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itwong
join:2012-02-18
Sacramento, CA

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itwong

Member

New installation scheduled for Monday, what to expect?

I am in the south sacramento, CA neighborhood with no pole nearby. I assume all the utilities are underground including comcast's mainline. I have never had service with comcast before and in my front yard, I don't see a green cable box/cylinder either. So my guess is there is not a feeder line run from the pedestal to my house. My question is when the tech arrives, what is he going to do? Where is the cable drop? Does it require cutting the concrete to reach the underground cable? Would it cost extra when they have to dig up my front yard to bury a feeder cable?My houses are already wired for 3 jacks and there is an access box at the side of the house where the telephone box, electricity and gas meters are. Thank you for your answer.

NetFixer
From My Cold Dead Hands
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join:2004-06-24
The Boro
Netgear CM500
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NetFixer

Premium Member

said by itwong:

I am in the south sacramento, CA neighborhood with no pole nearby. I assume all the utilities are underground including comcast's mainline. I have never had service with comcast before and in my front yard, I don't see a green cable box/cylinder either. So my guess is there is not a feeder line run from the pedestal to my house. My question is when the tech arrives, what is he going to do? Where is the cable drop? Does it require cutting the concrete to reach the underground cable? Would it cost extra when they have to dig up my front yard to bury a feeder cable?My houses are already wired for 3 jacks and there is an access box at the side of the house where the telephone box, electricity and gas meters are. Thank you for your answer.

Most of your questions can not be answered by anyone in this forum. Even if a Comcast tech from your area saw this post, that tech would have no way of knowing your street address, and therefore no way of knowing where any Comcast infrastructure is in relation to your house.

However, unless you were warned that your house was not serviceable when you called and setup the install (and this install is actually an install and not a site survey visit), you should not have to worry about additional charges for putting in a new drop to reach your house even if it does require burial. Also, even if burying a new underground drop to your house required crossing a paved area, that can usually be accomplished by using a special tunneling tool rather than cutting the pavement.

OTOH, if burying a new cable is required, the install tech may run a temporary cable above ground and schedule a revisit for the burial if such work was not anticipated when the install was setup. ISPs (all ISPs) are notorious for leaving out such details in the work order. I can't tell you how many new installations I have done when the work order only mentioned "setting up" a new Cisco router with no mention that I also needed to run a cable from one end of a football field size warehouse or factory floor to the other end in order to get the new circuit connected to the new router.

owlyn
MVM
join:2004-06-05
Newtown, PA
Netgear CM2050V
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owlyn to itwong

MVM

to itwong
It is common to not have a box or cylinder at your house. There should be something somewhere on your street, or very nearby. If not a box or cylinder, it may be a plate at ground level covering a completely buried tap. Take a look. Also, check with the nearest neighbors to see if they have Comcast. If so, ask them if they know how it was run to their house.

If there is something on your street, but no line coming to your house, the tech should install a demarc box at your house, and then will probably run a temporary cable as NetFixer described.

If there is nothing visible around, then may the Comcast gods be with you.
rody_44
Premium Member
join:2004-02-20
Quakertown, PA

rody_44 to itwong

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to itwong
You say you have a access box mounted on the house. Most likely the house feed is in there. It isnt very typical a home builder installed a access box. That is almost always done by the cable company. Im guessing everything goes without a hitch. Not everyone gets a pedestal in their yard. Only a few unlucky subscribers get that.
itwong
join:2012-02-18
Sacramento, CA

itwong

Member

By access box, I mean i can see all the coaxial lines from the houses jacks are all connected to a splitter of some sort but I don't see any demarc like owlyn mentioned. I suppose the demarc is simiilar to NID from the telephone company. hopefully the house has been wired for comcast before and all they have to do is re-wire at the side of the house. I really don't want them to ruin my front yard landscape.

beachintech
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join:2008-01-06

beachintech to rody_44

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to rody_44
said by rody_44:

You say you have a access box mounted on the house. Most likely the house feed is in there. It isnt very typical a home builder installed a access box. That is almost always done by the cable company. Im guessing everything goes without a hitch. Not everyone gets a pedestal in their yard. Only a few unlucky subscribers get that.

Like every other house in an underground plant? lol.

gar187er
I DID this for a living
join:2006-06-24
Seattle, WA

gar187er

Member

said by beachintech:

said by rody_44:

You say you have a access box mounted on the house. Most likely the house feed is in there. It isnt very typical a home builder installed a access box. That is almost always done by the cable company. Im guessing everything goes without a hitch. Not everyone gets a pedestal in their yard. Only a few unlucky subscribers get that.

Like every other house in an underground plant? lol.

yea not everyone
rody_44
Premium Member
join:2004-02-20
Quakertown, PA

rody_44 to itwong

Premium Member

to itwong
Well a splitter isnt a access box so it might be there, might not. Find the in line to the splitter and see where it goes.

owlyn
MVM
join:2004-06-05
Newtown, PA
Netgear CM2050V
Netgear RBRE960
Netgear RBSE960

owlyn to itwong

MVM

to itwong
said by itwong:

By access box, I mean i can see all the coaxial lines from the houses jacks are all connected to a splitter of some sort but I don't see any demarc like owlyn mentioned. I suppose the demarc is simiilar to NID from the telephone company. hopefully the house has been wired for comcast before and all they have to do is re-wire at the side of the house. I really don't want them to ruin my front yard landscape.

My demarc box is about the same size as a telco NID. They had to run a new line for me from the tap several years ago, as there was a problem with the old one. We decided it was better to take a slightly different path due to tree roots and other landscaping. The new path was under grass only. They dug it by machine underground, even under my driveway. The only had to make one hole, which was where there was an almost 90 degree turn. Except for the one small hole (which they filled in and put seed on, you would never know anything happened). They laid in conduit, and then just ran the cable through the conduit. I am probably the only house in the development that has conduit. Overall, the path from the tap to my house is probably about 35 feet longer than it was originally.

All of which, BTW, is 1000% better than what the power company had to do a few years ago. Some neighbors a few doors up from me were not getting power on both legs from the transformer. Power company came out and found that the power line between the neighbors and the transformer was shorted out under my driveway (it bends there to get to the transformer). They had to dig a hole in my driveway to repair the line! As you can imagine, we were a little upset. They sent a crew back and patched it. Fortunately, this was all before we had the driveway repaved (it needed it way before this happened), so the patch job didn't bother us. They did it very well, but it was an obvious patch. They did take a picture prior to digging to show the condition of the driveway. They said they had to restore the driveway to its previous condition. Don't know if that means look like new, as it does now after repaving, or just flat to match the existing paving.
itwong
join:2012-02-18
Sacramento, CA

itwong

Member

i hope my node is not oversold. I did see a lot of comcast green box/cylinder in the neighborhood.
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