How does NTL connect the cable?

Steve

I'm looking at broadband and considering NTL:eek: (Rathfarnham area)

I've searched here and the opinion seems to be NTL = good product / terrible customer service but I think ditching the eircom phone line and going for VOIP will justify it as I already have NTL basic cable.

My question is:
The NTL cable enters the house in the under-stairs cupboard - originally a single point connection to the living room.
As the house was pre-wired with coax, I put in a satellite splitter and connected up the rest of the rooms (the wires were all in the box, I just put connectors on them).

So what happens if I order their broadband - where do they connect it?
Do I need a cat5 from there to the PC?
Will they disconnect the feeds to the other rooms?

Pete67

They usually put a splitter at the point where their cable meets yours, and then run a co-ax from there to the location of your PC, and terminate it with a standard TV/FM wall box. The cable modem is connected to the TV outlet using a short co-ax with F-type connectors. The modem can be connected to your PC using either ethernet (CAT5) or USB. Go for ethernet if you can, ethernet networking protocols are far more mature than USB. Also makes it easier to add a router later if you want to.

They usually run the cable outside the house to avoid unsightly internal runs.

In your case, if you have a co-ax cable running somewhere close to your PC, you can ask them to use that rather than run a new cable. You might want to temporarily remove all the other cables from the splitter at point of entry, they might not approve!

Steve

Thanks pete.

There's a coax running to near the PC - does this mean it can't be used as a TV point any more if they put the cable box there?

Pete67

I've seen one case where they put a splitter at the wall box and ran two cables from it - one to the TV and a second to the cable modem. The cables were clipped to the top of the skirting board, and to be honest it looked terrible.

It would also mean having two splitters in series which might attenuate the signal to the point where the picture quality is reduced or the modem cannot synch with NTLs downstream signal.

bk

stevec wrote: »

There's a coax running to near the PC - does this mean it can't be used as a TV point any more if they put the cable box there?

Yes, that means it can't be used as a Sat TV point any more, but there maybe a way around it.

There is a possibility that you can get something to combine the Sat signal and NTL cable BB signal on one end and split it out again at the other end, something like this:
http://www.satellite.ie/acatalog/Satellite_UHF_VHF_Cable_Combiner.html

But you should probably ask over on the Cable TV and Sat forums, where many experts on this sort of thing hang out.

Steve

Thanks guys.

I might just go for a wireless router and save the hassle.

Are these easy to secure against piggybacking?

guil

dont use wep if ur gonna go for wireless use wpa

Frizzaldo

Hi guys, a question along a similar line. Where can i get a coaxial cable with the threaded connector on one end similar to the white one NTL use to connect their box to the connection point in the wall?
Is that (threaded)connector the male or the female? I presume the other end is the opposite gender?
Is there a name for this cable?

IrlJidel

Frizzaldo wrote: »

Hi guys, a question along a similar line. Where can i get a coaxial cable with the threaded connector on one end similar to the white one NTL use to connect their box to the connection point in the wall?

maplins is probably your best bet, but most hardware shops should have them.

I got a 3meter in alpha bargains on Thomas Street for E3.50.

Is that (threaded)connector the male or the female? I presume the other end is the opposite gender? Is there a name for this cable?

It's a male F connector on one end and a standard coax TV connector on the other end.

http://www.cables.ie/audio---video-cables/tv-aerial-cables/p39_f-plug-to-coax-plug.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_connector