No wall socket ?

[gecaka]

Hi all 👋 I have just received my kit today and have tried all available sockets that the cable would fit in. No internet, unfortunately. I wanted to check with people on here before trying to get an engineer in, just In case I've missed something.
My flat seems to have a plethora of wall sockets installed even one that is branded Virgin Media but I don't think any of them are suitable for the coax cable the Hub 3 comes with. When the door-to-door salesperson from VM was negotiating my contract with me he assured me that my flat was already hooked up (he looked it up on his tablet), but It doesn't look to me like that's the case. Do any of these sockets look like what I'm looking for?  

Edit: I just realised that I posted this to the wrong board. Would appreciate it if an admin could move it to the appropriate board as I don't seem to be able to delete or move the post.

[goslow · Accepted solution]

The metal box in photo 3 looks like a likely contender.

But the metal isolator box looks like it might be the wrong way around.

Trace the short stub of cable going through the wall and see if it goes outside to the plastic omnibox where the VM cable comes in from the street.

If the short stub of cable is the incoming cable from the street, flip the metal isolator box around so it looks like this

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/Telewest-box/td-p/5375177?lightbox-messag...

with the input cable from the street going to IN on the isolator

Connect your VM equipment to the other OUT socket.

The existing cables will be screw-on (11 mm spanner or pliers required). The new cables from your Quick Start kit will be push fit.

[gecaka]

What an absolute legend! I unscrewed the existing cable (which I assumed was ancient cable TV as it seems to have been routed all around the flat at one point) and pushed in the VM cable without even turning the isolator box around as you advised. Boom, internet immediately. Thank you very much for your help! You saved a VM engineer a trip to my place to plug a cable in haha.

Should I still try to turn the isolator box? My download speed at the moment seems to be on the low side (20mbps) even though I'm on the 250m package. Do you think that has something to do with the box being the wrong way around or is it the router still setting up my connection?

[goslow]

You could try turning the isolator around since there is a specific input side marked on it.

However, I think the metal isolator in your picture is a very old version and I have found in the past, on several occasions, that these old fittings can affect the signal quality.

If you have a new VM cable in your 'Quick Start' kit it will probably have the isolator built into it. It will look like a plastic 'tube' inserted into the cable as per this pic.

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/No-Virgin-media-wall-socket/td-p/5262385?...

You have to have an isolator fitted somewhere in the connection so, if you have one in line with the new cable, you could remove the metal isolator box altogether.

You would then need to pick up a coupler connector from a local shop which would allow you to join the short stub of cable coming out of the wall to the new VM connecting lead as per ...

https://www.diy.com/departments/f-type-screw-connector-female-socket-coupler-adapter-sat-coax-cable-...

Also available from the likes of Screwfix, Homebase, Toolstation etc.

Your photos show a real rat's nest of cables from different providers over a long period of time so there could be other connections somewhere in this chain of cables which might be harming your connection speeds.

If you still don't get the advertised speeds then you may need a tech visit to check out the cabling in your home

[gecaka]

I flipped the isolator box and I'm getting ~100mbps now! Quite a way off the 264mbps advertised but I'll take it for now. I'll order the coax adapter that you posted above to check if the box is the problem before escalating. You've been a lifesaver goslow! Thank you! My old ISP is getting disconnected tomorrow and for a bit, I thought I'd be stranded without internet.

[goslow]

Sounds like progress!

Now you are 'activated' with VM, your 14 day 'cooling off period' with VM will have started.

You need to be checking the speed you are getting with a wired ethernet connection to the hub capable of gigabit speeds (e.g. laptop/desktop with a gigabit network card plugged into the hub with an ethernet cable).

If you are still getting 100 Mbps on a wired gigabit-capable connection, personally, I'd pop down to a local shop and see if you can't pick up one of the F-connector adapters mentioned above to see if you can replace the old isolator box with the adapter. This will allow you a quick check to see if your speed picks up to the package speed without using up much of your 14 day cooling off period.

If you find you are still nowhere near the package speed, when using wired connection to measure, you will need to get onto VM for them to remedy. While you are still in your 14 day cooling off period you have (slightly) more influence/leverage to get things fixed by VM.

If the wired speed is still significantly below the advertised package speed, VM would need to investigate other things on the connection such as signal levels, noise levels, other cabling in your home etc.