virgin first time installation queries

[craigj2k12]

hi.

im going to be having my cable installed in a couple of weeks, my house doesnt already have cable so one will need to be put in.

iv done some routing around on the internet for the answer to these questions but i was unsure of the answers as most of them were from ntl and telewest days and i thought things were probably different nowadays:

1. will vm do any digging or will this be left for me?

2. where does the cable come from? do they have to take up the pavement?

3. i will only be having broadband and phone, will a new phone line be put in or just use the bt one?

4. as above ill only be having bb and phone, iv read having splitters can affect broadband quality and the little box on the outside of the house (i think it was called an electro something) also affected noise on the connection. am i to tell the install guy not to have any of these things?

thanks for your help

[Rob]

VM's install team should do any digging necessary. Usually it only needs to be a slit trench to bury a green corrugated plastic hose of about 1.5" diameter about a spade depth. Normally that can be run around down a flower bed, under a lawn, etc. Drives and paths are more of a challenge.

The street pavement should already be ducted. At the boundary to your property there should be a "T" point. Normally a small plastic circular or triangular plug.

The installers will pull one continuous cable from the cabinet in the street, via the street pavement duct to the front of your house via the green hose they lay. There will be a small box mounted on the front of your house where the cable will terminate. From that box the installers will run cable to the inside of your house where your modem and phone will be installed.

You will get a new phone line and single master socket. The phone is entirely separate from any wiring you may already have for BT. If you need extensions to the VM phone line, you need to add those yourself.

[craigj2k12]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for clearing that up, but what is this small box on the front of the house where you say the cable will terminate? I have read on another forum that this box can increase attenuation or noise on the line and increase ping. The poster also said that this box is only needed for TV installations and for broadband only the box isnt needed, the installer can just feed the cable through the wall?

Thanks forr your help, im a Virgin virgin

[Rob]

The box is just a plastic housing. Inside is a cable joint, and possible isolator. You may only want a single broadband connection today, but perhaps in a while, you or a subsequent homeowner woould want TV. The cable feed for any additional service would be wired from the same junction box, not as another new cable from the street.

If the wiring is correctly installed then the fact that there is a jointing box external to the house will make no difference to your services.

[craigj2k12]

I can see where you are coming from regarding future tv, but are you sure this wont affect my broadband?

I would post the link to the post i was referring to but i cant find it for the life of me!!

anyways thanks again!

Originally Posted by craigj2k11

I can see where you are coming from regarding future tv, but are you sure this wont affect my broadband?

I would post the link to the post i was referring to but i cant find it for the life of me!!

anyways thanks again!

If you were having TV as well as broadband this would be achieved by feeding the cable through a 'splitter' in the external box. In your case, with only broadband being installed, this won't be required. The external box will still probably contain an isolator, though.

While a splitter does attenuate the signal slightly, the installation technicians will adjust the levels to compensate - think about it, if the 'plastic box' was going to always affect peoples broadband there would be an awful lot of upset customers out there ....

[craigj2k12]

i can see how it wouldnt be there is it affected services... but still probably 95% of BT customers have the bell wire attenuating their connections, this box could be a similar thing with VM. even if it knocked 3ms off my ping that would be great! lol

I get a good solid 16ms pingtest every time with tiscali ADSL (see my sig) and i dont want to move to fibre optic broadband to find out that my ping will increase. I see people on this forum testing to maidenhead (which i ping the lowest to) and these people are on VM 50mb getting 27ms ping with 12ms jitter, which in my case would be no good 12ms jitter!!!!! madness!!!

as long as i have a similar ping rate with no, or little jitter, im happy!!

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by craigj2k11

i can see how it wouldnt be there is it affected services... but still probably 95% of BT customers have the bell wire attenuating their connections, this box could be a similar thing with VM. even if it knocked 3ms off my ping that would be great! lol

I get a good solid 16ms pingtest every time with tiscali ADSL (see my sig) and i dont want to move to fibre optic broadband to find out that my ping will increase. I see people on this forum testing to maidenhead (which i ping the lowest to) and these people are on VM 50mb getting 27ms ping with 12ms jitter, which in my case would be no good 12ms jitter!!!!! madness!!!

as long as i have a similar ping rate with no, or little jitter, im happy!!

The omni box will have no negative affect on your broadband connection. Relax

[trublue]

Said by Rob

Usually it only needs to be a slit trench to bury a green corrugated plastic hose of about 1.5" diameter about a spade depth. Normally that can be run around down a flower bed, under a lawn,

Sorry to hijack this thread,but I had my cable installed last week,and all they did was a slit trench and pushed the cable into it.Will this be alright?

[Nopanic]

The only risk is you digging it up ...

As for the op I have a solid 9ms ping with two stbs and four modems running at once ... chill

[nodrogd]

Originally Posted by craigj2k11

i can see how it wouldnt be there is it affected services... but still probably 95% of BT customers have the bell wire attenuating their connections, this box could be a similar thing with VM. even if it knocked 3ms off my ping that would be great! lol

Don't confuse cable broadband with ADSL. Cable broadband is connected via a coax cable (the same cable that provides the TV). The phone cable is a totaly separate entity and is not connected to the broadband service.

[craigj2k12]

Originally Posted by Nopanic

The only risk is you digging it up ...

As for the op I have a solid 9ms ping with two stbs and four modems running at once ... chill

you bar stool i hope i get something like that!!

---------- Post added at 12:17 ---------- Previous post was at 12:17 ----------

oh, one other major question is can i keep my talktalk phone number?

[Nopanic]

Originally Posted by craigj2k11

you bar stool i hope i get something like that!!

---------- Post added at 12:17 ---------- Previous post was at 12:17 ----------

oh, one other major question is can i keep my talktalk phone number?

er... I dunno actually .. I would expect so.. but I'm sure I've read theres issues with TT and VM number transfer ...

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by craigj2k11

you bar stool i hope i get something like that!!

---------- Post added at 12:17 ---------- Previous post was at 12:17 ----------

oh, one other major question is can i keep my talktalk phone number?

Was it originally BT's number?

There used to be an issue with Telewest and TalkTalk, but I don't think there still is?

I'm sure they have a porting agreement between them. What have VM said when you gave them your number to port? We usually know at the point of taking the order.

[craigj2k12]

Ill be ordering in the next couple of weeks, how long away are installation dates?

are they like 1 week away from ordering or like 3?