Advice on wiring and set-up

[stevieH1]

Afternoon All - Will try and keep this as brief as possible but likely to get long winded and apologies if any of the questions appear dumb!

I am looking to switch from Sky (TV) and BT (Phone and broadband). The Ultimate Volt package gives me everything i need at a good price. OK, for a decent price reduction i can lose Sky Atlantic.

My main query concerns how everything is set up and wired in. I have spent the last 4 hours studying the forum and feel even more confused.

Virgin has only just gone live in my area but the website tells me i can book an installation. Obviously I have no virgin set up to my house and only noticed Virgin working about 200m away so have no idea regarding what cabling is required to get me set up. I assume they will set up a cable pull and put the box on the front of my house but my main query is what happens after that.

SkyQ and the (wireless) mini box work well but are expensive especially when you add the BT price on top. I see that both Virgin boxes need the coax type wall socket. At the moment i only have this downstairs (unused as Sky box links to dish) as the Sky mini box upstairs is wireless. My first question is can this be set up through the wall without wiring all round the house. The upstairs point would be directly above the downstairs so can then be linked and a new point added upstairs so in effect i would have another wall plate upstairs?

Second question, my router is currently in my hallway close to where the outside virgin box will be so hopefully not much wiring needed there but is the connection going to be OK to the 360box with WiFi only or will i also need to run ethernet to the 360box? The downstairs 360 box will be about 10 feet from the router.

I assume you actually have to sign up to Virgin Media before you find out exactly what pre-installation is required, what inside wiring will be required and where they are going to put it? Not much chance of somebody popping round and explaining everything i assume LOL.

Many thanks and I hope the above makes sense, just trying to get away with as much ugly wiring as possible. I am sure any answers will bring more questions 🙂 

[Ilyas_Y · Accepted solution]

Hey there @stevieH1, thanks for reaching out to us and a warm welcome to the Virgin Media forums.

Regarding Sky Atlantic, as that is a Sky only channel, we do't have the legal rights to broadcast the shows on there, however our lovely sales team (0800 183 1234) can accommodate and find the best option for you.

Regarding the pre-pull - this is what will be needed first to connect your property to the Virgin Media network, the pre-pull is the external works which will run a cable from the network to your house and place an omnibox outside (an omnibox being the outer box where the Virgin Media connections first land towards the property), when you take out services with us, the sales team will arrange a booking for this, and when the engineers come - you can advise them of where you'd like this to go towards the property.

The engineers who come for the actual install can work along with you so you can decide where you'd like the main Virgin Media socket and cabling, when I had mine installed the engineer asked me where I'd like everything to go, and I advised him of where I'd like X Y Z to be placed so the same can be done for you.

Regarding the TV 360 box, they can be both connected wired or wireless, 10ft usually wouldn't cause an issue and would connect with ease I'd imagine, however it would depend on the signal strength, but usually Wi-Fi connects them all the way - again I have the same setup with mine, both are on a wireless connection far away from the hub and we have measures in place to help ensure a connection, whether it be Wi-Fi pods etc.

Hope this answers the questions 🙂 Let us know.

Kind regards.

[stevieH1]

Many thanks, @Ilyas_y, that helps with most of my queries.

That only really leaves the coax query. I know both boxes have to be connected via coax cable/point and at the moment i only have a coax wall plate connection downstairs. I might be getting confused here between a coax point and an actual aerial point unless they are the same thing? The Virgin signal has to get to the coax point somehow??

Does anybody know if my upstairs coax point can be installed without wiring through the house. The upstairs point would sit directly above the downstairs so can this be split and a wire run inside the wall so i have my coax point upstairs and not need coax cable running through or up the outside of my house. Unless of course this is just an aerial point and they are not the same.......

It looks like I will need Virgin for my fast broadband at least for the foreseeable future for the reason below. I like Sky Q but too expensive to keep Sky for your TV and Virgin for your BB. The prices force you to package both into one.

Openreach installed FTTP on my entire estate a few months ago, It is available to everybody in the area except my street which makes me think there might be a problem, the estate is only 6 years old. My sister lives 150m away on the same estate and has just signed up to Sky superfast broadband, really annoying! I have sent a query to Openreach but i won't hold my breath.

Once again apologies if the questions appear dumb, just trying to understand how it all works 🙂

[nodrogd]

Broadband & TV use different frequencies in the same coax cable. The box on your front wall will be the fibre termination point where everything goes to coax. You can have a separate point wired upstairs from the outside, & you will have to decide if you want one or two points downstairs. If you use the existing outlet location a splitter will be inserted indoors between the hub & V360 main box to feed both with coax.