Full Fibre Installation - Wiring before install
Discussion
snotrag said:
Heres ours - installed as original build so usefully the fibre goes all the way to the airing cupboard upstairs.
Fibre is the cable with the green end - this is what Openreach will pull through from the street into your house.
The small (100mm square ish) white box sits on the inside - this needs power, as shown.
Then an Ethernet cable (the Left most cable) runs to wherever you want it ans is yours to do what you want.
Note, in our house the whole lot sits in that larger white casing, although this is not needed. I suspect they used it just to hide the big hole in the plasterboard.
So all you need to do is provide power at the point of entry. Then run your CAT5 yourself into the house and manage your network yourself.
That looks like the older version, mine is effectively just the small box bolted to the wall.Fibre is the cable with the green end - this is what Openreach will pull through from the street into your house.
The small (100mm square ish) white box sits on the inside - this needs power, as shown.
Then an Ethernet cable (the Left most cable) runs to wherever you want it ans is yours to do what you want.
Note, in our house the whole lot sits in that larger white casing, although this is not needed. I suspect they used it just to hide the big hole in the plasterboard.
So all you need to do is provide power at the point of entry. Then run your CAT5 yourself into the house and manage your network yourself.
The ONT is tiny now - ours is fag packet sized.
As someone else mentioned, the fibre doesn't come straight in - from the pole, or underground, it goes to a grey CSP (customer service / splice point) near the ground and it's joined to the internal cable there.
It must be possible to somehow obtain the internal ezbend cable as they're supplied to housing developers to install during building.
During our house refurb I had all the data cabling brought to the front landing (it's a 'dead' area as the stairs go the other way) and our fibre comes in there. In hindsight I should have stuffed everything into the redundant airing cupboard and I could have run some flexible conduit through the loft and to a soffit and had them bring the fibre in there.
ETA: I'm not in Lymm, but these pictures are exactly what we had installed a few mths ago, The ONT (internal) is around 3" square. I guess the grey outside one is maybe 6" square. https://lymm.uk/lymm-broadband
As someone else mentioned, the fibre doesn't come straight in - from the pole, or underground, it goes to a grey CSP (customer service / splice point) near the ground and it's joined to the internal cable there.
It must be possible to somehow obtain the internal ezbend cable as they're supplied to housing developers to install during building.
During our house refurb I had all the data cabling brought to the front landing (it's a 'dead' area as the stairs go the other way) and our fibre comes in there. In hindsight I should have stuffed everything into the redundant airing cupboard and I could have run some flexible conduit through the loft and to a soffit and had them bring the fibre in there.
ETA: I'm not in Lymm, but these pictures are exactly what we had installed a few mths ago, The ONT (internal) is around 3" square. I guess the grey outside one is maybe 6" square. https://lymm.uk/lymm-broadband
Edited by Sheepshanks on Thursday 5th January 09:46
Freakuk said:
That looks like the older version, mine is effectively just the small box bolted to the wall.
The larger 'box' is literally just a plastic casing, the small box inside is identical the one installesd at my parents this month.I reckon they only fitted the large plastic case to save having to tidy up the hole in the plasterboard.
snotrag said:
Then an Ethernet cable (the Left most cable) runs to wherever you want it ans is yours to do what you want.
....
Then run your CAT5 yourself into the house and manage your network yourself.
This, but with the proviso that the Cat5 connection on the ONT needs to be connected to a device that will deal with PPPoE.. this would usually be your router. i.e. you don't just connect this to the internal network directly this is obvious if you know.. maybe not obvious if you don't already know (if you see what I mean).....
Then run your CAT5 yourself into the house and manage your network yourself.
Re phones and Digital Voice, unless BT has changed the set up very recently, the handsets and the small plug in £15 box (Digital Voice Adaptor (DVA) communicate with the home hub by Dect (I think - but it is certainly some wireless protocol which is not wi-fi). The DVA is not a wireline adaptor. This means that for the phones and the DVA you need a clear wireless signal from the home hub to the phone/DVA. So if you are in a big property, or one with thick walls (or both), where you struggle to get effective wifi coverage, you will also struggle to make BT Digital Voice work for you. BT know this but, last time I checked, offer no solution. VOIP using a home ethernet network is a different proposition.
Sheepshanks said:
One thing re installation - if the outer wall is brick try and avoid letting them blast through from the inside. The girl that did ours blew literally half the face of a brick off. It was so violent that it broke into a three main pieces and I was able to stick them back and luckily it's not in place that catches the eye.
A very good point as I had a similar issue. The blow off is hidden behind the exterior box in my case but I wish I had been quicker off the mark with an old bit of plank or similar to hold against the outside while matey was hammer drilling from inside.My installation was by City Fibre courtesy of TalkTalk
. Although I was assured that the copper connection would be severed forthwith it is still working a year later. Even more strange is that after I later signed up for a faster connection I found that local exchange numbers on memory dial weren’t always getting through because the local dialling code wasn’t needed so had to reset local numbers. Very odd!I mentioned in another thread, but if you are relying on BT supplying a new router for the install, don't hold your breath. My router has been stuck at the local mail centre since November 26th (on a Tracked 48hr delivery) and the engineers don't carry stock. Luckily my old router works for now, but it's not ideal.
We had a new fibre line pulled to our house, from the fibre cabinet some 150 meters away.
There is a coil of fibre just by the front door, where they have fitted a grey box.
However all our internet usage is used upstairs,
Main house office, TV, etc.
Can I ask them to have the connection through the wall, and then upstairs somewhere ?
We just have one of the cheap supplied Vodafone router things[url]
I understand they are awful.
|https://thumbsnap.com/eThJmvbm[/url]
.
There is a coil of fibre just by the front door, where they have fitted a grey box.
However all our internet usage is used upstairs,
Main house office, TV, etc.
Can I ask them to have the connection through the wall, and then upstairs somewhere ?
We just have one of the cheap supplied Vodafone router things[url]
I understand they are awful.
|https://thumbsnap.com/eThJmvbm[/url].
Openreach said they would install wherever we wanted it. Fibre came over the existing poles to the side of the house. Outside box installed. Very thin fibre then threaded through the wall and routed internally to the office where they connected it to the small modem box on the wall. BT Home Hub 2 then plugs into that with an ethernet cable.
Dogwatch said:
Although I was assured that the copper connection would be severed forthwith it is still working a year later.
Our fibre installer took the old copper overhead line away. Fibre broadband worked immediately and we could make outgoing calls but we couldn't receive incoming calls and, worse, the callers still got a ringing tone. For us, this was a massive issue as mobile coverage at home is iffy, so we generaly give people the landline number, and wife was in the middle of medical treatment. BT said it would take two weeks to sort out and even going to Executive complaints it did indeed take two weeks.So, if you're offered a choice and you rely on the landline, keep the old one until digital voice works.
The other odd thing, that may be connected, was our next quarterly bill credited the old FTTC and phone service - but didn't charge us for the new service. With the compensation BT paid, we got a bill for minus £120!
Register1 said:
We had a new fibre line pulled to our house, from the fibre cabinet some 150 meters away.
There is a coil of fibre just by the front door, where they have fitted a grey box.
However all our internet usage is used upstairs,
Main house office, TV, etc.
Can I ask them to have the connection through the wall, and then upstairs somewhere ?
We just have one of the cheap supplied Vodafone router things
There needs to be a fibre run from the internal ONT box back to the outside grey box. If there's a reasonable route to use, then it seems they will, but they probably reckon on putting it somehere convenient for them.There is a coil of fibre just by the front door, where they have fitted a grey box.
However all our internet usage is used upstairs,
Main house office, TV, etc.
Can I ask them to have the connection through the wall, and then upstairs somewhere ?
We just have one of the cheap supplied Vodafone router things
The alternative is to have the ONT inside near to the grey box and then it's up to you to run an ethernet cable from there to the WAN port on the router.
Sheepshanks said:
Register1 said:
We had a new fibre line pulled to our house, from the fibre cabinet some 150 meters away.
There is a coil of fibre just by the front door, where they have fitted a grey box.
However all our internet usage is used upstairs,
Main house office, TV, etc.
Can I ask them to have the connection through the wall, and then upstairs somewhere ?
We just have one of the cheap supplied Vodafone router things
There needs to be a fibre run from the internal ONT box back to the outside grey box. If there's a reasonable route to use, then it seems they will, but they probably reckon on putting it somehere convenient for them.There is a coil of fibre just by the front door, where they have fitted a grey box.
However all our internet usage is used upstairs,
Main house office, TV, etc.
Can I ask them to have the connection through the wall, and then upstairs somewhere ?
We just have one of the cheap supplied Vodafone router things
The alternative is to have the ONT inside near to the grey box and then it's up to you to run an ethernet cable from there to the WAN port on the router.
So instead of having the old box in the front lounge wired up, I would like the new internal box to be upstairs somewhere,
Resurrecting this thread as I now have been informed that there is fibre to the telegraph pole outside our house and hoping to replace the existing copper with fibre to improve the slow and unreliable connection we currently get.
The issue I have is that the current entry point for the copper line is at the front left of the house on the gable end soffit – see first picture below. The existing copper line currently runs from here, along the gable end wall, around the corner and then down the back wall of the house and into the study at the rear left of the house near ground level (the green lines on the pictures below). All of this line is currently behind a layer of rendering, so you can't see it at all.
As I understand it, the new fibre cable will follow the same line from the pole to the front left soffit. From there, how will Open Reach run the line to the study at the rear of the house? Ideally, I'd like the new line (which will be a black cable presumably) to follow the gable roof line on the soffit close to the underside of the tiles, then around the corner and down the back wall behind a drainpipe in the corner (the red lines on the images below) so that the cable run is as well disguised as possible. The house is rendered white with white soffits and gutters, so the idea of a black cable just tacked, mid height onto the gable wall wherever it's easiest for them to fix it, is not going to be acceptable to me from a visual perspective. I have also heard that the fibre line from the pole to the entry point into the house can't go around any tight corners or right angles, so if that's true not even sure how it would be possible to get the line from the front of the house to the back where the existing router and phone socket is located as it would have to turn several tight corners to get there as can be seen from the pictures. Alternatively, could the line be run internally - from the front soffit into the attic space and then back through the underside of the soffit at the back of the house negating the need for any external cable along the side of the house and around the corner to the back?
There doesn't seem to be any way to contact Open Reach prior to installation to get someone to do a feasibility study, I just have to sign up for a full fibre deal with BT and they will book Open Reach for the installation on a date I can choose. Obviously, I'm a bit reluctant to do this until I have a better idea of how the line can be run from the front to back of the house, so any advice or experience others have had would be most appreciated.
I'm wondering if it's possible to get another company (not Open Reach) to run the cable along the route I desire (external or internal) from the entry point into the study on the back wall to the front soffit in advance and then for Open Reach to simply take this line to the pole and then make all the connections?
The issue I have is that the current entry point for the copper line is at the front left of the house on the gable end soffit – see first picture below. The existing copper line currently runs from here, along the gable end wall, around the corner and then down the back wall of the house and into the study at the rear left of the house near ground level (the green lines on the pictures below). All of this line is currently behind a layer of rendering, so you can't see it at all.
As I understand it, the new fibre cable will follow the same line from the pole to the front left soffit. From there, how will Open Reach run the line to the study at the rear of the house? Ideally, I'd like the new line (which will be a black cable presumably) to follow the gable roof line on the soffit close to the underside of the tiles, then around the corner and down the back wall behind a drainpipe in the corner (the red lines on the images below) so that the cable run is as well disguised as possible. The house is rendered white with white soffits and gutters, so the idea of a black cable just tacked, mid height onto the gable wall wherever it's easiest for them to fix it, is not going to be acceptable to me from a visual perspective. I have also heard that the fibre line from the pole to the entry point into the house can't go around any tight corners or right angles, so if that's true not even sure how it would be possible to get the line from the front of the house to the back where the existing router and phone socket is located as it would have to turn several tight corners to get there as can be seen from the pictures. Alternatively, could the line be run internally - from the front soffit into the attic space and then back through the underside of the soffit at the back of the house negating the need for any external cable along the side of the house and around the corner to the back?
There doesn't seem to be any way to contact Open Reach prior to installation to get someone to do a feasibility study, I just have to sign up for a full fibre deal with BT and they will book Open Reach for the installation on a date I can choose. Obviously, I'm a bit reluctant to do this until I have a better idea of how the line can be run from the front to back of the house, so any advice or experience others have had would be most appreciated.
I'm wondering if it's possible to get another company (not Open Reach) to run the cable along the route I desire (external or internal) from the entry point into the study on the back wall to the front soffit in advance and then for Open Reach to simply take this line to the pole and then make all the connections?
Edited by blade runner on Thursday 2nd May 13:06
Yes, I'll definitely be in for the install.
Thinking a bit more about it, I reckon the easiest and most elegant solution would be to go through the soffits front and back and run the fibre cable through a conduit inside the loft space. That way, I can run a white conduit from the underside of the soffit down the back wall next to the drainpipe as well, so very little black cable will be visible. I assume that if I make the holes in the soffits and install the conduit with a line inside, they can just use this to pull the fibre cable through from front to back when they install? This also avoids the tight right angle turns that would be needed if they have to tack the line to the external walls.
Thinking a bit more about it, I reckon the easiest and most elegant solution would be to go through the soffits front and back and run the fibre cable through a conduit inside the loft space. That way, I can run a white conduit from the underside of the soffit down the back wall next to the drainpipe as well, so very little black cable will be visible. I assume that if I make the holes in the soffits and install the conduit with a line inside, they can just use this to pull the fibre cable through from front to back when they install? This also avoids the tight right angle turns that would be needed if they have to tack the line to the external walls.
I requested I went Underground , OPENREACH agreed and supplied me with ducting to lay on my property. The 3rd party installer OPENREACH sub-contracted to , broke into the external duct . When it came to installing the fibre , it was fed to termination on the outside of my property where I had laid the ducting. Since I'm on floorboards and not a solid floor , I'd previously installed a draw rope to my "Comms Room(The Cistern Cupboard)" . So OPENREACH give me the appropriate length fibre tail (15 metres IIRC) and I pulled it though. They terminated at the ONT in the "Comms Room" and Bobs Your Uncle.
A month later OPENREACH came and took the overhead cable away and removed the pole , since mine was the only line on the pole.
Excellent Customer Service from OPENREACH .
A month later OPENREACH came and took the overhead cable away and removed the pole , since mine was the only line on the pole.
Excellent Customer Service from OPENREACH .
The Three D Mucketeer said:
I requested I went Underground , OPENREACH agreed and supplied me with ducting to lay on my property. The 3rd party installer OPENREACH sub-contracted to , broke into the external duct . When it came to installing the fibre , it was fed to termination on the outside of my property where I had laid the ducting. Since I'm on floorboards and not a solid floor , I'd previously installed a draw rope to my "Comms Room(The Cistern Cupboard)" . So OPENREACH give me the appropriate length fibre tail (15 metres IIRC) and I pulled it though. They terminated at the ONT in the "Comms Room" and Bobs Your Uncle.
A month later OPENREACH came and took the overhead cable away and removed the pole , since mine was the only line on the pole.
Excellent Customer Service from OPENREACH .
Undergound would be great, but I don't really have that option as it would need to cross a tarmac drive, then run along the side of the garage, under a patio and then under some decking to get all the way from the pole to the back of the house (navigating various drains and soil pipes along the way). How did you get in contact with Open Reach to set all this up in advance, as I can't seem to find any way to make contact with them to discuss any works I can do prior to the install?A month later OPENREACH came and took the overhead cable away and removed the pole , since mine was the only line on the pole.
Excellent Customer Service from OPENREACH .
Virgin Media, using overhead lines, run the fibre to an external box (first fit) then run fibre continuously to the router. There's no ethernet cable involved. They can add an additional internal box with a fly-lead optical fibre to give you a little more freedom on positioning the router.
blade runner said:
Undergound would be great, but I don't really have that option as it would need to cross a tarmac drive, then run along the side of the garage, under a patio and then under some decking to get all the way from the pole to the back of the house (navigating various drains and soil pipes along the way). How did you get in contact with Open Reach to set all this up in advance, as I can't seem to find any way to make contact with them to discuss any works I can do prior to the install?
But why does it need to finish in the same position as now ?Don't forget most of your in house devices are better on WIFI , since many devices Ethernet card only runs at 10Mb
...and their WIFIs are 56 Mb + .With Digital voice phones they run over the same DECT type system wthin the house only using Broadband to connect to the digital phone network. So you don't need any cabling in the property .
So the Router and ONT could be sited anywhere in the house and you then only need to be concerned where the external fibre termination is located . Just worth thinking "out of the box" and don't assume the current provision is the most convienient for yourself (of course the OPENREACH engineer will like to do it as it is
).In my village all the main copper and fibre distribution is underground , the poles are only used to serve the properties ..The CBT FTTP boxes are either on the poles or in underground cable chambers . New houses are usually built with ducts for services, poles are there for historical reasons and people like you don't like having their drives dug up
.My duct went through a flower bed and hedge through to the ducts in the road side verge.Edited by The Three D Mucketeer on Thursday 2nd May 17:39
Does the external box have to be on an external wall? Another option could be to run the cable down in a conduit behind the drainpipe at front left of the house, then through the wall into the (ajoined) garage, along the internal garage wall and straight through into the study. That would mean the external connection box would be inside the garage mounted to the wall, but I assume that wouldn't necessarily be a problem?
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