House rewired- weak ntl signal

Wheeker

I have just had my house completely rewired. I asked the sparky to put TV points in 5 rooms.

On first moving-in to the house there were ntl boxes in 3 rooms & coax extensions in the other 2. However, I never used anything but the ntl box in the living room which provided me with digital TV, Broadband & phone perfectly. After the rewiring I plugged in my STB & Modem in the living room & nothing works due to a poor signal. I have tried a few reboots & reset the STB which tells me I have a weak signal (about 15%).

Having rooted about a bit I have discovered that my sparky has taken the ntl feed into the attic & then put in a 4-way F splitter with one of these outputs going down to a 3-way splitter before finally reaching the STB & modem. Would this be downgrading the signal too much?

Should I buy a 4-way digital tv booster to replace the 4-way splitter? Any suggestions? Will this still provide me with BB & phone ok? TBH all I'm worried about is my TV/BB/Phone & I wouldn't have bothered with other points if I knew it was going to affect this. Should I get an ntl engineer in?

neacy69

Wheeker wrote: »

I have just had my house completely rewired. I asked the sparky to put TV points in 5 rooms.

On first moving-in to the house there were ntl boxes in 3 rooms & coax extensions in the other 2. However, I never used anything but the ntl box in the living room which provided me with digital TV, Broadband & phone perfectly. After the rewiring I plugged in my STB & Modem in the living room & nothing works due to a poor signal. I have tried a few reboots & reset the STB which tells me I have a weak signal (about 15%).

Having rooted about a bit I have discovered that my sparky has taken the ntl feed into the attic & then put in a 4-way F splitter with one of these outputs going down to a 3-way splitter before finally reaching the STB & modem. Would this be downgrading the signal too much?

Should I buy a 4-way digital tv booster to replace the 4-way splitter? Any suggestions? Will this still provide me with BB & phone ok? TBH all I'm worried about is my TV/BB/Phone & I wouldn't have bothered with other points if I knew it was going to affect this. Should I get an ntl engineer in?

Splitting the wire would probably have caused the weakened signal as you suggested a booster should do the trick for you. It worked for me but I was only using it for analogue signals and not digital.....

this is the one i used:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SLx-Aerial-Amplifier-Digtial-Pass/dp/B0009D5W0Q

but like i said I didnt used the Digital part....

The tax man

DO NOT waste your money on any amplifier when you've BB\VoIP in the mix. They don't have any sort of return path features which your modem relies on.
Sorry but perfect example why most sparks shouldn't do these types of jobs. Any monkey can run and split cables till the cows come home but they don't know the problems they'll leave behind.

A rough guess at types of splits used,you've lost between 10db/14db in signal level.
Just get NTL out to look at what's been done in the house and they'll advice you from there. You may incur a charge for work carried out.

rubadub

UPC would put no more than 4 points in my house, said they would not support any more due to weak signals.

The guy probably put standard coax in too, which will not help matters.

One good thing I have to say about UPC was the installation they did for me, very reasonable price and got free sub to all the rooms for good.

DingDong

If your sparks used really cheap brown cable I'd be very worried. I hope he used at least CT100 but preferably RG6,with either of these it should be fixable. Like tax man said best to have ntl out to take a look.

Wheeker

Thanks for the advice guys, appreciated.

Last night I got a couple of F couplers & connected the ntl feed direct to my living room outlet (i.e. bypassing the splitters). The STB showed about a 70% signal & the TV is now absolutely fine . However the BB & Phone are still not working.

All the cabling used by the sparky is black & "looks" to be decent quality, though not sure if it's CT100 or RG6

Anyhow, I have an ntl engineer calling tomorrow, so hopefully (as long as he shows up!) he will be able to sort it. I am just worried how much it will cost- "rubadub" can I ask how much were you charged? Will ntl charge me for extra TV points (though no extra STB's)?

Thanks again.

rubadub

Wheeker wrote: »

I am just worried how much it will cost- "rubadub" can I ask how much were you charged? Will ntl charge me for extra TV points (though no extra STB's)?

I think it was €15 per point, which is very good, I doubt I could buy the kit & cables they used for that price, let alone do the labour. Each point had its own junction box thingy.

Thing was we moved in and held off getting it in for ages, they kept sending better and better offers. In your case I expect they will charge for a monthly subscription on each point (even if only analogue). I think it might be €2-3 per point per month. So in the long run it is probably cheaper to get a sparks in, if they know what they are at.

zaphodbeeb

So Wheeker,

What did the NTL guy charge?

Wheeker

zaphodbeeb wrote: »

So Wheeker,

What did the NTL guy charge?

Well, I must say he was very helpful. He said about 90% of electricians get it wrong when rewiring ntl. :rolleyes: With BB you can only afford to have one split. He said ntl don't lift floorboards or skirting & recommended I got a brand new feed put in. Of course this would then have to be drilled though my front wall & be in my front room instead of my living room where I have all my TV/PC equipment, so I wasn't too keen.

However, he was good enough to work with the existing wiring installed (by-passing the splitters) & put on new connectors. Eventually I got a good quality, strong signal that was good enough for the BB & phone.

So, I have got my TV/BB/Phone all working great again & at no extra charge! However, I have lost all my extra TV outlets, but tbh I can live with that for now & try to solve that at a later date (DTT aerial in the loft ).