View Full Version : Broadband cable (what is it)?
John Watts
11-11-2003, 5:58 PM
Hi all,
I want to move my PC upstairs but will need to extend my broadband cable to go up the outside wall.
What cable is it exactly?
Cheers folks,
Regards,
John.
At a guess I would say 75ohm coax.
John Watts
11-11-2003, 6:03 PM
Thakns Jeff,
So you just mean plain old regular 75ohm cable? the same stuff we use for sky tv cable?
I was a bit of a guess but yes, lets see if anyone knows for certain.
Assuming that you are referring to the cable that goes from a white box inside the house with a screww-on connector to your cable modem/set-top box then you need to use good quality sattelite cable like CT100, and F-Connectors. You can get these from maplin.
If you are referring to a rectangular plug (probably clear, with 8 wires in it), then you need a long UTP patch cable. The only problem you will have is that using a ready made utp cab;e will require you to drill bigger holes, unless of course you buy the crimp tool (about £10 from computer fairs) and the RJ45 connectors (about £1 for 10 from computer fairs). Once again, maplin will have all of these bits, albeit slightly more expensive than a computer fair. Whatever you do, don't buy from PC World, you'll pay at least double the cost!!
If you are looking at the UTP option, you could consider the more expensive option of buying a wireless capable router and a wireless network card for your pc - then you have no worries about cables and can, in theory, move the pc anywhere in the house whilst still being able to browse the web.
If you post a description of the cables you want to extend/move (colour, connector description, and what they connect), we'll point you in the right direction.
Tony
John Watts
11-11-2003, 7:38 PM
Thanks Tony, that's really helpfull,
I do have a white (NTL) box inside the house which connects to my modem which in turn ( via USB ) connects to my PC.
However after a few measurements in the last few hours im pretty sure that i can just dismantle it all and simply just run it up the way i wanted ( rather than where it is now ) without extending it. Then again simply put the white box in the room upstairs, connect it all up and bob is your auntie's best mate if you get what i mean
:laugh:
SimonO
12-11-2003, 8:36 AM
If you would prefer not to run cables you can always install a wireless router... You are then free to position your PC where you like... Should cost about £150 ish for the router and PC card...
could always call ntl direct and have some of our engineers come round and move the point for you, if your going to spend cash on crimps and stuff like that then id recommend you ringing CS first as it might be cheaper. i think its around £15 - £25 (im not on the customer service side) but it would save you a sunday afternoon up some ladders when its raining with one hand on the guttering and the other trying to drill a decent hole, lol.
MonkeyDonkey
14-11-2003, 11:15 PM
Originally posted by H4r7y
could always call ntl direct and have some of our engineers come round and move the point for you, if your going to spend cash on crimps and stuff like that then id recommend you ringing CS first as it might be cheaper. i think its around £15 - £25 (im not on the customer service side) but it would save you a sunday afternoon up some ladders when its raining with one hand on the guttering and the other trying to drill a decent hole, lol.
Yeah, but to be fair NTL engineers can't drill a decent hole without knocking half the wall down, will no doubt manage to cock something up in the process and it'll take him 2 weeks waiting on the phone to get through in the first place.
nutcase_1uk
15-11-2003, 10:18 AM
Please don't call them "engineers". Makes peole who have worked hard over many years of apprenticeship and/or studied at university and worked in an engineering industry for years rather upset :)
As tonyb says, use a good quality cable of the correct impedence. You say you use USB to connect to your modem, does the modem have a network connection? Using this tends to use a lot less system resources, and is a heck of a lot easier to extend than a USB or coax cable is over a significant distance.
When telewest installed our modem, we weren't sure where we wanted it, so we got them to leave it on the end of a few metres of excess cable, and a couple of spare connectors (when they installed the phone a couple of years ago, they left an entire drum of cable for the same purpose!). We then routed it at our leisure, and borrowed a crimping tool for a day from someone. Not much help in your situation I know, but we didn't trust the installers at all!
Networkguy
16-11-2003, 8:58 PM
Originally posted by MonkeyDonkey
Yeah, but to be fair NTL engineers can't drill a decent hole without knocking half the wall down, will no doubt manage to cock something up in the process and it'll take him 2 weeks waiting on the phone to get through in the first place.
To be fair, when NTL installed my CM, the install was fantastic.
Okay so I was the first person in the town to get one fitted so all the other engineers (so it seemed) came round to have a look (at one point there were 5 vans outside) but not only did they do a neat job but were prepared to run one cable into the front of the house for the TV and phone and another, through an airbrick, into the cellar, under the house, up the back of the house (3 floors) and into my office at the back of the house. Okay they did have to go and get a longer cable and it did take them a few hours but the standard of work was as good as it gets.
The thing about NTL is that they do have some very good engineers but often, you can't get to them :(