NTL Broadband + PS2 + xBox

prechaun

Hello everybody,

I am new to all this stuff and researched as much as i could. I was thinking about getting ntl bb and was just wondering about how i would be able to hook bb up to my playstation and my xbox(in seperate rooms) as well as my pc. I already have ntl cable in my house. I also have extra cable points installed in some rooms(origional point in the sitting room and one in each of the bedrooms).

Am i correct in sayin that they just run a coaxial cable from outside the house to where my pc is(upstairs in a bedroom). They then plug the coax into an external modem that they supply, and then into your pc? If this is correct, are the points i have installed already sufficient? Also, if i wanted to play playstation in one of the other bedrooms(with cable points) is this possible? And if I wanted to surf the net, play ps2, and play xbox, all at the same time in different rooms.....is this possible? Do I need a modem in each room? And with the pc connected to the ntl point........where can i plug my telly in?

Oh, and what type of modem is it? What capabilities does it have? What can i connect to it? If i have more than one pc in the room, can they both connect to this modem?

Thanks in advance

Mountjoy Mugger

I don't have NTL BB, but I'd imagine you would need Cat 5 cable rather than coax from your modem to PC/X-Box/PS2.

prechaun

Oh yeah, but can i have the modem in one room and cat 5 cables running from it into all the other rooms? And is there space in the modem to have them all plugged in at the same time? Or wud i have to be pluggin in and out all the time dependin on what i want to use?

The coax delivers your cable tv and internet to your house. The cable modem splits the "internet signal" from the rest and provides you with an internet connection. You will have to get a hub or a switch connected to your cable modem so you can share out the internet connection.
You will have to do this with ethernet/cat5 cable so unfortunatly it will involve running cabling to whereever you need to access the internet.

You might consider a wireless access point which would do away with the need to run cable every where.

prechaun

Thanks for all your help. So is having ntl points throughout the house no advantage except for having one already going to where the pc is? Also you say "The cable modem splits the "internet signal" from the rest and provides you with an internet connection." So the coax goes into the modem, yeah, so is there a connection to go from the modem on to the tv as well as the pc or can i simply not watch tv anymore in this room?

I'm not sure which way NTL has it setup as I'm not in their area. But if there is a second coax point or the cable modem provides one aswell as the one it uses you can use that for the telly.

prechaun

Ok, thanks. Does anybody know anything about the modem provided by ntl? As in, what connections etc are on it?

maxheadroom

The easiest way to think of it is that the cable internet service uses some of the channels on the TV not used for sending TV information. The cable modem is like a special kind of tuner which tunes into the internet channels and turns the TV signals into network traffic.

Now, you know the way if you have a dodgy bit of coax cable connecting your TV to the NTL point on the outside of you house it can impact your picture quality? Its the same for internet access - bad cable = bad connection. So if there is a cable point in the room you'd like to have broadband installed in already, the NTL guys will check to make sure that the cabling is good enough before they use it. If not, they'll either take a new cable drop from the ntl box on the outside of your house and run it to your modem point, or they'll run an extension from the original NTL point by your TV.

The cable modem isn't a pass through device like a VCR, so you can't share a cable point between your TV and modem. Its not advised to use something like a Y splitter to use both from the same point because it can introduce interference in the signal and reduce your signal levels.

The modem provided by ntl is an ntl rebranded (ntl: home 120) ambit cable modem. It has both ethernet and usb ports on it, but you can't use both at the same time. You'll be given windows USB driver if you ask for them, and linux users should use CDCEther (2.4 kernels) or usbnet (2.6 kernels).

If you've any more questions, by all means post them up and I'll try to answer them for you

prechaun

Thank you VERY much. Very helpfull indeed. When you say the modem "has both ethernet and usb ports on it" - do you mean it has one of each? As in you can connect one usb cable to your pc OR one ethernet cable to your pc or router etc? I assume you can aonnect it to a router?
And because I will want to be able to watch tv in the same room as the pc by what you're saying, surely they'll be obliged to run another cable up?(so as not to split the signal)
And if i connect the modem to a router is it then possible for me to connect extra devices to the router(extra pc, xbox, etc)?

Verdammt

One answer for ya:

Wireless, initial cost is more but worth it in the end. I have NTL BB and I've split it though a wireless Dlink router (thanks Wizzard!!) and I have a wireless card on my pc and the XBox connected directly to the router hub. It works a treat.

prechaun

hmmmmm......just one more question then. These wireless router thingys, i dont know much about them. Are they totally wireless except for power and the connection to the modem? Or can you have one peripheral wired to them as well, ie your xbox, or your main desktop that you mite position beside your router? And are all routers like this or is there some totally wireless?

maxheadroom

prechaun wrote:

Thank you VERY much. Very helpfull indeed. When you say the modem "has both ethernet and usb ports on it" - do you mean it has one of each? As in you can connect one usb cable to your pc OR one ethernet cable to your pc or router etc? I assume you can aonnect it to a router?

You're very welcome - I remember how frustrating it was trying to gather all this info 2 years ago

Yes - you can connect either with USB or ethernet. You can connect it to a router - I use one of these

prechaun wrote:

And because I will want to be able to watch tv in the same room as the pc by what you're saying, surely they'll be obliged to run another cable up?(so as not to split the signal)

Absolutely. The install guys are very good, very professional - you won't have any trouble with them.

prechaun wrote:

And if i connect the modem to a router is it then possible for me to connect extra devices to the router(extra pc, xbox, etc)?

Yes, but you'll have to deal with the fact that your devices won't be connected directly to the internet. Make sure your applications or consoles are ok with being beind NAT (Network Address Translation).

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips/ is a very handy site for all aspects of the ntl broadband service

prechaun

Thank you so much!

maxheadroom wrote:

Yes, but you'll have to deal with the fact that your devices won't be connected directly to the internet. Make sure your applications or consoles are ok with being beind NAT (Network Address Translation).

So if i have my cable modem wired to my wireless router, then my wireless router WIRED to my desktop, aswell, my wireless router connected wirelessly to say a laptop, you're sayin i wont be able to browse the internet on the laptop?
Excuse my lack of knowledge!

maxheadroom

prechaun wrote:

Thank you so much!



So if i have my cable modem wired to my wireless router, then my wireless router WIRED to my desktop, aswell, my wireless router connected wirelessly to say a laptop, you're sayin i wont be able to browse the internet on the laptop?
Excuse my lack of knowledge!

No - the router will share the net connection among all the clients connected to it. What will happen is, NTL will assign your router an IP address (something like 81.98.123.123) and the router will share that net connection among all your machines, which will have private IP addresses (like 192.168.1.100). So your machine's "public" adress really only gets as far as your router, not back to the individual machine connecting to the net. Some applications can have problems with this (servers especially), however, your router can usually be configured to minimise any issues you experience.

Do some reading on NAT and port forwarding - google is your friend

prechaun

Ok, thanks a million, again. After the three free months with ntl do you have to sign a 12 month contract or anything? Or can you cancel at anytime? Not that i will cancel, but just in case.....

maxheadroom

prechaun wrote:

Ok, thanks a million, again. After the three free months with ntl do you have to sign a 12 month contract or anything? Or can you cancel at anytime? Not that i will cancel, but just in case.....

I can't answer that - I sigend up long before these 3 month free trial shenanigans

Just give them a ring and ask - although you should be prepared for a long wait - their call queues are legendary...