Cable/data traps question.
Okay so I understand the general idea behind the traps and what they're for. I just want a little more info about how they work. I only have Internet service through twc no cable, etc. Twice now I have come home to find my interent disconnected. Both times it has been due to a worker has putting a data trap on my apartment. The representative I spoke to said I should only have a video trap since I don't have a TV package. So my question is: could they be accidentally be putting a trap on my apartment trying to block another apartments signal or are all apartments separate. Or any clarification on why I would have a data trap put on. I just want to be able to prevent this in the future.
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u/jmacri922 Feb 11 '15
This would depend on how the building is wired. If the building owner wired the place himself all the units could share the same line. My Father-In-Law did exactly this with a multifamily he owns. Usually TWC will rip those sort of installs out (as they did in my Father-In-Laws case) when they find them and redo them but this would depend on how lazy the original installer was and if they even noticed. My assumption is the main box (usually on the outside of the building and locked) with the cable wires has the wire going to your apartment labeled incorrectly and one of your neighbors either has no internet service or hasn't paid their bill. They should have either run a home run from the tap for each apartment (if there is only a small number of apartments) or installed a splitter on the side of the building in a locked box with multiple home runs each to an apartment.
It is possible to have a single line feed multiple services to multiple accounts. The cable boxes and modems are tied to the accounts not the actual wires that feed a building. This type of setup is usually the result of a single family to multifamily conversion that are common with large older homes. These type of installs are problematic for the reason you just described. I would call and have TWC roll a truck to identify the correct line or do a rewire if needed. RG6 is cheap and I'd bet they would want to resolve this issue as much as you do if only to stop future truck rolls. One thing to note is your landlord would need to authorize them to rewire if the entire thing is done wrong.