I hope this is the right place to ask this question. I've been searching for a few hours elsewhere but can't find the answer I need. I'll try to keep it as simple and short as possible.

We got rid of cable TV at our house a year ago. We have individual antennas on each TV - they suck. Possibly related to the fact my house is stucco so its covered in a metal mesh. The TV signal doesn't seem to penetrate that well. The same antenna will pickup dozens of local channels when dragged outside for testing.

I want to mount an outdoor antenna (probably in my garage attic) to feed the coax outlets in each room with OTA signals. The problem I'm running into is our internet comes into my house via the cable company. The cable goes into a box outside that feeds a splitter that goes off into the individual rooms. The modem is fed in my living room from the coax outlet. Then it goes into a wireless router. So I can't unplug the coax outside without losing internet inside.

Each room is also wired for Ethernet. In the cable box outside is a bundle of blue wires that I have to assume terminate in the rooms. Is there a way for me to connect my cable internet modem using the Ethernet network so I can free up the coax network so I can run my garage antenna?

Any help (or something really easy that I'm missing) would be greatly appreciated.

Is there a splitter for the coax such that you could isolate the leg to the modem.  Then the remainder of the coax network could be fed by the antenna.  This would not feed the oa signal for tv in  same  room as modem but it would get the rest a signal.

I'm looking at similar setup but not as far long as you are.

To expand on what he said, find the coax from the splitter that feeds the modem by unhooking them one at the time.  Then use a barrel connector to connect the incoming cable from the cable company directly to the one that feeds the modem, rather than using the splitter.  Then hook your antenna to the splitter to feed the rest of the rooms.  If you want your antenna to feed the coax that is currently connected to the modem, move the modem to a room that you don't plan on putting a TV.

If you want to leave the wireless router where it is, you can still move the modem, putting it in a different room than the wireless router.  In the box full of blue wires, find the one that goes to the room where you want to put the modem, and the one that goes to the location where the router is now.  Connect the two together using an RJ45 coupler.  Put the modem in the new location and connect it to the ethernet wall jack.  Connect the wireless router the wall jack in the current location.  Done.

Barrel connector.


RJ45 coupler.

I think I follow what you guys are getting at. Forgive me if I'm missing something.

It all sounds like it will work except for a couple of issues:

1. The coax that feeds the living room is the coax that feeds the modem. I need to be able to connect the TV (where we spend the most time) to that coax.

2. There won't be any unused coax outlets in my house (I don't think. I need to double check). 3 bedrooms, 1 living room. All currently have TVs and antennas.

How many coax cables are leaving the splitter?  If more than 4, you have a spare.

If there is an unused coax, and there is an ethernet cable from the box outside to that same room, you can do as I said.  You need an ethernet connection between the modem and the router.  Currently, there should be a patch cable between the two.  You can use what's in the walls for that, and put the modem in the room with the unused coax, and leave the router where it is.  Connect the ethernet cable to those rooms together in the outside box.  That will free up the coax in the living room.

You can't run the antenna and the cable company's signal over the same coax, so this is really the only solution, to the best of my knowledge.

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You could also mount a box outside to contain the modem.  Cable from the cable company goes in, along with power.  Ethernet to the living room for the modem goes out.  It wouldn't be hard, if you
can make the connections.

Based on what I found tonight, I may be leaning that way.

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No spare coax.

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Not sure what in the world I can do with this.

You could run another line from the box into the house.  Also check to see if there are any unterminated cable lines in the box - often there will be two cable drops to a living room, etc., to allow for the TV to be set up along another wall, or a run to the kitchen, etc.  If so, then you can put your modem there and then figure out how to route any necessary ethernet cables.

Alternatively, if your televisions are smart tvs, you can use a tv set top box to receive the broadcast tv signal and then disseminate it to your televisions, essentially as if it were streaming media, and you wouldn't even have to connect your televisions to the outside antenna.  You could also watch tv on a PC, tablet, etc., using this system using an app.  The number of channels that could be watched simultaneously would depend on the number of tuners in the set top box.  HDHomeRun is apparently a common product line for this, and offers models with 2 or 4 tuners.  Such products also offer DVR functionality.

Mike

If that is the Ethernet you were referring to in the OP, that's not Ethernet.

Do you want to run new wiring?

If not, then buy a network TV box as suggested. I have a HDHomeRun and it works well. You would need compatible TV apps or streaming devices. Amazon has the Recast which would probably be the easiest solution. Buy a Recast and a Fire TV stick for every TV you want to watch on. It also has a built in DVR. It was just recently released so I would expect some bugs, quirks, and annoyances.

ske714's suggestion is pretty good. I would be concerned about heat if mounting a cable modem in a box outside.

Thank you all for the response.

So then, what are those blue wires?

The cables themselves are probably Cat5 (which can be used for Ethernet) or something. It should say on the jacket. It looks like they are being used for phone lines in this case.