| Upcoming Uverse install wiring questions I have an install scheduled (TV, internet, phone) for the 7th and am wondering what I should do beforehand.
House wiring, is it better to have things run on ethernet? The cable installer about 6 years ago ran new coax (iirc, but I haven't checked the actual cable for stats). I read that the new 500gb DVRs (that I definitely want) like ethernet better than coax, so can I just run one cat5e line from where the RG will be located and use coax for the rest?
If I decide to run ethernet myself, if I run just the cable will the installer terminate the cable to jacks (I already have the cat 5e cable, but wouldn't run out and buy jacks if I don't have to)? |
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Reviews:
 ·NetTalk
 ·AT&T U-Verse
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| I would go with the Ethernet personally, in my setup the Tech provided the wire and instead of putting a male jack end, he put a surface mount box(a small square female cat5e connector) on the bottom of the wall where the cat5e is run to(he also hid most of the cables very well, under the rug in spots rather then tacked along the wall like cable companies run their coax). Then you can just use a small male to male cat5e cable from the box to your STB. I was happy with the way he did this because it made it easy to plug a switch into the surface mount box if I ever need to put any other Ethernet devices in that room.
I have heard that coax can run just as smooth as Ethernet(as long as the tech checks and replaces any old connectors/jumpers), it also can be used side by side with some boxes using Ethernet and others using the HomePNA coax. It all depends on what you and the tech discuss and decide on really.
My recommendation would be to make sure your RG sits as close as possible to your DVR Box, and to have it connected via Ethernet. The other STB's I don't think matter as much but like I said I would rather have a new Ethernet cable ran then use years old coax that's been sitting in your walls.
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 joakoPremium
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null
kudos:5
·Comcast
| reply to burns113
In the end it's all the same, Coax is using HPNA ethernet-over-coax. The issue is they will try to re-used the old coax and with outdoor connections, not ideal cable and splitter placement, low quality cable (there's much more room for it than cat5) etc, etc it just becomes more prone to issues and these issues become much more apparent when using HPNA vs broadband. For e.g. you might use HPNA and have poor quality cabling and only be able to push 10mbps -- might be fine for sharing internet access, but will have issues with realtime streaming video.
Cat5 ethernet is usually installed to higher standards and always in a star topology and generally either works or doesn't. It also amazes me that it works so well -- i've seen (and admittedly done) some not to spec things like stealing pairs for phone lines or power, longer than approved runs, stapling cables, etc... hell I've even seen a patch cable spliced/extended with scotch tape and somehow it worked.
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PRescott7-2097 |
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| reply to burns113
And in the end they may just install wireless boxes as they did in my neighbors. |
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Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
·Bright House
| said by TheDuck:And in the end they may just install wireless boxes as they did in my neighbors.
How many wireless STB's does your neighbor have? While troubleshooting with tier-2 last week he mentioned there is currently a limit of 2 per home.
Three or four years ago I rewired my home... since the old stuff was 20+ years old, it was time! At the time I had cable, and made sure all my Uverse serve was on CAT5. This way I had two services per TV, and could seemlessly migrate as I programmed each STB to my liking. (Biggest being parental controls for my kids!)
One advantage of using RG6 is some have used the ethernet port on the regular STB to serve internet to a nearby device. (IE: gaming console, TV, etc..) Currently, this cannot be done on wireless STB's tho. |
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1 edit | reply to burns113
I wouldn't balk at a wireless box, but the DVR still has to be wired to the rg, right?
Anyway, I ran cat5 from the bedroom to the living room, and figure installer can decide how he wants to run to other bedroom. If the coax gives me problems, I'm competent enough to run another cat5e (or cat6 if I buy new cable) jack. |
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Reviews:
·NetTalk
·AT&T U-Verse
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to burns113
The DVR will be wired to your RG because there is no wireless DVR & the DVR is the busiest STB in your setup as it has to communicate with all the other boxes on the network to provide the whole-house DVR feature.
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| reply to burns113
They came yesterday and ran a new line from the pole and put a new NID on the side of the house. What's weird though, it seems they ran two, 2 wire cables from the pole and down to the NID, with one going into the NID and the other just tucked back behind the NID. Any idea why? |
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joakoPremium
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null
kudos:5 | Probably for easy upgrade to pair bonding. The labor is many times more expensive than the cable.
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PRescott7-2097 |
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 djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
kudos:1
 ·Verizon Wireless..
·RoadRunner Cable
·AT&T U-Verse
·VOIPo
·PHONE POWER
| reply to joako
i've seen (and admittedly done) some not to spec things like stealing pairs for phone lines or power, longer than approved runs, stapling cables, etc... hell I've even seen a patch cable spliced/extended with scotch tape and somehow it worked.
Coax networking is much more finicky. I had a slightly loose fitting that the AT&T tech missed. A TV connected to that run periodically had issues.
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AT&T U-Hearse - RIP Unlimited Internet 1995-2011
Rethink Billable.
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| reply to joako
Makes sense. I didn't really understand pair bonding, never bothered to look it up and kind of assumed they always did pair bonding now, but after looking it up you are most likely right. Not sure why he didn't leave more cable attached to the 2nd cable though, it would never fit into the NID where it sits now it's about 6" short. Anyway, they are supposed to be here in the morning so hopefully all goes smoothly. |
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| reply to burns113
Install went reasonably well, tech got here at 8:50-ish and would have been done before 11 except that when he went to start everything up he got no signal on the outside line. He put in a work order and had to sit for several hours before they finally got around to coming and it turned out the guy who ran the new line sunday didn't bother connecting it inside the main box so 15 minutes later things were good to go. Ran into another problem with the phone, apparently they had some computer go down and there is a huge queue of accounts to initialize.
Everything is working great so far, black cisco DVR seems stable thus far, just waiting for the phone to start up. |
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| reply to burns113
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