I am about to take the plunge in my next step of cutting the cable but I intend to do it by degrees. I’ve purchased two Apple TV4s and have been enjoying a Netflix subscription while cutting my Uverse to the “Family Plan” (second from the bottom). I’ve kept this because I have a “bundle” and, because of the bundling I receive unlimited data. If I “unbundle” data is capped at 600gig per month. My question is this. The Uverse box is connected by ethernet to the modem in the basement. I would like to keep this active as well as the Tablo I intend to purchase. Can I use an ethernet cable splitter to run ethernet to both the Uverse box and the Tablo, e.g. DIZA100 RJ45 CAT 5 6 LAN Ethernet Splitter Connector Adapter PC Dual Sockets-2PCS at Amazon? Or does anyone else have any other suggestions? I would like to run both Uverse and Tablo for a few months before making the decision to drop Uverse completely.
I would just get a cheap four or five port switch instead of a splitter. A switch will give full speed to each port (I have an 8 port switch that my Tablo is connected to with a Roku and several other devices). A splitter may be fine, but I trust switches more.
Don’t use a splitter. If I remember correct the splitters just use different pairs of the Ethernet cable and move them around so you can use one CAT 5/6 cable run with two devices. The downside to that would be that modern devices need all the pairs to get Gig speed on the lines. Using a splitter would most likely lock you to 100M max on the cable as you would only have two pairs instead of all four.
A cheap switch as @snowcat suggested is much better as you will have all pairs to all the devices and get full line speed.
Of course the Tablo units only do 100M and not Gig but other devices you have might support Gig.
There’s no such thing as an ethernet cable splitter. If the cable is actually running ethernet on it, you need to use a switch. That product is a cat-5/RJ-45 splitter, but it will break badly if both devices connected to it are turned on at the same time.
You can get a real switch for $10: https://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-5-Port-Ethernet-Desktop-TL-SF1005D/dp/B000FNFSPY
Or spend a little more and get gigabit: https://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-Gigabit-Ethernet-Desktop-TL-SG105/dp/B00A128S24