Will CableLink box work for UPC?

Chelon

We just moved house and were told by UPC the existing CableLink box should work. They connected the service externally and we tried it but no joy.

Cut a long story short - their engineer didn't show up today(he was going to swap the connection box) and we now have to wait another 4 days.

Question is - is there any way we can try to get the CableLink box working(assuming the signal is good)? We have all the UPC equipment form the old house here: digital+ box, phone, splitter, terminator & cables.

They told us it should be plug n play and shouldn't have to re-enter the activation code, etc.

coylemj

Please use the term 'wall box' rather than 'box' as the term 'box' could mean the digital decoder.

One of the sockets on the wall box is for FM radio and as far I can recall the TV signals are screened out so that socket will not feed the TV, even for the analog channels. The point I'm making is that only one of the two sockets is capable of feeding the TV or digital box.

Plug the co-ax cable straight into the TV, do a scan and see if you get the basic analog channels, at least that will establish if the wall box is connected to the UPC network.

Chelon

Thanks for this. Have tried both ports on the wall box. One shows no channels and the other only gives us one very weak TV3 signal. Does this mean UPC haven't made the connection outside at all?

coylemj

Chelon wrote: »

Thanks for this. Have tried both ports on the wall box. One shows no channels and the other only gives us one very weak TV3 signal. Does this mean UPC haven't made the connection outside at all?

Probably, if you can't get the basic analog channels on either port then you're not connected.

icdg

"Wall tap" is probably the best term, to most the term "box" means "set top box".

While it used to be practice of NTL to swap the Cablelink wall taps for NTL ones if digital was being installed, the Cablelink ones may work (I know mine does, at any rate).

BostonB

I wonder how many actually use the FM connector. Far more useful would be a connection for the modem, or another feed for the set top box.

lucernarian

icdg wrote: »

"Wall tap" is probably the best term, to most the term "box" means "set top box".

While it used to be practice of NTL to swap the Cablelink wall taps for NTL ones if digital was being installed, the Cablelink ones may work (I know mine does, at any rate).

It's not a tap though, like the boxes on the wall outside which take a very high powered signal and offer a small proportion of that signal to each outlet. Wall box or wall outlet would do just fine. It does contain a splitter to separate FM from the other frequencies but that's it. The actual tap is usually located on the wall outside or else in a manhole at the footpath.

Bazzer2

Well, I used to work for Cablelink and the proper term for it was "Outlet Box".

Chelon

The UPC engineer who was due didn't turn up on Monday. They told me that there had been an outage in my area and when service was restored they just cancelled my call...unbelievable!

Then their "technical help" wouldn't even discuss it when I told them that it looked like the service wasn't connected to the house, they assured me it had been done & an engineer would need to call to check the wall outlet.

The first free slot was Thursday so we were without service for a further 3 days; when he did arrive, guess what- connection hadn't been made outside house. All ok now, but this is first experience of UPCs infamous customer service and have to say, they are baaad....

Solair

There's nothing magic about a UPC branded wall socket. They're just a socket with an isolator and FM/TV splitter. Whether they were installed in the 1970s or 2011 they're more or less the same technology. They just came in various different guises depending on when they were installed, and which company : CableLink (or its predecessors), Cork Multichannel, Chorus, etc all did things slightly differently. For example, Cork Multichannel often installed an isolator near where the cable feed came into the house, which was often near the electrical fusebox and ran normal unbranded flat CATV sockets elsewhere.

For broadband, what is of more importance is the age and type of the coaxial cable used. Some older drops might be problematic for broadband.

The device on the wall, is just called an isolator socket / splitter.

The 'tap' is where your 'drop' (the line coming into your house) connects to the cable trunk on the street outside / in the ground.

The isolator's main purpose is to prevent people accidentally feeding mains voltages etc back into the cable network. This could conceivably happen if you had a faulty TV or set top box, but was a particular concern when TVs were directly connected to CATV lines.

coylemj

Solair wrote: »

There's nothing magic about a UPC branded wall socket. They're just a socket with an isolator and FM/TV splitter. Whether they were installed in the 1970s or 2011 they're more or less the same technology.

So why did the UPC lads replace all three of my Cablelink wall boxes (installed in the mid 90s) when I revived my subscription in 2009? All of the old boxes had the Cablelink logo and separate TV and FM sockets.

Solair

coylemj wrote: »

So why did the UPC lads replace all three of my Cablelink wall boxes (installed in the mid 90s) when I revived my subscription in 2009? All of the old boxes had the Cablelink logo and separate TV and FM sockets.

Uniformity, branding, some kind of standardised job spec that includes changing that box?

They installed Digital TV for me in Dublin and didn't change anything.

I think they'd some notion of being able to install the broadband splitter in the new wall socket housing. However, I've never seen it done.

coylemj

Solair wrote: »

I think they'd some notion of being able to install the broadband splitter in the new wall socket housing. However, I've never seen it done.

Nope, they ran a brand new cable about a month ago all the way from the street into the side wall of my house cause my broadband was acting up but the new wall box still has the same two (TV & FM) sockets and there's a splitter sitting on the floor where the cable from the TV socket is split into TV and BB.

BostonB

Perhaps its because they are contractors. Get paid for extra work?

Solair

coylemj wrote: »

Nope, they ran a brand new cable about a month ago all the way from the street into the side wall of my house cause my broadband was acting up but the new wall box still has the same two (TV & FM) sockets and there's a splitter sitting on the floor where the cable from the TV socket is split into TV and BB.

Exactly - they should be able to house it inside the big wall box. It's ENORMOUS and mostly empty space inside.

coylemj

Solair wrote: »

Exactly - they should be able to house it inside the big wall box. It's ENORMOUS and mostly empty space inside.

Agreed but the wall box by design has only two output ports and it seems like they're sticking with one for FM so the other has to carry TV & BB meaning there has to be an external splitter.

What I find strange is that there isn't an option for customers who don't want to use FM so that the ports could then be used for separate TV and BB signals and do away with the splitter.

Solair

coylemj wrote: »

Agreed but the wall box by design has only two output ports and it seems like they're sticking with one for FM so the other has to carry TV & BB meaning there has to be an external splitter.

What I find strange is that there isn't an option for customers who don't want to use FM so that the ports could then be used for separate TV and BB signals and do away with the splitter.

There's just a pretty bog-standard cable splitter in the box btw... you can swap it out very easily.

that's what's inside those wall socket boxes:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/attachments/virgin-media/40390d1162586993-moving-ntl-modem-downstairs-advice-needed-dscf0426.jpg

coylemj

Don't understand that technology so wouldn't touch it. Anyway I'd have to put it all back together again any time I called out UPC so it probably wouldn't be worth the bother, the splitter is on the floor behind the telly with all the other cables and doesn't bother anyone.

who is this

BostonB wrote: »

Perhaps its because they are contractors. Get paid for extra work?

I imagine its just a "just in case" kind of thing. Problems between the STB/router and UPC can be difficult to pinpoint.

Replacing the box on the wall lowers the chances that it will be an issue. Even if they haven't changed much technology-wise, you never know what could have happened to it between the time it was installed and now.

BostonB

Do they not put a tested on each end and check the signal on the cable? Is there more to it than that?