HUB and Telephone too far away

[titchell]

I have received the short adaptor for the landline to be connected to Fibre.  My phone point is in the middle of the house and connected to the Intruder Alarm whilst the Hub is at the front of the house.

I have read of people getting technician visits to re-site the Hub next to the phone point.  Although a technical solution, in practical terms, I have not long redecorated most of the house and do not fancy having a huge amount of cable stapled round my skirting boards and door frames to re-site the Hub in the hall.
Secondly I do not fancy having the Hub flashing away in my hall and would not have enough AC sockets to site it there and then would have to have longer ethernet cables back to the front of the house where the interfaces for my wired devices are.

Is there not something that can be done externally to the house or even a WiFi adaptor option?

[jem101]

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@titchell wrote:

I have received the short adaptor for the landline to be connected to Fibre.  My phone point is in the middle of the house and connected to the Intruder Alarm whilst the Hub is at the front of the house.

I have read of people getting technician visits to re-site the Hub next to the phone point.  Although a technical solution, in practical terms, I have not long redecorated most of the house and do not fancy having a huge amount of cable stapled round my skirting boards and door frames to re-site the Hub in the hall.
Secondly I do not fancy having the Hub flashing away in my hall and would not have enough AC sockets to site it there and then would have to have longer ethernet cables back to the front of the house where the interfaces for my wired devices are.

Is there not something that can be done externally to the house or even a WiFi adaptor option?

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I'm afraid you are between a rock and a hard place here. Firstly the old fixed line telephony provision is absolutely going away in the next couple of years, and that's a directive from on high so if really doesn't matter if you don't like it or indeed if VM don't like it or want to do it.

So there is absolutely no alternative to somehow getting the existing phone and alarm system connected directly to the hub. The only, only way is  either a cable run from the hub to where the sockets are now (which you say you don't want) or to move the phone and alarm to where the hub is (which is problematic because of the wiring to the sensors) or to move the hub to where the phone now is. 

Unfortunately; chose one of the above - there are no other options!

Incidentally, your alarm system; if it relies on the telephone connection being up, however it is physically connected, this will not work in the event of a power failure or internet connectivity issue! In that case all a potential burglar has to do is to disconnect your VM cable on the outside box, down goes the telephony provision and with it your alarm monitoring! Unless it has some kind of 3G (etc.) backup connection - you'll need to discuss that with the supplier.

[Chris_W1]

Hi titchell, thanks for the message and welcome back to the forums. 

I am sorry to hear the situation about the hub and when the changeover happens you will need to plug the phone directly into the hub as we are migrating all customers to this version. 

This would be the only way to have the phone line and if you don't want to do this, you can choose to have the services with no phone line. 

Please let us know if we can provide any further information?

Chris. 

[goslow · Accepted solution]

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@titchell wrote:

Alarm will be compatible but cannot move it as it is wired in through the walls to the sensors

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Presumably the existing wiring (coax from the VM hub and phone line to the phone socket and alarm's phone connection) converge at the front of the house outside in a VM omnibox.

If so, the VM tech should be able to run a new phone cable from the VM hub in its present location (following the same path as the coax cable) to the omnibox outside. Within the omnibox outside, the VM tech should be able to disconnect the old incoming line from the street then link the new phone cable from the VM hub to the existing internal phone wiring within the omnibox.

Not a 'wire-free' solution but new wiring should be minimal and should be able to follow the path of an existing coax cable.

If the above is a no-go, then the alternative wire-free solutions have been described in earlier answers above.

[titchell]

That sounds like a great idea, could this not be the default, apart from cost for the technician?  Not much impact on customer's internals 

[goslow]

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@titchell wrote:

That sounds like a great idea, could this not be the default, apart from cost for the technician?  Not much impact on customer's internals 

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I am sure VM would like to avoid doing any of this kind of work if they could, for time/cost reasons.

You need a VM tech to come and change your phone wiring (not your hub location) so that the phone socket on the hub is linked in to your existing phone sockets in the home. A customer described their recent experience of getting that done via VM here

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/Why-must-I-move-my-phones-and-plug-them-into-the-vir...

Seemingly a big part of the problem was getting a suitable VM tech to do the work (5 tech visits are mentioned until the 'right' one turned up!)

VM should do this free of charge for you. See

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/landline/switchover

and the section

Do I need to book a technician visit?
You’ll need to book a free technician visit if...

• You rely on your landline for accessibility needs or don’t have a mobile to make an emergency call – we’ll provide you with an Emergency Back Up Line so you’re always able to call emergency services.
• You’ve got connected devices such as a burglar alarm linked to a control centre, use a telecare device, or have other phones connected to extension sockets. You’ll need to contact your provider and let them know about the switch if you have any of these to make sure they’re compatible with a fibre service.
• The Hub and your home phone can’t be placed near each other.

The success (or not) of my wiring suggestion may go beyond what you have described in the topic depending on exact details on site but an accommodating and competent VM tech should be able to work that out for you with minimal disruption and wiring on show (some additional wiring would be required though, just a case of trying to do it in as careful and least-obtrusive way possible).

With all of that said though, your alarm's ability to dial out will still be entirely dependent on the operation of the phone line from the hub. If your hub is offline for any reason, then your alarm may not be able to dial out anyway.

[Tom_W1]

Hi @titchell, thanks a lot for your reply here.

I can certainly take a look into this for you and explore options - please allow me to send you a PM to discuss this in more detail.

Kindly expect this to arrive shortly and respond directly when you can!

Many thanks