Broadband - extending incoming cable to patching cupboard

[SimWat82]

I have just ordered virgin media 200mb broadband. Hub kit all received today.

The house already has a VM Coax presentation into one corner of a ground floor room.

However, the house was also double CAT6 cabled to every room in the house and terminated back to a cupboard space in the eaves where I have a 16 port gig-e switch fully patched out.

current hub and sky broadband line is presented to the same cupboard as a master socket. This has been extended to the cupboard over a cat6 cable which runs to the BT inlet point.

The issue I have is now extending the new virgin media broadband up to this location so that the hub can be patched into the distribution cabling.

the VM box location isn’t in the same spot in the house as the BT cable appears, but the outside bt and VM  boxes are side by side.

Is there any way to extend the virgin media inlet Via the existing cat6 cable?

Would a pair of baluns work on this?

[japitts · Accepted solution]

If you want to move, amend or add to, your VM cabling, then you should have this done via Virgin Media.

You can arrange a non-fault callout for a flat fee of £99, via the usual fault channels. 150 (from a VM phone) or 0345 4541111 (from any other phone)

If you're within the 14days since having what sounds like a QuickStart (self-serve) install, then you can request a manned installation to have the cabling put where you want it. You may be able to avoid the charge in this instance.

[SimWat82]

Thanks for your reply.

I didn’t really think this would have been an issue as I thought the previous owners of the house had used VM for phone and it seemed to be a twisted pair which had been extended but clearly that was just to phone line and broadband was provided over the coax.

would VM want to run additional coax upstairs ?

is there a technical limitation that says they can’t extend it via a Cat5/6 cable?

[sophist]

You have a couple of options.. 1. site the hub where the entry point is and then use one of the available ethernet ports in that room to connect teh hub to your switch in the eaves or 2. Have the cabling changed by VM to deliver the coax connection to the same location as the switch.

You cannot extend the coax connection using ethernet.

You cannot (well, should not) extend the coax yourself as the length of the cable impacts power levels to the hub and it needs to be balanced by the VM engineer.. you can also introduce noise onto your network segment if you use inferior/damaged cable that can impact services to other people in your area.

VM should install the coax wherever you want it for a new install, though you'll incur an installation charge if you're going with an engineer install or a non-fault callout charge (£99) if you leave it until after install.