Splitting a sat feed

[MKD]

I have Direct TV

OK...I TRIED to split the feed coming from my dish and was going to run the cable to my Mother-In-Law's living room. As soon as I put the splitter into the circuit my signal went to ZERO!!! I am wondering if the Direct TV Box senses the drop in signal strength and just shuts down! As soon as I took the splitter out of the circuit and just used a bullet splice...signal came right back. WTF???

For the record...the box in my Mother-in-laws is active but the run from her dish would have been long and from mine it would have only been 20 ft.
I am wondering if I have to run a separate cable all the way from the dish to the box. OR...can I run a setup routine and make MY boxhappy with a little weaker signal!

I ALWAYS ran my own cable when I had CABLE, now I have satelite...are things THAT much different???

Thanks!

[bonoquo]

Good to see some old names. Excellent question, have you tried to run a seperate line from the lnb? like one from 110 and other from like 118 ect. strait to mother's ird? is that lnbs are dual or single, been long time.