Comments on: Broadband users cut into cable

Some people using high-speed Internet connections have found an unexpected perk: an easy hack that gives them free cable TV, adding yet another facet to cable companies' piracy woes.

not exactly true...

It seems that the cable companies are quite capable, if they wish, to block TV signals from entering a coax cable for cable modem use only.

Noah is incorrect. It has nothing to do with "power" and everything to do with the frequencies used for the system. The analog cable TV comes down the coax at approx. 50 MHz to 550 MHz (higher on newer systems). Filters can be insterted into the coax line at the point it is tapped from the main feed to block these frequencies, and many cable companies do exactly that.

The cable modem uses frequencies between 5 and 45 MHz to send data back to the cable office, and frequencies somewhere between 600 and 850 MHz (higher on newer systems) to send data from the central office to the cable modem.

It is very easy to block all other frequencies. Unfortunately, the cost of the filters is not cheap, and it requires a truck to go to the person's house to install the filter on the cable tap to that house. On average, this can cost a cable company $100 or more if not done at the install time.

However, I do not buy the "loss" figures of the cable comapnies as most of these people would not buy the service they steal if they had to, so little lost revenue actually realized. Perhaps this is why so many cable companies do not actually spend the money to install these filters in the first place.

[kevjohn2007]

works for me

Well in that case, thank God for lazy technicians and cheap cable companies. :)

[Not-very-nice-Cable-Guy]

Granted its a free country and everyone has as much of a right as an other guy to essentially "make it"! However having worked for a cable company (TimeWarner), and experienced how they do business...., I just feel they are "riding a wave" of prosperity and charging all outdoors for it and don't have safe guards built in because they are lazy and since not enough peope take advantage of this oversight, they just accept it!!

Thanks for the info above on the different frequency spectrums this stuff comes down the line in! I have a question! Are the converter boxes we get in preparation of the shift to digital, necessary for a 12 year old flat screen TV? (I think it s magnavox, but I'm not home and actually can't remember)! And what is it doing? Is it converting the digital to analog or just allowing a pass thru? Its a bit confusing as this converter has an input for cable, but the output s just three single prong plugins connectors that is NOT in anyway accepting of another cable input on the tV! This TV does have the color coded connectors for these lines, but nothing happens! So, like what is going on here? IS it digital in and analog out or Digital in and digital out? And how does descrambling of digital work in here? Do old analog descramblers work or are they just junk now and are descrambling of digital just not possible anymore?

Thanks in advance!

[kippinski02]

also - let us not forget that in feb2009 there will be no more Analog signal- that most cable comanies do not block if you sign up for just internet service- cable companies are already blocking the Digital frequencies.........after Feb2009 you will not be able to steal the basic cable, by signing up for just the internet service anymore.......

[sbs9]

Wrong. Feb 2009 has nothing to do with analog cable.

[satt1313]

I'm afraid you are all wrong not only are the over the air ch's going digital but we are also going digital and all ch's eventually.On top of that it is switched digital which will require you to have a 2 way communication just like a modem to get any channels. But I am sure if there are a few dollars in it someone will try to steal it someway. And as mentioned above these people short their city money from lost sales. It also degrades your neighbors signal and causes all kinds of problems. It all adds up to higher cable bills. So don;t ***** next time your bill goes up 2$ if you or someone you know is or has stolen cable. It is theft Period. We even have the right to confiscate any equipment illegally hooked up on top of the fine. So go ahead. I catch you guys every day. (Maintenance tech for major cable company)

[sunn1313]

what a db. You must be the kid no one liked at school and never made it to any parties. unclench your @ss and let the log out.

[alykel]

A decent discussion and article. While I feel for the cable companies and Ms. Cohn, the article does not point out that the cable companies themselves are freely stealing from their customers by acts of ommission or blatant fraud.

I recently returned my hd-dvr comcast box to Comcast after my cable+plus+internet bill topped $165.00 for only one premium channel (HBO). I am a child of the 70's and have vague memories of roof-top antennas and free t.v. - the way God meant it to be (joke). I set up an antenna in my attic and began receiving better HD pictures than comcast could provide through their box, for free. I still need internet, so I went back to Comcast to price just internet (currently $42.00 per month). They claimed it could not be given withou cable t.v., but agreed to give me basic service for $10.00 more. And no, I don't steal, so I do not do anything more than get my basic cable.

But, I have since noticed advertisements from Comcast, scaring people about the upcoming switch to digital, stating 'if you know somebody without cable, be sure they sign up for cable before the switch so that they do not lose their signal." Now that is as much a lie (or theft of the truth as my mom would say) as those splitting signals for basic cable.

In addition to this, cable comanies chage an "HD" fee - even to those with basic cable. Put differently, cable comanies currently charge customers for something they already receive free over the air (remember, the broadcast spectrum belongs to all of us, not to any cable company) simply because they can - knowing ignorance is more prevalent than knowlege in this world. It is, nonethless, dishonest on the part of the cable company.

So taken together, the companies are are just as culpable of being dishonest as the people this article highlghts. For, with regard to both groups, their dishonest is a product of exploiting knowlege that they know the majority of the public does not have, and being okay with it.

[cabledudedude]

OK so let me get this straight. You always hear about how the cable companies are only responsible for the connections up to your house. Anything beyond that is your responsibility if it breaks or doesn't work, they don't come out and pay for it. Not to mention they are your cables located in your house. You even buy your cable modem these days and own it.

Now if the cable companies are sending a signal to "your house and to your wires" then how you split it inside your house and use it is up to you. They should have absolutely no say in it.

Now if you are out climbing the poles and splitting wires and stuff to get a free signal. That is obviously wrong.

But If i am paying them to send a cable signal into my house and it allows me to get internet, great. If I have a outlet that I own in my house and I plug my TV into it, and the cable company just happens to be also sending a signal to that plug, a signal that was connected by one of their employees or a tech they pay...well then tuff stuff I am going to let my TV receive the signal.

I am paying for the signal. And I will use the signal how ever I want while its in my house.

Plus now Time Warner doesn't even offer a basic cable package. You can get Digital Cable. You can get Internet. And you can get a bundle of both. I don't want or need all those channels. Besides they build in the price f the basic cable in the 50 dollars they charge for internet. And on my account online it even says "internet and cable" but I only asked for internet, if they give me free cable well Happy Birthday to me.

[clouds_N_waves]

There's no true way to tell the profit from Cable providers. If we use the signal piped into our homes or business for our own purposes and siphon off analog (or digital) signals for other purposes, is it hurting their profitability? Of course it is. Are they still going to make a profit? Of course they are. It's really an issue of ethics and nothing else. Besides ,if all the cable providers were to go "belly up", why wouldn't the government provide them with a huge bailout plan?