are isolators necessary??

[rmlmtl]

I am new to cabling so be gentle. I have recabled our house so that the cables are in sensible positions and reach the places I rather than NTL dictated in the past. All working well and dandy.

However I've now come across 'isolators'. To prevent power surges damaging equipment as I understand. So my questions are

do I need them
where should they be fitted (all or only some feeds etc)

Also can anyone point me to a good summary of dos and don't re cabling an NTL set up.

Thank you

[scottyboydfc]

Also can anyone point me to a good summary of dos and don't re cabling an NTL set up.


Yes, don't do it yourself, get VM out to do it :)

[Losttheplot]

You only need an isolator on the feed coming into the house.

[hairy_mick]

The iso is there to protect your equipment and virgins employee,s working on the network from electric shock hazard so its important that every settop or modem has its own isolator.

[rmlmtl]

so which is it guys?

1. isolator per settop/modem

or

2. one isolator on the feed coming into the house.


vote now?

[Losttheplot]

The iso is there to protect your equipment and virgins employee,s working on the network from electric shock hazard so its important that every settop or modem has its own isolator.

Absolute rubbish. One feed into the house needs one isolator. Splitters then feed any extra boxes/modems etc
If you had more than one feed into the house then yes more than one isolator.

[sprattgraham]

I don't have any isolator's, the cables come stragiht through the wall and into the equipment, only have splitters out side and when I’ve asked the tech he said it doesn’t mater and I’ve had a few techs out for other issues and none of them have done anything about it.

[hairy_mick]

sorry losttheplot but do you know the latest rall document on isolation in the customers property i think not!!!!

[Losttheplot]

sorry losttheplot but do you know the latest rall document on isolation in the customers property i think not!!!!
Mick, its not rocket science. One feed into the house requires one isolator prior to any splitters to electrically isolate the house from the network, no matter how many devices are fitted.
Are you saying you now fit an isolator on the back of every box?
I work with ETSI specs every day.

[sprattgraham]

From what I've seen they normally put an isolator in the white box in each room that has a piece of equipment

[Nedkelly]

The latest spec says every point has to have a isolater .But the old instals have one in the omni box .:)

[Kwak]

Every piece of Customer Premise Equipment (modem(s) & set top(s) should each have an isolator on them.

To quote from VM's install proceedure: "Each CM/STB must be fitted with an isolator. The Isolator should be fitted within 2 mtrs of the STB/Modem.
Cheers.

[Nedkelly]

All new installs they fit a isolater in the housing that is on your wall .We have been fitting them since 2000 :)

[Losttheplot]

All new installs they fit a isolater in the housing that is on your wall .We have been fitting them since 2000 :)
So one per feed into the house or one per piece of kit?

[Kwak]

One per piece of kit - there is a risk that if not you could have a short between the two items (STB and/or modem) if you only use the one isolator at the point of entry.

[Losttheplot]

Hairy_mick I apologise. Sounds like overkill to me.

[piggy]

if your talking about safety then 1 iso at the point of entry is all that is needed if your talking about procedure then what day of the week is it!!!!

and another thing if the latest procedure is 1 iso per stb/modem how come on a self-install kit you only get sent a splitter???? is that for safety/cost/trying to harm customers?????

[rmlmtl]

as the instigator of this thread Ihave come to the conclusion that the divergence of opinion suggests as so often that there is a divergence of opinion and it probably doesn't matter as long as there is at least one isolator on the main incoming cable.

So next question is what type of isolator/ make/ etc would people recommend.

My cable comes in and feed 2 boxes and a modem and potentially a 3rd site if anybody can be fagged to move stick the slave lead into the 3rd telly.