What will the engineer do

flurdy · 03-12-2003, 12:31

I am having an ntl engineer comming round next week to install bb and tv for me.

I am just wondering what the engineer actually will do?
What is he told he can do?
What equipment would he have available?
What extras do they sometimes do?

The house already has a ntl cable box on one side of the lounge wall.

My TV is on the other side of the lounge of where the original connection box is. and my puta is upstairs.

Will he just plug the stb into the box and stretch a cable straight across the lounge to the tv?
or will he lay it round the wall and door frames?
or will he redrill another hole closer to the tv, but still need to get over door frame?

As for the internet will he just plug in the sacm and say its all yours ?
or will he lay cables up the stairs to the router upstairs?
or will he drill upstairs?

As for the phone will he touch it? drill an extension line upstairs?

Is there anything I should check before he arrives? Or anything I should ask when he arrives?

Nemesis · 03-12-2003, 12:57

Firstly welcome to the Forum

Quote:

Originally Posted by flurdy

I am having an ntl engineer comming round next week to install bb and tv for me.

Yay, just before Christmas too

Quote:

Originally Posted by flurdy

I am just wondering what the engineer actually will do?
What is he told he can do?
What equipment would he have available?
What extras do they sometimes do?

They generally carry everything they need for a full install

Quote:

Originally Posted by flurdy

The house already has a ntl cable box on one side of the lounge wall.

My TV is on the other side of the lounge of where the original connection box is. and my puta is upstairs.

Will he just plug the stb into the box and stretch a cable straight across the lounge to the tv?
or will he lay it round the wall and door frames?
or will he redrill another hole closer to the tv, but still need to get over door frame?

Remember, this is your house, he should follow your instructions as to how/where you want things, but will obviously offer advice too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by flurdy

As for the internet will he just plug in the sacm and say its all yours ?
or will he lay cables up the stairs to the router upstairs?
or will he drill upstairs?

The router is not a piece of NTL equipment, so will not cable to it, but will cable to the PC (he might if he's a decent chap). They should also give you an installation pack for BB, but you don't really need it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by flurdy

As for the phone will he touch it? drill an extension line upstairs?

If you haven't ordered phone ... No he won't, if you have he will do the main box only ... you will have to do the extensions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by flurdy

Is there anything I should check before he arrives? Or anything I should ask when he arrives?

Get it sorted in your head where you want things installed to, and where you want cable runs to go. Other than that, let us know how it goes. Any probs, I'm sure we can help you out.

paulyoung666 · 03-12-2003, 13:20

and dont forget to get the kettle on and the choccie bikkies out

Dooby · 03-12-2003, 13:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

and dont forget to get the kettle on and the choccie bikkies out

tbh, this cant be stressed enough... I have found you get a pretty good response from the techs that come round for installs and/or repairs if you offer them a cuppa the moment they walk through the door, even if they turn it down, it kind of sets the tone...

Flubflow · 03-12-2003, 13:37

Expect the unexpected. That might sound a bit glib but I remember my installation (upgrade). I was on the old analogue cable TV and Broadband ("original" NTL area previously Comcast). When I upgraded to Digital TV they couldn't get both the TV and BB working at the same time and in the end they had to pull a new cable of a better spec through from the box on house to the street and then to the cabinet down the road. They had started the installtion in the early afternoon and they didn't leave till around 7pm. They were going to leave me without any service until the next day but I said no (unless they were going give me a refund/compensation).
Oh and to add insult to injury, the digital STB remote interfered with the remote on the TV set so I had to tape over sensor on the TV.

SMHarman · 03-12-2003, 13:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by flurdy

<snip>
The house already has a ntl cable box on one side of the lounge wall.

My TV is on the other side of the lounge of where the original connection box is. and my puta is upstairs.

Will he just plug the stb into the box and stretch a cable straight across the lounge to the tv?
or will he lay it round the wall and door frames?
or will he redrill another hole closer to the tv, but still need to get over door frame?
<snip>

So there are two cable access points already in your living room?

They will run the cable as you want / they suggest. The ones I have had have done a very neat job. For example it may be neater to go round the skirting of three walls than over the door frame of one wall, the cable does not take right angles well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by flurdy

<snip>
<snip>
As for the internet will he just plug in the sacm and say its all yours ?
or will he lay cables up the stairs to the router upstairs?
or will he drill upstairs?
<snip>

I would expect that he puts (are there any female installers?) another termination point upstairs near your computer, he will then connect this to the SACM and test the SACM communication. It is usually your responsibility to install software on your PC and get the router up and running.

Quote:

Originally Posted by flurdy

<snip>

As for the phone will he touch it? drill an extension line upstairs?

<snip>

Ask nicely (the tea and biscuits help here). If he is running coax up to that room anyway, then putting siamese coax in its place and an additional phone socket is not a great deal extra work. Generally it will just be reconnected to the original NTL master socket. They cannot touch the BT master sockets as they are owned by BT!

to the wonderful world of NTL tv and broadband. Personally mine works well 99% of the time, I'd just like to plug a sky+ type box into it!

Ramrod · 03-12-2003, 14:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by SMHarman

the wonderful world of NTL tv and broadband. Personally mine works well 99% of the time, I'd just like to plug a sky+ type box into it!

Me too!

**Chris** · 03-12-2003, 14:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by SMHarman

Generally it will just be reconnected to the original NTL master socket. They cannot touch the BT master sockets as they are owned by BT!

This didn't stop the engineer who did my install offering to 'convert' the BT socket into an ntl one. I said 'no' with one eye on eventually selling the house as both fully BT- and NTL-ready, as I had no idea that would be illegal.

As for where they'll put cable - should be anywhere you ask them. Don't take any moopoo like 'we can't go there because it's on the opposite side of the house to the box'. I live in a terrace; the guy refused to sling cable over the roof and he refused to run it through the loft (in case he caused damage and got sued). He left me 'enough' cable to run it up the wall, through the ceiling, across the loft and down into my spare room, which turned out to be nowhere near enough. I queued on to CS for an hour to ask them to send him back with more cable. He did come back that afternoon, but I'm certain that was only because he left one of his tools behind at my house.

flurdy · 03-12-2003, 15:55

Cheers, Thanks for all the responses so far.

As I dont drink tea or coffee, looks like I have to practice my tea/coffee skills. Dont suppose he'll accept beer? ( I am assuming it will be a bloke. I may be wrong.)

So its sounds like he will run a cable from the box along skirting board and door( the other way would be more complicated) to the STB.

And possible another up the wall to study for the SACM. (Does SACM have to go via STBs, or is there a hint in the "Stand Alone" bit?). From there on to the PC or router Ill take care of it. Not much change from my old Pipex connection.

And if I ask nicely he could slap the phone line along it too. Reusing the bt sockets upstairs would be a bonus. If he is not allowed to touch them, am I?

In time I was planning to run tv & ethernet coaxes all around the house (perhaps not to the bathroom), so will i need to redrill, widen the holes he makes? Or will he use some sort of conduits? Obviously I would make other holes to other rooms myself.

Neil · 03-12-2003, 16:18

Why not just get a wireless router?

flurdy · 03-12-2003, 16:44

That would meen buying new router and cards when i already got all the other gear.

Had the wireless or not discussion/argument loads of times with collegues and friends. Speed, cost, interference, radiation was most of the issues. Although 'g' standard and cheaper prices has made it more attractive. My mates tales of being in bed till lunch working on his laptop is interesting, but then I dont have a laptop and work demands me being there at 9am.

Anyway it is mostly the TV signals from arial, ntl box, video i want to ship around. Although now there are some wireless option for that as well, but i prefer good old coax.

th'engineer · 03-12-2003, 16:51

The best way is under the floor boards if its in manchester. Some of the crews may do this. i already had a string going from the rear of the STB to the other room. They just tied on the cable and pulled it through far better than running round the skirting Board.
Another thing which series of STB do you have if its not a 2000 you may be with us on this forum for quite some time

**Chris** · 03-12-2003, 16:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by th'engineer

The best way is under the floor boards if its in manchester.

Why, what's special about floorboards in Manchester?

th'engineer · 03-12-2003, 16:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by towny

Why, what's special about floorboards in Manchester?

Understand that not all crews will do this, but some will and manc floorboards have to be special rain proof

BTW forgot something Install Crews and Techs not Engineers

SMHarman · 03-12-2003, 17:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by flurdy

Cheers, Thanks for all the responses so far.

As I dont drink tea or coffee, looks like I have to practice my tea/coffee skills. Dont suppose he'll accept beer? ( I am assuming it will be a bloke. I may be wrong.)

So its sounds like he will run a cable from the box along skirting board and door( the other way would be more complicated) to the STB.

And possible another up the wall to study for the SACM. (Does SACM have to go via STBs, or is there a hint in the "Stand Alone" bit?). From there on to the PC or router Ill take care of it. Not much change from my old Pipex connection.

And if I ask nicely he could slap the phone line along it too. Reusing the bt sockets upstairs would be a bonus. If he is not allowed to touch them, am I?

In time I was planning to run tv & ethernet coaxes all around the house (perhaps not to the bathroom), so will i need to redrill, widen the holes he makes? Or will he use some sort of conduits? Obviously I would make other holes to other rooms myself.

SACM uses its own separate coax, not the one to the STB. So in my install I have 3 coax coming from the external grey box, running neatly round the outside of the house to the SACM and two STBs

Should be able to run a phone socket up there too. You will be able to connect your extension phone sockets into the NTL system (having disconnected them from the BT one), its just that first socket connected to the BT network that is theirs. Normally it has a two piece front.