Installation question - how much room does the engineer need?

[Chippy_boy]

Hi folks

I am excited to be getting a Virgin Media broadband connection next Monday 17th. The guys came to pull the cable through and fit the external grey wall box on Saturday.

At the moment, I have office furniture which is assembled (i,e, fitted furniture) and full of [REMOVED], and unfortunately sits quite close to the wall where the Virgin cable will come in. I reckon there's about 50 cm of space.

Does the install include (or require) an internal wall box? Or just a cable through the wall? If the former, do you think the engineer will be able to install it with just 50cm of space to do so?  Or am I going to have to dismantle the office - which needless to say is going to be a pigging nightmare!

What do you reckon?

PS, also, do the send the hub in advance or does the engineer bring it? I have no received anything (obviously).

Thanks

[MOD EDIT: Inappropriate language removed, please review the Forum Guidelines]

[carl_pearce]

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@Chippy_boy wrote:

Hi folks

I am excited to be getting a Virgin Media broadband connection next Monday 17th. The guys came to pull the cable through and fit the external grey wall box on Saturday.

At the moment, I have office furniture which is assembled (i,e, fitted furniture) and full of crap, and unfortunately sits quite close to the wall where the Virgin cable will come in. I reckon there's about 50 cm of space.

Does the install include (or require) an internal wall box? Or just a cable through the wall? If the former, do you think the engineer will be able to install it with just 50cm of space to do so?  Or am I going to have to dismantle the office - which needless to say is going to be a pigging nightmare!

What do you reckon?

PS, also, do the send the hub in advance or does the engineer bring it? I have no received anything (obviously).

Thanks

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50cm should be enough space to work with. I suppose it depends on the engineer!

Engineer will have the HUB with them for install.

Internal wall box examples:

FTTC

FTTP

[Roger_Gooner]

The tech will need space to work, e.g. drilling a hole from the inside to the outside of the exterior wall. If the office furniture will obstruct him you'll need to move it.

[Chippy_boy]

Thanks both

[Zach_R · Accepted solution]

Hi @Chippy_boy,

Thanks for your post and welcome to our community forums. We're here to help.

As the other members of the community have mentioned, there would be a box installed inside of the home where the cable enters the property. If you're concerned about its placement, furniture already placed in the room of the entry point, etc. then please make the engineer aware during their appointment before they begin the work and they'll accommodate you as much as possible. They'll also bring all of the equipment with them.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,
 

[Timwilky]

As said, the concern should be the routing to the internal box. From where internal co-ax will route to your hub.

So holes through the external wall with hopefully a box placed on top. The internal coax needs securing all the way to the hub location, where you will need power. That location is where any internal Cat 5E or better should terminate.

In my case the external cable entered pretty damn close to a power socket, despite assurance as to the actual ring main routing the installer was reluctant to drill the hole (or go up ladders for that matter) So I drilled it and poked his coax through.

Main issue, the internal box is surface mounted, not inset. 

[Chippy_boy]

Thanks again everyone.

The outside box has been installed next to where BT comes in, so they'll be drilling a hole though there and there's no nearby electricity cables to worry about so that should be fine. And when the internal box is fitted, the hub will be seated just a few feet away, where there is power.

So all of that side should be fine. It's simply that without huge upheaval, the engineer will only have about 50cm of space between him and a fitted cabinet, and will have to reach through to drill and screw the internal box onto the wall, sideways... if you can picture what I mean.  I am thinking the cabinet is going to have to come out. Trouble is fitted shelves (full of crap) hang of said cabinet and fitted desk too, so its a major dismantling job to take all of this to bits. 

If it was just poking a cable through, that would be a doddle, but the attaching the box to the internal wall with only the available space, I think is going to be too difficult. I think I will have to bite the bullet!