggested' I could maybe set the Hub3 in to modem only mode and buy a Mesh system. Does anybody have any suggestions ?

[Tudor]

@Sprodrop please don’t “coat tail” on other peoples post, raise your own post. It’s extremely difficult to respond otherwise.

[sayekm]

A forward path attenuator has nothing to do with a mesh kit 🙂
You must have very high power level to have 10db fitted.

[dogshome]

Hiya, These attenuators are required unless your network has been upgraded in the road. The Virgin "engineer" who recently replaced my TV box simply discarded it. This has resulted in scratchy channels. The Modem reports on levels and is much happier with the attenuator - as expected D'Oh!

I have another 3dB unit on order to fix my new TV box.

We assume these guys know what they are doing. In reality, they just follow robot setup instructions and get home as soon as they can. 

So yes, if the original Engineer (competent, checked dB levels) installed them, make damned sure the latest "engineer"/robot doesn't ignore them.

P.S. Chartered electronics engineer with 40 years experience here.

[Travis_M]

Hi @dogshome

Thanks for posting on our community forum!

Are you experiencing issues with your TV service currently?

Regards

[jpeg1]

nimbus

If you want to move the Hub to another room as you said at the start, this will have to be done by a Virginmedia technician. You can't rewire the incoming coax yourself. 

For £25 they will do all the work for you and set the levels correctly with whatever attenuators are then required.