Going cable - what to expect?

kwikbreaks

Only just moved to a cabled area so I've never seen a cable installation or had any experience of one. I'm getting 20Mbps broadband and phone.

A few questions which I hope folks can kindly answer....

Any boxes outside?
Boxes inside?
Is modem separate box from the supplied wireless router?
Any idea what model wireless router is being supplied for 20Mbps?
I'm having my phone number transferred - is this instant or is there a period you can't be called?
I'm guessing it's a dynamic IP - correct?

TIA.

dylanuk

Any boxes outside?

Yes - it's about a foot tall by half a foot wide, light grey to off-white ish colour, will probably be fairly close to the ground.

Boxes inside?

You'll have a small tiny box to connect to the cable TV / broadband. Depending how well they install this, it's likely to be dangling slightly from your wall.

You'll also have another master phone socket. Although depending on your installers they may nick your BT master socket (they're not suppose to though).

Is modem separate box from the supplied wireless router?

Yeah - you have a cable modem, and then you connect this to a wireless router.

Any idea what model wireless router is being supplied for 20Mbps?

Not sure - but it won't be the wireless 'N' router as that comes with 50Mb only.

I don't know the answers to the other two questions!

kwikbreaks

Thanks for that. I'd spotted some boxes on other properties and guessed they were maybe for cable so now I know that they are.

I think I found the answer to the IP myself - most answers on the web suggest it is a dynamic IP but "sticky" (you usually get the same one) - this isn't all that important to me - I was just curious.

So that leaves the phone number transfer one - can anybody answer that one please?

Oh and the router but that will need to be someone who's only just got it I expect.

Rufus_348

Your phone service shouldn't be affected too much by the switch - when I moved to Virgin we had to wait a few hours but that was it. That was a few years ago now but I assume it's still the same.

According to the Virgin website you should get the N router with XL, I guess they changed it recently: http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/broadband/wireless.html

kwikbreaks

Thanks.

Good to hear that the phone changeover won't take too long.

I'd only looked at the stuff on the cashback site linked to from MSE which I signed up through which only show a black router for 50Mbps and what looks like a Netgear for L and XL but the official VM site certainly shows that N one on all the packages.

After digging around via google it seems they were dishing out the D-Link DIR615 but that isn't all black. I guess I'll find out for sure when it gets installed on May 7th - the same day that President Clegg gets crowned if you believe the BBC.

spike7451

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Only just moved to a cabled area so I've never seen a cable installation or had any experience of one. I'm getting 20Mbps broadband and phone.

A few questions which I hope folks can kindly answer....

Any boxes outside?
Boxes inside?
Is modem separate box from the supplied wireless router?
Any idea what model wireless router is being supplied for 20Mbps?
I'm having my phone number transferred - is this instant or is there a period you can't be called?
I'm guessing it's a dynamic IP - correct?

TIA.

Kwik,
If the has not been any cabling installed before in the home,an install goes as follow,
Crew arive & set up pit guards,they then pull a drop cable from the street cabinet to your fron wall,they then drill thru that & run the cable up the garden by either splicing the grass or sawing a cut up the length of any tarmac or cement,this is then re-instated.
Where the cable comes to your house wall,they affix a box,about the size of a large video cassette box to the front of the house.This is the ETB.
(if you are an on-street terrace house,the above is'nt done & instead of fitting an ETB,the connections are made of inside.)
In the ETB,the connections from the external drop cable for phone & tv/bband are made off,a splitter is fitted on the TV line if the bband is'nt going in the same place as the TV.this is done by passing internal CATV & Telco out to the ETB.
Inside the house,an wall mounted Isolator is fitted & a line ran from that to the TV,if the bband is going in a different room,a CATV feed is ran from the ETB,Externally to the room where it's going an another Isolator is fitted.
For the Telco,the internal telco cable can either be ran internally to the existing BT phone point,or externally.Or it can be fitted whereever you want if the is'nt an existing BT point.
Some franchises run the bband off the TV STB,how it's ran from there to the PC,I dont know as we dont use that method over here.The modem that's fitted is a blur NTL250/300.
The crew should ALWAYS agree the cabling route with you before work commences!
If you're here in N.I & you have any problems,gimme a PM as I know the installs manager.(he used to be my supervisor when I was a CableTel installer many,many moons ago.
Any further questions,feel free to PM me.

HTH,
Spike (Ex NTL/VM Service Engineer)

kwikbreaks

Thanks for the info Spike.

I hadn't realised that there was no cable already going to the little access point outside - makes sense not to I guess until needed.

I'll be there when the job gets done so can make sure stuff ends up where I want it. I'll see what options they offer for routing as we have a small front garden which is entirely block paved.One possible problem later is that the main gas pipes are being replaced all along the road and into the houses so I hope those blokes don't dig up the cable.

I hope I haven't dropped a clanger - I just got brassed off with the noisy phone.

spike7451

If it's block paviers,then a channel of these are normally lifted,normally the edging course.