Getting NTL Installed on 7th Sept - need advice for my electrician

Hey All!

On 7th Sept I'm getting NTL installed with TV, 10MB Internet + Phone.
I've just bought this house and I'm doing everything up i.e. I have the
luxury of having an electrician wire in a bunch of cat 6 patches
between the rooms etc.

It's clearly obvious to me where NTL will install their service i.e.
they will drill a hole in a certain place in my lounge (not where my TV
is) and I don't want them to tack their 75ohm co-ax around my living
room skirting board (who would).

Therefore; I have asked my electrician to fit a female F-TYPE (SMA)
socket for them to wire their service into. Then another couple of
female sockets which will patch their service from their entry point to
the area where my TV is.

So obviously my assumption is that they just come into the house with
one piece of 75ohm co-ax and an F-TYPE socket. Is this correct? The
problem is; after a lot of research I see comments like this "NTL
typically tend to use F-TYPE sockets". Well do they or not?

I really would like to see some technical schematic of how this works
and what components will I receive from NTL (with what connections).
Assuming I have one piece of cable coming in, where does that get
forked out into Television (STB), Telephone and Cable Modem (Internet)?


I intend to just use their supplied stuff, and I'm wishing their
internet service is in the form of a DHCP-powered Ethernet socket and
not a USB jobbie (because with Ethernet I have wall sockets to patch it
back to my PC area). The electrician is doing the work next week and
after the plaster goes on it's too late to run cables so please let me
know as soon as possible!!

Is the engineer going to be open to this kind of thing?

Many Thanks,

Tim Scarfe
http://www.dotnetsolutions.ltd.uk

On 26 Aug 2006 15:04:48 -0700, wrote:

Hey All!

On 7th Sept I'm getting NTL installed with TV, 10MB Internet + Phone.
I've just bought this house and I'm doing everything up i.e. I have the
luxury of having an electrician wire in a bunch of cat 6 patches
between the rooms etc.

It's clearly obvious to me where NTL will install their service i.e.
they will drill a hole in a certain place in my lounge (not where my TV
is) and I don't want them to tack their 75ohm co-ax around my living
room skirting board (who would).

Therefore; I have asked my electrician to fit a female F-TYPE (SMA)
socket for them to wire their service into. Then another couple of
female sockets which will patch their service from their entry point to
the area where my TV is.

So obviously my assumption is that they just come into the house with
one piece of 75ohm co-ax and an F-TYPE socket. Is this correct? The
problem is; after a lot of research I see comments like this "NTL
typically tend to use F-TYPE sockets". Well do they or not?

I really would like to see some technical schematic of how this works
and what components will I receive from NTL (with what connections).
Assuming I have one piece of cable coming in, where does that get
forked out into Television (STB), Telephone and Cable Modem (Internet)?


I intend to just use their supplied stuff, and I'm wishing their
internet service is in the form of a DHCP-powered Ethernet socket and
not a USB jobbie (because with Ethernet I have wall sockets to patch it
back to my PC area). The electrician is doing the work next week and
after the plaster goes on it's too late to run cables so please let me
know as soon as possible!!

Is the engineer going to be open to this kind of thing?

Many Thanks,

Tim Scarfe
http://www.dotnetsolutions.ltd.uk

I'm not with NTL anymore (I moved house & there's no cable here) but
when I had TV & broadband, they just put a splitter in the coax & one
lead went off to the modem (all F-type connectors).

Marky P.

On 26 Aug 2006 15:04:48 -0700, wrote:

Have the electrician put down a grid of two-foot-square metal plates
on your floor, isolated from one-another and connected alternately to
live and neutral in a chequer-board pattern. When NTL turn up, tell
them that, due to your religious beliefs, any strangers in the house
must go barefoot.

That should sort the *******s out.

Cheers,

Colin.

Colin Stamp wrote:
On 26 Aug 2006 15:04:48 -0700, wrote:

Have the electrician put down a grid of two-foot-square metal plates
on your floor, isolated from one-another and connected alternately to
live and neutral in a chequer-board pattern. When NTL turn up, tell
them that, due to your religious beliefs, any strangers in the house
must go barefoot.

That should sort the *******s out.

Cheers,

Colin.

Dear Colin,

Thanks for your reply - I almost fell of the chair when I read it!

While Sky seems to be the obvious choice for digital television
entertainment in the home; I'm in the unfortunate predicament of owning
a leasehold property with covenants specifically denying the erection
of satellite dishes on the exterior of it. Slightly unfortunate I'm
sure you'll agree!

I've been a happy Sky customer for years now but now flirting with the
devil!

To be honest I really don't mind the thought of 10MB broad band and
apparently next year at some point they will have a decent PVR/HD
offering on the TV side of things. We can but hope...

So looks like it's definitely 75 ohm co-ax with F-TYPE/SMA
connectivity. Any challenges to that?

I'm now assuming they split the cable three ways i.e. for Phone box,
Internet Cable Modem and STB; all three devices take SMA/F-TYPE in and
job's a good'un. In which case I should be laughing

Regards - Tim Scarfe

wrote in message
ups.com...
Colin Stamp wrote:
On 26 Aug 2006 15:04:48 -0700, wrote:

Have the electrician put down a grid of two-foot-square metal plates
on your floor, isolated from one-another and connected alternately to
live and neutral in a chequer-board pattern. When NTL turn up, tell
them that, due to your religious beliefs, any strangers in the house
must go barefoot.

That should sort the *******s out.

Cheers,

Colin.

Dear Colin,

Thanks for your reply - I almost fell of the chair when I read it!

While Sky seems to be the obvious choice for digital television
entertainment in the home; I'm in the unfortunate predicament of owning
a leasehold property with covenants specifically denying the erection
of satellite dishes on the exterior of it. Slightly unfortunate I'm
sure you'll agree!

I've been a happy Sky customer for years now but now flirting with the
devil!

To be honest I really don't mind the thought of 10MB broad band and
apparently next year at some point they will have a decent PVR/HD
offering on the TV side of things. We can but hope...

So looks like it's definitely 75 ohm co-ax with F-TYPE/SMA
connectivity. Any challenges to that?

I'm now assuming they split the cable three ways i.e. for Phone box,
Internet Cable Modem and STB; all three devices take SMA/F-TYPE in and
job's a good'un. In which case I should be laughing


No, the phone is a separate twisted-pair cable, and can have a different
entry point to your property.
--

Graham.
%Profound_observation%

No, the phone is a separate twisted-pair cable, and can have a different
entry point to your property.

Thanks for the tip Graham,

How is this generally wired into the house? Do they mount a BT style
female phone socket up on the top of the skirting board?

Again can I set up a socket in preparation for this?

trs

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hey All!

On 7th Sept I'm getting NTL installed with TV, 10MB Internet + Phone.
I've just bought this house and I'm doing everything up i.e. I have the
luxury of having an electrician wire in a bunch of cat 6 patches
between the rooms etc.

It's clearly obvious to me where NTL will install their service i.e.
they will drill a hole in a certain place in my lounge (not where my TV
is) and I don't want them to tack their 75ohm co-ax around my living
room skirting board (who would).

Therefore; I have asked my electrician to fit a female F-TYPE (SMA)
socket for them to wire their service into. Then another couple of
female sockets which will patch their service from their entry point to
the area where my TV is.

So obviously my assumption is that they just come into the house with
one piece of 75ohm co-ax and an F-TYPE socket. Is this correct? The
problem is; after a lot of research I see comments like this "NTL
typically tend to use F-TYPE sockets". Well do they or not?

I really would like to see some technical schematic of how this works
and what components will I receive from NTL (with what connections).
Assuming I have one piece of cable coming in, where does that get
forked out into Television (STB), Telephone and Cable Modem (Internet)?


I intend to just use their supplied stuff, and I'm wishing their
internet service is in the form of a DHCP-powered Ethernet socket and
not a USB jobbie (because with Ethernet I have wall sockets to patch it
back to my PC area). The electrician is doing the work next week and
after the plaster goes on it's too late to run cables so please let me
know as soon as possible!!

Is the engineer going to be open to this kind of thing?

Many Thanks,

Tim Scarfe
http://www.dotnetsolutions.ltd.uk

If you call NTL they will do a site survey first. They just come and have a
nose around, then you can lock the man in until he answers all the
questions.
They bring a single coax in to the house and put an ugly white box on the
wall for VHF and TV output. You need to put your patch lead from their box
in to your new F type wall socket, then run a patch lead from the socket on
the other side of the room to their TV box. The phone wire could go
anywhere, they will put the socket wherever you want it. So if it is by the
TV/VHF box they stick on the wall you could get a lead to go from the master
socket to a CAT6 socket and again use that as an extension.
If they supply just a TV box it depends on what speed it is. If it's
nothing fancy you will just hook up a network cable from the TV box to the
computer, some need a crossover adapter - it will say on the box. Use a
crossover adapter or cross over network cable if required. If it is a
standalone modem it will probably be USB unless they link them up with
network cables now.

For some real advice go to www.chetnet.co.uk and the people that run it
actually work for NTL and give decent advice. Sign up in the forum and post
away.

The message
from "John k" john contains these words:

====snip====

For some real advice go to www.chetnet.co.uk and the people that run it
actually work for NTL and give decent advice. Sign up in the forum
and post
away.

Does that "decent advice" include: "If you can use the ethernet port on
your PC, you can cook the NTL crapware CD in the Microwave for 5 seconds
before slinging it straight into the bin." ?

--
Regards, John.

Please remove the "ohggcyht" before replying.
The address has been munged to reject Spam-bots.

wrote in message
ups.com...
No, the phone is a separate twisted-pair cable, and can have a different
entry point to your property.

Thanks for the tip Graham,

How is this generally wired into the house? Do they mount a BT style
female phone socket up on the top of the skirting board?

Again can I set up a socket in preparation for this?

trs

The cable delivered to your property consists of coax with twisted-pair
cable attached. This will run from the street access usually under your
garden (buried about 6 inches in plastic conduit). When it reaches your
property they will mount an omnibox on your wall and your services will run
off from there. If you have a gable wall, try and get them to tuck the
omnibox away on the side for cosmetic reasons.

The maximum number of services for the co-ax is usually 3, although some
people have more, this includes your broadband modem. As you are having
phone, TV and broadband, they will ask you where in the house you want them
installing. All 3 will run off from the omnibox on the outside of the house
to their respective points of entry. TV and broadband via black co-ax,
phone via black twisted-pair. All 3 could enter different rooms, if this is
what you require. If you wish you could ask for one cable to enter at one
point and have the co-ax split inside.

Inside you will have one standard phone socket at the location of your
choice. The sockets on your wall for the TV and broadband will contain the
female f-type connector. Both the stb and modem will be served by white
co-ax with f-type plugs on both ends.

The only other thing to add is that this was my experience with Telewest but
I am told that NTL install in the same way.

"BJ" wrote in message
.uk...

wrote in message
ups.com...
No, the phone is a separate twisted-pair cable, and can have a different
entry point to your property.

Thanks for the tip Graham,

How is this generally wired into the house? Do they mount a BT style
female phone socket up on the top of the skirting board?

Again can I set up a socket in preparation for this?

trs

The cable delivered to your property consists of coax with twisted-pair
cable attached. This will run from the street access usually under your
garden (buried about 6 inches in plastic conduit). When it reaches your
property they will mount an omnibox on your wall and your services will
run off from there. If you have a gable wall, try and get them to tuck the
omnibox away on the side for cosmetic reasons.

The maximum number of services for the co-ax is usually 3, although some
people have more, this includes your broadband modem. As you are having
phone, TV and broadband, they will ask you where in the house you want
them installing. All 3 will run off from the omnibox on the outside of the
house to their respective points of entry. TV and broadband via black
co-ax, phone via black twisted-pair. All 3 could enter different rooms, if
this is what you require. If you wish you could ask for one cable to enter
at one point and have the co-ax split inside.

Inside you will have one standard phone socket at the location of your
choice. The sockets on your wall for the TV and broadband will contain the
female f-type connector. Both the stb and modem will be served by white
co-ax with f-type plugs on both ends.

The only other thing to add is that this was my experience with Telewest
but I am told that NTL install in the same way.

Also, the cable modem can be attached to your PC via Ethernet or USB, but of
course you will be using Ethernet.