We have Comcast cable for our internet which is piped via a bunch of Airports around the house.
When we are within about 20 feet of the actual cable modem (and hence the Airport base station), our internet speeds are excellent (5-7 MBPS). In our TV/rec room which is down a floor the speed is not so hot. I've tried changing the location of the Airport Express base stations with no luck.

Here's my stupid Q. Can I take the cable modem and use the same cable that goes into our TV simply by adding a Y-splitter? Does the bandwidth work out OK like this or will my HDTV get compromised and the cable modem malfunction?

Sorry to ask but it's been bugging me!

 

You should have enough signal strength to support a 2-way splitter in your TV room assuming you have no problems currently with signal strength on the TV. If you encounter issues, you should let Comcast know since a single splitter should not cause much loss.

 

Thanks,...I'll mess with it tomorrow.

 

I dont use macs, so you may need to research exactly how to do this on a airport, but run a wifi spectrum analyzer and see which channel your wifi network is as opposed to others around you (neighbors, etc). If everyone is on the same channel, you'll get interference, which will be particularly detrimental to performance the farther you are away from the AP.

Change your wifi network to channel 1, 6 or 11, whichever has the fewest other networks.

I would advise against a splitter, every time i wire in a splitter into digital cable lines the PPV and on demand stuff works intermittantly at best.