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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Coax cable is a single conductor shielded cable. Because of this shielding, it’s a very reliable way to carry signals long distances. Without that shielding, over long distances there would be interference from other signals, like having to have a conversation across a loud bar.
Because it’s only a single conductor, it can carry one signal at a time, but thanks to the shielding and some other properties of the cable it can be a really fast signal. Imagine someone who talks like a really fast rapper or an auctioneer (“going once, going twice, sold to the man in the blue hat!”), and is loud enough to be heard across the bar, that’s what your modem does. It can send a many hundred megabit signal miles down the road to the cable company.
But the equipment to do that is fairly expensive, so for the home networking in your house we use a protocol called Ethernet or wifi. These are weaker signals so they don’t go as far. But the equipment to handle them is cheaper. It’s just like someone who can talk in a normal voice. Ethernet uses 4 pairs of wires, and they’re not shielded, so you can use a lower power signal and only have to go at 1/4th the speed for the same data rate.
So imagine that you’re at a table with your friends in the bar, and everyone can have a normal conversation deciding what drink to order. Then there’s a rapper/auctioneer sitting there who can yell everyone’s order all the way across the crowded bar to the bartender, really fast. That’s what your modem does, or to be more specific, your router is in charge of collecting everyone’s drink orders and giving them to the rapper/auctioneer (your modem) who then quickly yells them across the room.
It would be possible to connect all your devices with coax at your house, but the components to do it expensive. You can get a 1 gigabit Ethernet adapter for $15 but a 1 gigabit cable modem is $75.
Fiber is similar just taken to a further extreme – faster and more expensive per device, but even better performance than coax. And again, you could totally run fiber 6 feet from your desktop computer to your router, but it’s a waste of money when a Ethernet cable will perform just as well over such a distance.
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