[SOLVED] My neighbor wants to use a coaxial cable splitter to hook up his router to my internet line....

Aug 19, 2019
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My neighbor from behind me wants me to use a coaxial cable splitter to split the cables and then install a second router (the second router is his he already owns it) so that I guess he can share my internet connection. Apparently the people who lived in my apartment before let him do this.

My concern is I stream videos a lot because I got rid of my TV service and pretty much use a Chromecast and my internet connection to watch any/all TV. and I usually have the TV on as background noise while I'm going throughout my day. I know at night my neighbors place becomes a bit of a hangout and that they stream videos sometimes too.

I know if he had my password
and was hooked up to my internet that way, it would cause serious lag if we were both streaming at the same time. However, does him having his own router negate that?? Will him having his own router not cause any streaming lag for me or does that not matter??

Maybe because he has his own router he's not even all my internet connection?? I don't know a lot about this stuff!

Thanks for your help. I hope I made my question clear!
 
Solution
If the device actually hooks up with a coax cable it likely has a modem in it. The cable company must put the mac address of their modem into their system for it to function. They do this to prevent exactly this type of theft of service. People used to climb up telephone poles and connect up the coax to their house.

So if he wanted to pay for his own account it would technically work but since the ISP will connect his house up if he pays for it there is no reason to do it.

There must be more to it than this because there is no technical way to share internet using coax cable and simple routers.

In any case what do you get for taking the risk. Lets say you instead gave him your wifi password. He uses the bandwidth you...

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Having his own router does not change the throughput on your cable connection.
It would still lag.

And a simple coax splitter won't work.
Your modem talks to one and only one router...yours.
ISP->modem->router...can't have 2x routers in that same connection to the modem.

Lastly, you would be responsible for all of his traffic. And all his hangout friends.
Any issue with pirated/illegal content, or too much monthly bandwidth...the ISP is going to come to you first.
 

britechguy

Commendable
Jul 2, 2019
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And a simple coax splitter won't work.
Your modem talks to one and only one router...yours.
ISP->modem->router...can't have 2x routers in that same connection to the modem.

Even if it did work, I still wouldn't do it as you would be the "owner of record" for traffic. Were these folks to do anything illegal it would come back to you.

That being said, I'm genuinely curious as to why this couldn't work if two modem-routers were involved? I haven't seen most providers, whether DSL or cable, use a straight modem in ages. They almost all supply modem-routers.

If you had two modem-routers that were compatible with the ISPs service, could this work? I'm asking because I truly don't know, and I'm curious as to whether it could even work in theory. I think of the modem-router at the end of a cable connection much like I think of the phone(s) at the end of a phone line in that the services you purchase are "on the line" and any phone that can connect to the line has access to those services. I've never even thought about trying to connect two modem-routers to a single line (be it DSL or cable). I'd love to know why it won't work (and I'm virtually certain it won't, but networking at the "deep under the hood" level is not one of my things).
 
Is your modem separate from your router? If he were to hook to the coaxial cable line the only way he can get a signal for his setup is to have his own modem that has to be activated by the cable company or a HACKED one? When your ethernet line comes out of a stand alone modem you can add two routers that can be shared on the same account but you can loose bandwidth. Anyway the point is that sharing your service with a neighbor is generally not allowed and considered in breach of contract and can cause you to loose service and may have theft of service charges filed against you!
I have cable service with a Modem for phone and internet, I like to use my own router. T-P Link AC1750.
 
If the device actually hooks up with a coax cable it likely has a modem in it. The cable company must put the mac address of their modem into their system for it to function. They do this to prevent exactly this type of theft of service. People used to climb up telephone poles and connect up the coax to their house.

So if he wanted to pay for his own account it would technically work but since the ISP will connect his house up if he pays for it there is no reason to do it.

There must be more to it than this because there is no technical way to share internet using coax cable and simple routers.

In any case what do you get for taking the risk. Lets say you instead gave him your wifi password. He uses the bandwidth you pay for. Any bad stuff he does tracks back to you. Maybe if he paid 1/2 the bill but I would not even do that for family members. You have to realize that the ISP could just decide to cancel your service and not offer it to you. Most people do not have the option to go to a different ISP.
 
Solution

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
If you had two modem-routers that were compatible with the ISPs service, could this work? I'm asking because I truly don't know, and I'm curious as to whether it could even work in theory.
The ISP talks to one and only one "modem" per account. That may be part of a modem/router box, but they only talk to one MAC address.
2 modem routers will each have their own MAC address.

And assuming there is a standalone modem, and a router behind that...the modem only talks to one and only one device.
A PC or router.

Now....you can obviously hang a second router off the first, via ethernet cable. This is typical when wanting to use a router as another WiFi access point.
But not a coax splitter.
 
Aug 19, 2019
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"Even if it did work, I still wouldn't do it as you would be the "owner of record" for traffic. Were these folks to do anything illegal it would come back to you.

"That being said, I'm genuinely curious as to why this couldn't work if two modem-routers were involved? I haven't seen most providers, whether DSL or cable, use a straight modem in ages. They almost all supply modem-routers."

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Apparently it does work because I know he's not bullshiting about him doing this with the person that lived here before. And yes it's a single modem router in one unit.

But thanks to all the replies here I now know that it still has the potential to cause serious lag not to mention I could be responsible for any questionable activity (which is something I honestly hadn't even considered.)

So definitely not something I'm going to be doing thank you for all your help everyone!