New VM Instalation Questions

[steve100]

Hi guys I am new to this site and not sure if this is in the right place.

Sorry this is quite along post.

I am having a completely new vigin media instalation (V+, extra box, Phone and 20mb BB). The thing that bothers me is that our house is a terrace with the living room and all the bed rooms are at the rear of the house. I am concerned about how the engineers will get the cables from the front of the house to the rear. My wife has told me that if it means lots of wirers nailed to the skirting board then she does not want it. (Anoying as she has been moaning to get it ever since i told SKY where to go).

I was chatting with a colleauge at work and he says that he prewired his house before the VM engineers came to do his install.

Having thought about it, it sounds like a good idea. I contacted Virgin about doing this and the woman said it was fine, but did not know what type of cable or if the length of cable had an effect on the signal.

So now for the questions.

1) I will have to send 3 cables from where i want the brown virgin box outside up the front of the house, through the loft and down the back of the house for the tv in the living room the modem and for 2 extra tv points in the bedrooms. This i have worked out to be a distance of 30 metres. Is this to long and will it effect my TV signal Strength/Quality and my BB speed?

2) If the above is OK to do what type of cable is needed and whare can i get it from? (i was just going to loop the ends up so that the virgin guys could conect it up)

3) Was the woman at virgin correct and i am allowed to do this or will the engineers insist on doing it all on their own?

Any help with the above would be appriciated.

Cheers Steve

[nodrogd]

If ALL the connections required are at the rear of the house, the best idea would be one cable running from the omnibox at the front through the roof and for the engineer to install a splitter on the rear wall to feed all the points you require. You will need good quality satellite type cable such as CT100.

[steve100]

Cheers for that.

Does anyone else have any advice??

[steve100]

Well instalation day came and went and no install. Phoned them up to find out why and they said they did not have enough engineers to do the install. Would have been nice to be told before the install day!!

Anyway i rearranged the install and ask the guy if I could do all the internal wiring myself as i am decorating and the wife does not want wirers nailed to the skirting board and the tv's are at the back of the house. The reply was "it is best to wait incase they need to move furniture". I guess he did not understand that i had just said that i would do all the wiring before they arrived so i repeated myself and the reply was "what happens if you break something?".
"well as it is all my stuff i guess I will fix it" i replied.
"best to wait" said the guy.
He was not the smartest knife in the draw.

All i can say is that they better install it how i want, because so far i am really not impressed with Virgin Media.

[nodrogd]

Why am I not surprised. Installs in most areas now are hived off to third parties and I've seen many posts about installs being missed.
As regards the cabling, if you do as I suggest with my previous post, the installer will drill through the outside wall at the point nearest to where your equipment is. At the entry point on the inside wall will be a 8 x 12 cm grey box that contains an isolator, which is essential for safety reasons, and then the internal cable routed where you wish.

[steve100]

Why am I not surprised. Installs in most areas now are hived off to third parties and I've seen many posts about installs being missed.
As regards the cabling, if you do as I suggest with my previous post, the installer will drill through the outside wall at the point nearest to where your equipment is. At the entry point on the inside wall will be a 8 x 12 cm grey box that contains an isolator, which is essential for safety reasons, and then the internal cable routed where you wish.

That is what i was going to do, but i have been told that they will not connect to my own cable, and i have been told that they will not go up a ladder more than 2 metres high. (the loft is 5-6 metres high).

So could do it myself but they won't connect it up or they won't do it the way i want. I am on the look out for a virgin engineer when i am out and about to ask them. (i mean a virgin media engineer, not an engineer who has not had sex).

So far I am not impressed with Virgin, I can see why mr Branson keeps reducing his stake in the company.

[bernado]

if u do run the cable yourself then avoid using the honeycomb air filled cable and don't put it under the carpet or completely hidden from view as their will be no way for the tech to know the cable is good. by all means drill the holes where u want and maybe wait for the engineer to actually run cable and fit the iso.

[steve100]

if u do run the cable yourself then avoid using the honeycomb air filled cable and don't put it under the carpet or completely hidden from view as their will be no way for the tech to know the cable is good. by all means drill the holes where u want and maybe wait for the engineer to actually run cable and fit the iso.

Thats what i have done now, all the holes are drilled just hope they will use them. I might get them to just fit the iso in one room and then just sling a cable from it to the tv, and then when they have gone do the job properly myself. I know i will be breaking the terms and conditions but I can spend the time to do the job the way I want it doing.