Ntl Cable connection and Surge Protection?

[Link83]

Hi everyone,
I have ntl broadband and TV through Cable - which as im sure many here will know use F-Type Coaxial connectors.

Recently a friend of mine suffered from a power surge and alot of his electrical equipment was destoyed :( This has prompted me to get all my kit surge protected if possible.

I have bought a few Belkin Surge protectors in the past and was quite pleased with them, so I have decided I would like to get my ntl cable surge protected if possible - just in case. Unfortunately I cant find any Belkin Surgmasters which are specifically designed with ntl cable protection in mind.

I have seen a few Surgemasters with Satellite connections (which also uses F-type connectors) and I just wondered if these would also be suitable for protecting my ntl cable connection aswell?

I know Satellite and Cable differ slightly, so this is why im not sure if it would work/be ok to do so. Can anyone tell me if this would work/be safe, and protect my connection?

Also, if I were to connect my ntl cable through a Surgemaster do you think there would be any noticeable signal quality loss/degradation?

Thanks in advance :)

[Jules]

No idea but I will bump the thread to see if anyone else knows :)

[Slyder]

Now you come to mention it, I have never seen a surge protector for NTL.. Ive seen a few with telephone sockets on thou. :confused:

If this gets answered, I would be interested in getting one also.

[scoobydoo[uk]]

I had a surge take out my onboard lan.. so ive now invested in a surge protector with built in ethernet protection, bascially i just plug the ethernet cable out of the back of the cable modem into the protector then out into the router.

[Link83]

Thanks for everyones replies so far :)

I have seen the Surgemasters with Ethernet protection, but since I have ntl cable TV aswell I cant surge protect the STB through ethernet unfortunately - although im sure those Surgemasters would be great for someone who only has broadband from ntl. I would much rather Surge Protect the ntl cable before it actually goes into any electrical item (eg. modem, cable stb) if I can - seems the safest way to me.

I was considering this Belkin Surge Protector:-
http://catalog.belkin.com/PureAV_detail.process?Product_Id=159574
but as I have already said, it only says the F-Connectors are for Surge protecting Satellite connections, and not ntl cable :(

I hope someone knows!

-btw if you do buy a belkin surgemaster for your broadband protection from ntl, make sure you choose one that specifically has 'ethernet' protection, and not just 'broadband' protection, as those only support ADSL connections [eg broadband through a phone line] A suitable Belkin surge protector for Ethernet would be this one:-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00009RIPB/026-6652044-0514831
Hope that helps someone :)

[Stuart]

Bear in mind that under the terms and conditions, you are not allowed to alter the connection between your STB and the cable.

[Link83]

Bear in mind that under the terms and conditions, you are not allowed to alter the connection between your STB and the cable.

I didnt know that! :erm: - I thought the cable belonged to ntl up until the 'cable box' on the wall, and that after that point it belonged to the subscriber.

Anyway, I hope you understand that im not trying to do anything illegal - just trying to surge protect all my equipment. Im sure many of us have had to to move the cable on occasions when moving the STB/modem, or decorating, or is it just me?

[jellybaby]

If NTL will not let you alter the connections to protect THEIR equipment then I wouldn't worry about it too much. At the end of the day they'll have to replace damaged equipment.

:)

[jaycee]

The cable outlets are already surge protected - thats what the silver box that's in the outlet plate does.

[Nedkelly]

The best thing to do is protect everything you can but do not put the ntl feed into one of these surge protection sockets . A customer did this and the noise that this thing caused made the box crash most of the time and it was a new samsung he had done the same with his broadband and was getting a lot of packet loss.:)

[Link83]

Hi, sorry to bring back this thread but would still like some advice!

The cable outlets are already surge protected - thats what the silver box that's in the outlet plate does.

Im not sure what you mean, but my cable outlet has no 'silver box' inside it, should it have one? :confused:

I have also emailed Belkin to ask if the Surgemaster I mentioned above was suitable for ntl cable and got this reply:-

"Dear customer,
The F-Type connections would be suitable for NTL as well as regular Satellite connections and this provides a simple straight through connection. Albeit with Surge Protection.
Kind regards
Belkin Customer Support"

...So they seem to suggest there would be no problems with protecting the ntl cable through the surgemaster, but then I read Nedkelly's post:-

The best thing to do is protect everything you can but do not put the ntl feed into one of these surge protection sockets . A customer did this and the noise that this thing caused made the box crash most of the time and it was a new samsung he had done the same with his broadband and was getting a lot of packet loss.:)

Do you know if this was a Belkin Surgmaster? Also, if I did try to surge protect the cable is there anyway I would be able to check if I had any 'packet loss' at all?

Thanks again:)

[jaycee]

The box is usually silver with a green label that has "QAMTEX" written on it. It will have one connector at the top where the cable from outside connects, and then usually two connectors, one labelled FM, and one labelled TV/DATA at the bottom. It's inside the white plate that has your cable sockets on. You may also have a single outlet one, these usually have a red label.

If your installation is old, it's possible that you have a street cable coming straight through the wall, though.

[PaulCo]

Sorry to bother you with a question that may be old and dumb, but I am seeking to buy a surge protector for my home office kit. Having read this thread, I still have a number of questions:

1. Is it neccesary to plug the cable into a surge protector? i.e. Is NTL/ Virgin Cable "surge protected" before it gets into the house? Theres a small metal box outside my house that the cable goes through, but it just looks like a junction ('cos cable is spliced at that point).
2. Is it wise to route the cable modem via a protector before the modem? Would this effect transmission speeds?
3. Are there surge protectors available that have a socket compatible with NTL cable? And do they supply a cable to connect it onwards to the modem?

I am interested in the Belkin product, but want to be sure I getting the right thing.

Thanks for any pointers,

Paul

[Stuart]

I personally wouldn't recommend it. It is against terms and conditions, so you risk being charged for any maintenance if Virgin have to send an Engineer to your house.

Also, if the protector is not the right one, you risk causing slow speeds and TV interferance not only for yourself, but anyone else connected to Virgin Media in your street.

[jaycee]

Don't bother with any surge protector for the actual cable line. There is already an isolator installed in your wall plate to handle this.

It is a good idea to have surge protected sockets though, and a good idea to have the cable modem's power supply/cable plugged into one of those.

Assuming the Belkin product allows you to connect an F-connector cable, it is probably intended to work with Sky dishes, which don't have any isolation. It wouldn't be suitable for a CATV system.

[largo]

Don't bother with any surge protector for the actual cable line. There is already an isolator installed in your wall plate to handle this.

True and hopefully this is the case, but looking at some of the horror stories in this forum on installations it is best to check. it seems worse since Virgin, and many installers are not keeping to the general rule or worse fitting no iso's at all.
Each bit of equipment should be connected via a VQ601LC (blue, fitted inside white box) isolator.
example: Line in, 2 way splitter, 2 legs out each to a 601, then one to STB and other to Modem.
Until earlier this year a VQ302LC (green) could have been used where 2 bits of kit were used in same room. The 302 is a combined splitter/iso. fits in the white box and provides 2 isolated lines Very neat. However Virgin in their wisdom dropped this stating that instead they would use a 2 way splitter and two 601's, in many cases this is not happening, the splitter is used on the back of the 601 and the 2 legs of splitter going directly to STB and modem meaning no iso between the two. Also not neat.
The VQ643 is available, this is a 3way splitter/iso.
Hope this helps someone a little.:sleep:
Paul

[jaycee]

I would say virgin are asking for it, if my equipment was damaged by a surge that came from the cable line, and it turned out this was because an engineer had not installed an isolator, then i would hold virgin liable for the damage!

Not to mention, this is extremely foolish, the isolators are there for the engineers safety as well as protection for the customer.

[largo]

I agree, they have enough probs. I know it is not easy to monitor all installations, but they are not helping much either. Dropping the VQ302 has also encouraged more bad practice. The crazy thing, is that their theory behind this is far more costly, both in terms of product and labour, not to mention neater looking job.
Just another thing worth a mention is that Some people do not realise that these isolators dont just give protection but also act as ground loop isolators. (can stop hum on audio and noise on pic).
Paul.

[jaycee]

Yep, i have friends in Sweden who quite commonly have a CATV feed into the basement of their apartment block, which is then fed to amplifiers and split to each apartment (I guess it's like having a cable cabinet in the basement!)

They frequently ask me about how to eliminate ground loops causing hum from the cablebox on their hifi/5.1 system... although for some reason fitting isolators seems to cause the loss of some channels.