Didn’t know where else to ask this so figured this would be the best place. What exactly is Coax used for? I ask because i’m self installing new Xfinity internet and the instructions say to plug in the Coax and what not. What exactly does that do? It that how the gateway actually gets internet or does it simply “distribute” the internet to other parts of the house?
Truly could not find a good answer on google so just wondering if it’s truly necessary or does simply plugging the gateway in work?
Mind you im not getting cable or anything like that. It’s simply wifi and that’s it. Thanks in advance.
Edit (Solved): To make things short, I plugged my Xfi gateway into these coax outlets in my house but they weren’t working. So, I tried plugging my Gateway directly into the main line outside and it works just fine meaning either the two ports I tried both happen to not work or the wires that take the connection to the rest of the house don’t work. So i’m gonna attempt to connect it in a port upstairs and see if it works just to confirm either possibility. But the problem is largely resolved. Thanks to the legends in the replies for the help!
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To give you better context on what you’re experiencing, I’ll explain a couple of things. I used to do cable work so I have some experience in what you’re dealing with. You identified the main coaxial feed to your property. From there, the coax cable will hit a splitter (at least one, it could branch into other splitters in other places in your house) and from those splitters, more coax will run through your house to each of the cable outlets. So if you imagine the signal coming from your neighbourhood tap to your house, to some splitters, to the outlet, you have an outlet that has an active signal. This would be considered an active or live outlet.
Now if you have a big house with say a cable outlet in every room, we don’t usually hook up every single outlet to the main line to your house, as every splitter drops the signal strength of the connection a little bit. If you have 8 outlets in your house but only plan on having an internet connection and maybe 2 or 3 tvs, I as your cable guy will identify the cable runs for the places you actually want service and hook them up to splitters and hook those up to the main line, so that only those outlets are active. That ensures that you will have good service.
You’ve hooked up the modem outside to the main feed to your house and proved that you have signal. The outlet you are trying to connect the modem to does not appear to have signal. That outlet is dead or inactive. What can you do? You can either go around your house trying to find an active cable outlet that is connected to your house’s feed, OR (and this is really what you should do) call Xfinity and tell them you tried to get your Self Install Kit (we call them SIKs) but it doesn’t work. They’ll them schedule a technician to come out and activate the line that you want activated (this was a very common task when I did this work, these jobs were known as “Failed SIKs” and were one of the easier jobs). Could you do this yourself? Maybe, but it’d be more convenient for you and better overall for your cabling if you have Xfinity come out and do it. Judging by how you described your cabling, if they are that old and unused, the technician will likely replace old corroded splitters and reterminate the coaxial ends and give you a better experience than you’ll get if you try to do it yourself.
To answer your original OP question: it’s how the internet comes from the outside world and gets into your house. All ISPs have to get internet to you one way or another. There are companies that do it through fiber optics, phone lines, 4g/5g connections, and Xfinity does it through coaxial cable.
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