New Build and Cat 6

Marcel76

I have recently purchased a new mid-terrace house which has Cat 6 runs to each room and one coax run in the sitting room.

I was originally informed by the selling agent that they would be set up for Virgin and Siro and earlier phases mentioned as such but on completion, I was told that they only had a contract with Virgin.

My house has no utility room so I expected to find the central location under the stairs for the cat 6 cable and the coax but found that all of the wires were brought to the external virgin box that has the piping ready for the street run of cable.

This has confused the hell out of me as I have never ever seen things done this way and makes no sense to me and I believe is of no use when trying to create a proper home network which I am frankly freaking out now as my work requires a proper home network and fast speeds so of course having runs of cat 6 was a selling point for me.

Has anyone else found this done in this way? or give me some insight as to why the hell they would have done it this way?

All the Virgin guides for builders/developers I have found have a coax cable run from inside the house and brought back to an external (FTTP Omni box) where the fiber cable comes in and the unit then gets power from the coax cable, this box only has connections for 4 points yet I have 5 rooms. So in the same guide, it shows the one coax going to a central hub where all other cables go to yet my cables all going outside. With all of this though, there is no mention of Cat 6 ethernet cables at all.

I had an IT company have a look for me and they too were perplexed and confirmed my thoughts, but the developer has fobbed me off and is refusing to remedy and move the cables with no explanation as to why it was done in such away. I have yet to get flooring installed with the aim of rectifying but with the developer refusing to fix I would need to foot the bill which is something I really am going to struggle now to do considering all the other expenses I have. Yet I need this done properly as I am to be working from home 90% of the month now.

I really don't want to be stuck only being able to use Virgin and would prefer the option of Siro which hasn't come to my part of the estate yet.

dam099

Sounds strange allright, especially if there is one missing, are you sure they go to the rooms or might they be going to another point to meet the rooms? (Sounds like probably not if the developer is refusing to explain).

Did the IT company use a tester and confirm the 4 do link back to specific rooms?

You could potentially use those ones if you put a POE powered switch in the external box (if there’s room for one). Get SIRO put in beside one of those points and feed internet from there to the POE switch and then to the other 3 good points

Marcel76

Unfortunately, we didn't test the cables as the It guy only popped out to have a look, I think he was just curious to see for himself as he'd never experienced the wires being run outside to the services box. Either way, there are no wires running centrally at all so the cat 6 cables branch off to the 5 rooms from that outside box.

I was looking at a POE switch as a solution but the box is pretty small and options for outside POE switches are really expensive other than one Chinese company that does one encased in a waterproof box, but I really wanted to do a proper setup and this less than ideal.

I have a legal point of contention with an over stairs Velux sky tunnel that wasn't installed even though was in the house specs, so after consulting with my solicitor about this issue I tried to bargain and offered to consider not getting the Skyport installed if my wiring could get sorted but the developer via the secretary came back and said no they wouldn't and the Skyport was never supposed to be installed in my type house and the specs were wrong, so currently leaving this between the legal eagles as it was part of the signed contract house specs.

One thing I'm trying to figure out is if I was to do correctly would it be worthwhile to do a run of pre-terminated fiber to the central location from the external box ready for Siro?, and run the Coax to this central point also instead of the sitting room? effectively set up for either?

ECO_Mental

That is mad weird alright and not correct!!....can you check with your neighbors as well, if he has done it to your house then he would have done it to the rest of them. If its a new build estate and some of the houses are unoccupied you can always rock up to one in the evening and open the external comms box and see. Then maybe you can all go to him and get it rectified.

To be honest though to rectify this will be a big job on his part as all the runs are in and wall slabbed up etc, might be able to bring the cables internally at least where the comms box is.

Secondly does it show anywhere on the drawings or spec where they should be run to

Marcel76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118889593#Comment_118889593

Ye, I checked next door and another one around the corner, and all are the same with all Cat 6 cables coming into the external service box. All the plans showed were where the data/phone points would be and nothing about the runs. I called the electrician and as I expected he said that he just followed what was being asked by the builder.

ECO_Mental

Without seeing your situation (can you take a picture for us) I think your best bet at this stage is just to get these cables internal to where the ATB is. Does the builder have the 25mm duct going from the ETU to the ATB.

Post up some pictures if you can

Marcel76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118893204#Comment_118893204

This is where the (ETU) is installed and the electrical consumer unit is on the inside on the left as you come in the door. There is no ATB installed inside and looks like the wires that run from inside arent in a duct.

ECO_Mental

That's not right and a F**k up...any electrician should know you don't pull the network cables outside...

I think you are going to have to play hard ball here and at least try and get the all cables inside the door and have a duct going from the external box to where the cables are inside.

I don't even know if you got FTTH how they would install the ONT as that needs to be mounted inside next to a plug (see my diagram above on how its supposed to be) Are those ethernet cables in duct going to the external box? I see they have foam around them.

Obviously you have trawled through the builders spec drawings etc, maybe if there is a show house you can see how they did it there and refer back to that as leverage. As it is, it would be difficult to get a proper solution

Switch Flex – Ubiquiti Store Europe

Marcel76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118906867#Comment_118906867

Ye, it's totally wrong. The only schematic I saw showed the points where the lights and sockets would be and I never checked in the show house at the time also was a slightly different house. Later on, realizing how the wires had been run after Id signed the contracts, etc I checked the boxes of two other houses and they too had the cat 6 brought outside. I couldn't see any duct but will have a proper look when I get to the house again. The developer has gone on the massive defensive and frankly is eating like someone who knows they messed up but rather than compromise and try and rectify he has armed all his legal weapons and legally I can't do anything about the wiring and they will not be fixing so I will need to solve it myself. My best bet I figure is to get the wires pulled back inside. I was thinking to attach a run of pre-terminated fiber inside also so can be joined in the ETU, then the pre-terminated cable is ready for the ONT inside? Or, could an external ONT be done so wI would just need one Cat 6 run and a power run? I was also thinking to put the network cabinet near the fuse board?