Data fitted in houses

[hard-work]

I read of houses and flats being fitted in each room with data/TV/satellite points. What do these consist of?

 

[Tigercubrider]

Presumably Ariel /satellite coax cables plus cat (6) ?

 

[hard-work]

Thanks. So a Euro data plate with 2 SKY coax outlets, one Ariel (freeview) coax outlet and one RJ45? How do they have all this brought together at the front door where the cables come in?

 

[sparkymarka]

To a cupboard ...al my services go to the understairs cupboard then back out to each room via patch. Cabinet....best thing I ever did ! No issues with wifi all the smart TVs plug in , no streaming issues

 

[hard-work]

So separate boxes in the cupboard.

 

[Lucid]

Thanks. So a Euro data plate with 2 SKY coax outlets, one Ariel (freeview) coax outlet and one RJ45? How do they have all this brought together at the front door where the cables come in?

I think the results vary a lot depending on the builder. If it's a small development company then you might get something that's well thought out and properly executed. The big national companies just seem to be throwing stuff without much thought.

Earlier this year a friend moved in to a new build estate in Nantwich, Cheshire. I think the house builder was Bovis, but not 100% on that. She has a single data point in the lounge and tge bedrooms, but its on tge opposite wall to the single TV wall socket in each room. There are wired phone points but no satellite cable points.

What's more bizarre was tge aerial cables terminate in the loft, but there was no aerial fitted. But the one that made absolutely no sense was the data cables. They went back to a wall cabinet which housed the incoming fibre line and modem plus a 4-port switch, but the data cables were unterminated. What use is that?

I don't trust house builders to do anything right when it comes to AV and data. Invariably it's an uncoordinated mess using the cheapest cables and ancillaries, and often poorly fitted.

 

[hard-work]

Isn't a modem a 4-port switch? Most have 4 RJ 45 sockets on them.

 

[hard-work]

What would you guys say was the ideal total whole house setup?

 

[Lucid]

Isn't a modem a 4-port switch? Most have 4 RJ 45 sockets on them.

No.

It confused me at first too when I came to buy my latest wireless router. I've been used to buying a single box to which the phone line connected and that included 4 network ports. What that really is is a modem, a wireless router with a built-in 4-port switch all in a single box.

This time round I went a bit more upmarket because I wanted better management of the 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless bands plus better range and higher speed wireless service. I was expecting to find could find plenty of "all-in-one wireless routers", but instead came across boxes referred to a "cable & fibre wireless routers". With these you buy a separate modem to act as the interface between the ISP and the router that talks to all the networked devices in ones home.

If you have a look at Currys PCW web site you'll see lots of Cable & Fibre routers starting from just £20. If you want something that handles the phone line connection then you need a wireless modem router instead.

 

[hard-work]

No.

It confused me at first too when I came to buy my latest wireless router. I've been used to buying a single box to which the phone line connected and that included 4 network ports. What that really is is a modem, a wireless router with a built-in 4-port switch all in a single box.

Lucid you have just said No and then said it was 4-port switch. ???

 

[Lucid]

What would you guys say was the ideal setup?

The ideal set-up is something bespoked to the exact needs of the home owner. That varies from home to home.

In general terms we are using the internet far more for entertainment services, so wired and wireless network connections are important. Coax for TV is still a useful resource; not everyone wants to pay Sky or Virgin £40-£100 per month for their TV viewing. As a minimum then it's lots of network connections and at least one TV coax cable to any point that might have a screen or a recorder.

Distribution for Sky is trickier. You can't stick the signals from the LNB through a normal multiway TV distribution amp the same as you do for Freeview. Satellite signals don't work that way. Sky needs either a single or dual feeds direct from the dish to a recorder location, or a special kind of LNB called a Quattro to be used with a device called a multiswitch, or you go for the new Sky Q system.

 

[Lucid]

Lucid you have just said No and then said it was 4-port switch. ???

Yes, I did. That's because a modem is a modem, and a 4-port switch is a 4-port switch. Just because the two devices can be built in to a single box doesn't change the fact they are are individual circuits.

Go the next stage further and introduce the router element, because a basic switch can't issue IP addresses, and you've now got three circuits in one box.

 

[hard-work]

Thanks Lucid. Nice to read your views. So a wireless router with 4 RJ45 ouput sockets rolls a 4 port switch into the router box. All one convenient box.

So, at a 4 outlet Euro plate at tv points around the house have:
- one RJ45 that can either be a phone or internet data outlet.
- one Ariel outlet.
- twin cable/satelitte outlets taking up two of the outlets.

Have all run back to one cupboard. Inside have the:
- BT phone master socket.
- Arial distribution amplifier.
- wireless modem.
- provision for cable or satelitte company to connect onto the twin cables.

All in suitable plastic enclosures.

 

[hard-work]

One thing, what is an LNB?

 

[Lucid]

Thanks Lucid. Nice to read your views. So a wireless router with 4 RJ45 ouput sockets rolls a 4 port switch into the router box. All one convenient box.

Yep. We've all been used to the idea of buying a "wireless router" or being given a box by our ISP and expecting a box to arrive that plugs in to the phone line (a modem) and that has network sockets (a switch), and that dishes out IP address numbers for our network (a router), and then that also handles the 2.4GHz radio traffic (a wireless card) because that's where the market has been when internet mainly came through the phone line and our networking needs were much simpler.

Now though the choice of service provider is broader: we've still got copper phone line, but now there's fibre broadband and cable (Virgin) too. Each requires its own type of modem, so that functionality has either been split in to a separate box or the wireless router is now specified by the type of modem it includes. Remember too, folk are changing ISP or internet services, so if they buy an expensive wireless router with really good handling of the wireless network features (dual channels, MIMO, beam shaping, guest networks, parental controls etc etc) then they're likely to want to keep that when they change or upgrade from copper to fibre or cable.

The wireless routers supplied as part of the sign-up package with a new ISP or new service tend not to that great. The router and switch side of things is fine, but often it's the wireless side and the management features that let the side down. Our homes now have lots of devices that hammer wireless networking, so range, speed and the ability to handle connections on 2.4Ghz at the same time as 5GHz without the whole wireless network speed being dragged down are all important features now.

So, at a 4 outlet Euro plate at tv points around the house have:
- one RJ45 that can either be a phone or internet data outlet.
- one Ariel outlet.
- twin cable/satelitte outlets taking up two of the outlets.

Have all run back to one cupboard. Inside have the:
- BT phone master socket.
- Arial distribution amplifier.
- wireless modem.
- provision for cable or satelitte company to connect onto the twin cables.

All in suitable plastic enclosures.

I'd provision far more data connections than a grid module would support when also populated with TV and satellite connections. That means from my point of view as an installer I know that my clients aren't going to have problems when they want to stream HD and UHD 4K either from the web or their internal house data storage.

If I look at my own gear under the TV in the living room, 4 out of the 6 video-capable devices have network connection points. Add in the TV data connection and that makes 5. I could run the Sky box, media streamer and Blu-ray player on wireless of course, but that then puts extra traffic through a slower system. The more I can keep on wired connections then the faster my wireless network for the things that can't be wired such as tablets and smart phones. Wireless is improving, but that doesn't mean to say that every wireless router is capable of delivering fast speeds, consistent connections or good range.

Oh, its a minor point but the correct word is aerial rather than Arial or Ariel - one of which is a washing powder... lol