Installation Questions

[pearl]

After searching the net I have found lots of forums which sometimes seem to have conflicting information on the questions I have about my virgin media TV and 50meg broadband installation which is happening in a couple of weeks. Anyway sorry if they are silly questions but I don't really know anything about this stuff.

1) I've got about 3m of concrete drive way between the virgin plastic thing in the pavement and the front of the house and I was hoping they could bury the cable under this drive. Will this be possible?

2) Can they split the cables for the broadband and tv outside the house? Also does the cable have to go into the house in the same place as the box on the front of the house or can the cables come out of the box and along the outside wall of the house and into another point?

3) if the cables can go from the box around the outside of the house does the length of the coax cables affect the service? I imagine they will adjust power levels and stuff to get good signal strength but is there a maximum length that the coax cables can be.

4) We are currently redecorating and so have exposed floorboards. If we lifted them would they be happy to run the cables under the floor rather than around skirting etc?

Thanks
pearl

[JayJay]

1) This will be dug up and cable laid underneath, and then tarmac or concrete will be relaid ontop :)

2)Cable will be/can be split in the service box on the outside of the property. Cables can go what ever way suits you.... to a point

3) Yes, the length does effect the signal but this will be compensated. For a typical install, im sure your house will be fine.

4) If I came round to your house and you wanted me to run them under the floor (since they are already exposed) I would be more than happy. The tech will be more than happy to do this. Dont expect them to lift or replace any mind!

Hopefully this has answered some of your questions :)

[jb66]

1) They may tack it along a wall, 3m is alot

[pearl]

Thanks very much JayJay. All questions answered well and more importantly given the answers I was hoping to hear! One more quick thing (hopefully).

I was hoping the cables could be run into my lounge at the back of the house and so go through the garage (made of wood so not a problem to get the wires through) and round the back of my house. If this is ok can the box be put at the back of the house rather than the front? Is there a difference in the wires before and after the box? And if the cables on the outside of the house are attached to the exterior walls I take it that they don't need the bright green protection which I'm hoping won't be visible anywhere!

@jb66: The trouble is that there isn't really a fence that it can be tacked along to get to the house without at some point going across the ground. Its a semi detached so the fence on one side is across the driveway from the house and the other side the fence stops before the porch and there are just some horizontal bars from the fence to the wall of the house. So unless the cable just lies on the floor (which I don't want) it will have to go underground somewhere. 3m was a guess from memory and its probably a bit shorter than this!

[JayJay]

No they cables that will be tacked around will be either black or white, more likely black so no need for any green flex tacked to the wall.

The box that goes on the front, im sure they will try their best to put it where you would like it but they can only go so far with the cable that has been pulled through the street so dont be disappointed if they cant. Dependant on the amount of cable and the layout, they could even put the box into the garage completely out of the way but there is pros and cons with this.

There isnt much difference in the cables that go through the street and what is used inside your property, but there are different sizes (technical terms RG6 & RG11 (RG11 is thicker mainly used for long distances)) that are used to go to your property.

[pearl]

Roughly, what is the maximum length of rg6 cable while maintaining good signal? I will have only 1 v+hd box and xxl broadband so its not like there are multiple boxes.
I'm thinking it would be about 30m of cable from the box on the house to the v+ box and about the same to the router/modem which will be in a separate room.

thanks very much for all the help.