Virgin Broadband Faceplate and cable questions!

johjames

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Hi All,

Thanks for reading my post and for any assistance you may be able to provide.

I'm in the midst of renovating our house. We only have Virgin cable broadband and we do not need any other Media service other than the broadband.

The 1st photo shows where the Virgin cable enters the house, along with the gubbins attached to this. I don't know what these 2 boxes are, although I believe the 2nd one may be a splitter.

The 2nd and 3rd photo's show another cable which enters the house and this cable's terminations. I have no idea what this cable is, or whether we need it.

My questions to those of you who no doubt have much more knowledge than me about these things:

1. Do we need all the 'gubbins' connected to the Virgin media cable?

2. Is there a particular Faceplate we should use to house the Virgin media cable entry point into the house and the gubbins we have to keep connected to it?

3. Would there be any issues with us chasing the Virgin cable into the wall, so that it doesn't hang down the wall?

4. What is the second cable please and would you advise we keep it? If so which faceplate would you recommend?

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The first and larger of th 3 boxes will be a surge protector while the second and smaller box looks to be an attenuator used to ensure your set top box or cable modem get the correct signal level. The unknown wire could be that associated with telephone provivision seeing as this will have been installed at the same time that the original cable installation took place. This is rather strance though seeing as you normally have a telephone socket in close proximity to the cable entry point as opposed to a visible wire or wires. Are you sure it comes from the brown cable box on the exterior of the building?

THe surge protection is mandatory and should not be removed or omitted. THe attenuator may not be required, but an installer would be required to test the signal levels in order to assess whether it is needed or not.

The faceplate would consist of an F connector. You could conceal both the surge protector and attentuator prior to the face plate and then run cable to the faceplate. It probably makes more sense to connect the attenuator to the modem and then the cable feed to the attenuator though.

I cannot be sure as to what the second cable is or whether it is actually anything to do with Virgin Media, but if it is the telephone wiring then you don't need it unless you've landline telephone provision from Virgin Media. The wire looks to be double barrelled in nature which wouldn't be conducive with it being for a telephone? Is there a sat dish on the exterior of the building? It could relate to this as opposed to it having anything at all to do with the cable broadband/TV installation?

Here's typically the type of faceplate associated with either satalite or cable installations:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/british-...VCOWaCh3kHA_SEAQYBCABEgKlOfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
 
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The first and larger of th 3 boxes will be a surge protector while the second and smaller box looks to be an attenuator used to ensure your set top box or cable modem get the correct signal level. The unknown wire could be that associated with telephone provivision...
The incoming phone line is clearly visible in the first picture. It's the second, unconnected, cable which ends by the surge protector from which the white wires with orange and blue rings on them protrude.

I believe you're correct about that second cable (terminated with F plugs) being for a satellite dish - which may or may not still exist.

Other than that I'm stumped.
 
The first and larger of th 3 boxes will be a surge protector while the second and smaller box looks to be an attenuator used to ensure your set top box or cable modem get the correct signal level. The unknown wire could be that associated with telephone provivision seeing as this will have been installed at the same time that the original cable installation took place. This is rather strance though seeing as you normally have a telephone socket in close proximity to the cable entry point as opposed to a visible wire or wires. Are you sure it comes from the brown cable box on the exterior of the building?

THe surge protection is mandatory and should not be removed or omitted. THe attenuator may not be required, but an installer would be required to test the signal levels in order to assess whether it is needed or not.

The faceplate would consist of an F connector. You could conceal both the surge protector and attentuator prior to the face plate and then run cable to the faceplate. It probably makes more sense to connect the attenuator to the modem and then the cable feed to the attenuator though.

I cannot be sure as to what the second cable is or whether it is actually anything to do with Virgin Media, but if it is the telephone wiring then you don't need it unless you've landline telephone provision from Virgin Media. The wire looks to be double barrelled in nature which wouldn't be conducive with it being for a telephone? Is there a sat dish on the exterior of the building? It could relate to this as opposed to it having anything at all to do with the cable broadband/TV installation?

Here's typically the type of faceplate associated with either satalite or cable installations:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/british-...VCOWaCh3kHA_SEAQYBCABEgKlOfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Thanks Dante, that's very helpful. I'll check to see if the extra wire comes from the external brown box. We'll also look at concealing the surge protector behind the face plate, although I wasn't sure what you were suggesting would be best to do with the attenuator. Should I attach this directly to the modem and then run the cable from the faceplate to this, as opposed to having the attenuator behind the faceplate? There is a sat dish, which likely explains the other cable, so we'll remove it as the broadband works well.
 
Attenuators are more often than not connected to the modem or STB by Virgin so I'd also suggest you do so.
 
Attenuators are more often than not connected to the modem or STB by Virgin so I'd also suggest you do so.
Thanks, I'll take your advice. I'm very grateful that people have taken the time to help. I looked at the 2nd smaller box on the cable again and it says it's a 2-way splitter. Would it be ok to remove this?
 
If what I suggested isn't an atenuator and indeed a slitter then it would not be a requirement unless you need to connect an additional cable TV box to the feed along with your cable modem? If you don't subscribe to cable TV then you'd only need the one feed without the splitter for the modem. On the otherhand, you could use the splitter prior to the faceplate and use a faceplate that includes 2 F connectors? This would provide for you if adding cable TV at a later date.
 
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If what I suggested isn't an atenuator and indeed a slitter then it would be a requirement unless you need to connect an additional cable TV box to the feed along with your cable modem? If you don't subscribe to cable TV then you'd only need the one feed without the splitter for the modem. On the otherhand, you could use the splitter prior to the faceplate and use a faceplate that includes 2 F connectors? This would provide for you adding cable TV at a later date.
That's once again really helpful, thanks again Dante. We'll just have the cable modem and so we'll remove the splitter.
 
I have another related question, which I hope those of you who are knowledgable in this area may be able to assist me with.

We now have to buy a coax cable and connectors in order to allow us to connect our internal Virgin wall box (to be replaced following the advice kindly given above!), to our Virgin Super Hub which we’re using as a modem and which will be placed under the stairs some distance away. We only require the fibre optic broadband, no Virgin TV.

We have to run the cable quite a distance and we don't have time to wait for Virgin to replace the cable themselves.

I've searched the forum and read one of dante’s posts from 2016 where using Webro HD100 coax was suggested. I’m unsure as to whether things have changed in this regard over the last couple of years, as I've also read posts suggesting that WF100 coax would be appropriate. As for the connectors these from what I understand need to be F connectors, possibly of a compression type.

My question therefore is what cable and connectors would you advise we use here?

Thanks again for all your assistance
 
If you have to install your own coax then use WF100. It is more readilly available and cheaper than HD100.
 
I'd not suggest using anything not specifically rated for use with digital TV, Sat or cable signals.
 
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So the coax cable's been replaced, thanks for the advice there Dante, and we've run it in a conduit to the Virgin router's (now used as a modem only) new position. I've attached a photo of the set up we've planned to house where the Virgin cable enters the house and attaches to the attenuator and new coax attached to the router. We'd like to hide this all behind a blank wall plate. I'm hoping that you don't mind me seeking your informed opinions about this set up, is there anything we've missed? Thanks again.
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