@lilyput1970 -- I have Ethernet ports in my wall. I’m in a brand new house as a renter.
Important question: is the door to that metal box locked (by Shaw), or can you open it up, to see a lot of cables? If the former, you'll need a Shaw technician to unlock it, and change some connections for you. If the latter, you can try "self-install" -- below.
I presume that the owner of the house created a "wiring closet" -- namely that "metal box", where Shaw's coaxial cable comes in from the nearest telephone-pole, and then ran lengths of Ethernet cable out of that wiring closet through the walls (before the framed-up walls were covered by drywall panels) to terminate at Ethernet wall-ports in some rooms in your unit.
It seems that the owner also ran lengths of coaxial-cable out of that wiring closet to terminate at coaxial wall-ports in some rooms in your unit, because you have had some success connecting the Shaw cable-modem to coaxial wall-outlets in some of your rooms.
> I have no clue how to make these live connections. I have cat5 cables in a metal box where I can see the cable coming in. I have a Shaw modem in my dining room on floor above. How do I make the connections in my wall have signal from the box in the basement? Is it as simple as buying a router and connecting it to the cables downstairs?
You should buy & use a one-to-two coaxial splitter, splitting the incoming (to the metal box) coaxial-cable's signal in "half". Connect one of those two coaxial outputs of the splitter to your Shaw cable-modem (yes, move the Shaw cable-modem to this location and power it on).
If your unit has many rooms with Ethernet wall-outlets, and many Ethernet cables "incoming" to the wiring closet, use an Ethernet cable in one room to connect that room's Ethernet wall-outlet to your computer, and power-on your computer. At this time, connect only *ONE* computer to an Ethernet wall-port -- leave all the other Ethernet wall-outlets "unplugged". Then, go back to the cable-modem. Unplug all the Ethernet cables from the cable-modem. Pick one of the many "incoming" Ethernet cables, and connect it to an Ethernet port on the cable-modem. If a few of the modem's lamps turn on (either "solid" or "blinking") you have picked the correct Ethernet cable to make a connection to your computer. If no lamps have changed, disconnect that Ethernet cable, and tag it as "tested-but-failed-to-connect". Pick a different "incoming" Ethernet cable, and repeat the "connect-and-check-and-label" process, as necessary. Label the "good" cable with the name you have given to the room where your computer currently is located, then unplug it. Move your computer, and its Ethernet cable, to a different room, and repeat the above process with all those "tested-but-failed-to-connect" cables, and test any Ethernet cables that you did not test the first time.
[Note that the other "half" of the above "one-to-two" coaxial splitter output should go to a "one-to-many" coaxial splitter. You probably already have such a splitter inside the metal box. Connect any "incoming" coaxial-cables to this "one-to-many" splitter, to allow you to put a Shaw PVR into one of the rooms.]
> I have Shaw Pods to extend the signal, but there is a dead zone in one part of my house regardless of what I do.
Leave the Shaw cable-modem connected at the wiring-closet. Note that putting it "inside" that "metal box" will reduce the strength of its WiFi adapter. So, take care where you place the cable-modem.
If you have two Pods, and there are two rooms (or floors) between the wiring closet and your "dead zone", place one Pod in one of those "middle" rooms (floors), and the other Pod in the other one of those "middle" rooms (floors). Then, the WiFi signal from the cable-modem will be "relayed", twice, until it reaches that "dead zone".
Note that you could purchase a third-party WiFi-capable router in any room, and connect to the Ethernet wall-port, and configure the WiFi setup on this router, to give WiFi to any devices (iPhone, iPad, Smart-TV) in the room (or in an immediately-adjacent room).
> Shaw Support has been no help at all! in fact they told me to “put the modem closer to the device and then plug into the modem. Duh.
My suggestion, above, is to put the Shaw modem into the wiring-closet, and use Ethernet (not WiFi) to reach the many rooms. Shaw suggested to move their modem to the "geographic-centre" of your unit, and use Pods to extend the cable-modem's WiFi to other rooms.
Good luck!
