New Development Royal Canal Park D15

Chumpski wrote: »

Firstly, thanks for the info. I actually have more questions now but I’m typing on my phone right now so I’ll wait till tomorrow to make them coherent.

For now though... Would it be possible to run a cable to facilitate an EV charger from the front door to the utility room along the same path as those cablewatch cables? Probably impossible I know but just checking if there is a way before the electrician mounts cables through walls next week for us.

I previously spoke to an electrician about the ideal set up for a heron style house, he indicated he would install a mini fuse board just after the meter and take the power from there to avoid the need to run a power cable back to the house. Now I never got this done, so I wonder how feasible it would have been, but it sounds better than running cables.

Gumbo wrote: »

Where is your fuse board?
Have you a floor plan?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VDQ680l7KlMCUtZ3OPv243LeB8Nj4wlz/view?usp=sharing

The meter is in the porch right by the front door but the fuse board is in the utility room.

OK, so an update around FTTH and unfortunately it's not good news.

I had the OpenEir technicians over today and they would have been able to run the fibre into the distribution box outside the door, but from there, there is no duct going into the house, just the standard phone line. That line does not go through a duct, instead it is embedded in insulation and fixed to the wall/studs. No way to pull fibre through that.
So they offered to run the fibre line outside the wall and drill into the living room and pull the fibre through that. This is the line they suggested:

I declined this, as it would look messy and drilling through the outside wall would negatively affect the insulation as well. So, just have to call Eir again and get back on a VDSL contract.

Does anyone have any idea about how to get the fibre installed without being a visible mess? Or run a duct from here to the inside of the house:

bdub wrote: »

OK, so an update around FTTH and unfortunately it's not good news.

....
I declined this, as it would look messy and drilling through the outside wall would negatively affect the insulation as well. So, just have to call Eir again and get back on a VDSL contract.

Does anyone have any idea about how to get the fibre installed without being a visible mess?

Sorry to hear about this. A friend installed Siro at his house and it was tricky to decide on a way to install. Once it's installed all is good. I would not worry about the hole affecting the insulation, it's a tiny hole and I think you can put some caulk on it to stop any draft.

I have an idea about the installation. What if they drill a hole into the side window frame by the door, terminate the fibre in the hallway close to the empty faceplate that will have a CAT5 cable that goes into the Utility room. Install the modem there, terminate that cable and plug it in the modem and use a switch in the utility room.

andreionut wrote: »

Sorry to hear about this. A friend installed Siro at his house and it was tricky to decide on a way to install. Once it's installed all is good. I would not worry about the hole affecting the insulation, it's a tiny hole and I think you can put some caulk on it to stop any draft.

I have an idea about the installation. What if they drill a hole into the side window frame by the door, terminate the fibre in the hallway close to the empty faceplate that will have a CAT5 cable that goes into the Utility room. Install the modem there, terminate that cable and plug it in the modem and use a switch in the utility room.

Because we have timber frame houses we need to be conscious of membrane. We've less tolerance for moisture than a traditional house. I've seen a neighbors with silicone seals around wires coming into the house. I'd be keeping an eye of this. I've also been thinking about your idea and I wonder if it wouldn't be better to bring the cable through the wooden frame into the hall. It would seem a neater job all together.

bdub wrote: »

The problem for me is mostly that I don't want a cable coming out of the white boxes outside the door.

I'm currently thinking of opening the inside wall in the living room to get access to the cablebox and run a duct. This would be the same way the current phone line comes into the house. Should have been done when the house was build, but hindsight is 20/20. The only downside really is cost, but currently seems to be the only "invisible" option.

I'm also thinking about that, minus the opening up the wall bit. I've contacted an electrical to call out to see what my options might be.

I've started a thread here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058128866 asking about just putting in my own optic cable and fuk this ducting bull****.

Btw: That cable from the NTU to the ONT is limited to 1 meter.

notes:
https://www.openeir.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/NGA-IPM-V17_0-Unmarked-30042020.pdf

https://fibrerollout.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Ducting-Guidelines.pdf

https://fibrerollout.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/FTTH-Day-of-Installation.pdf

https://www.openeir.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/NGA-Technical-Handbook-V21.0-010717.pdf

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057871133&page=452

Will do.

It's hard to know what the right choice is but I suspect that going through the back of the utility box into the sitting room and switching around the ethernet panel will work out the cleanest if I can get it done especially as there is already a break in the membrane.

bdub wrote: »

I think it will be tough without direct access through the wall in the living room. Behind the white box, there is a moisture barrier and also multiple studs in the walls through which a duct/fibre would have to go through.

So I think a hole in the drywall in the living room would be ideal to access the back of the box in which the duct from the street arrives. From the hole in the wall you could either run the fibre cable (or a duct) into the wall in the hallway or alternatively into the living room. If I do the latter, I'll move the ethernet socket from the hallway to the living room too, that's easy, as it's just from one side of the wall. And from there use the existing cable in the wall to the utility room where my network stuff is.

Could you keep us updated once you got some advice from the electrician?

I'm currently booked with Vodafone for installing FTTH, but from reading doesn't seem that straight forward. Would KN engineers do this type of work? Or this custom setup would have to be ready ahead of time and done by an electrician?

By the way, does anyone know if the fiber cable plugs directly onto the modem/router or will there be an "exchange box" from fiber to copper?

cwdix wrote: »

I'm currently booked with Vodafone for installing FTTH, but from reading doesn't seem that straight forward. Would KN engineers do this type of work? Or this custom setup would have to be ready ahead of time and done by an electrician?

By the way, does anyone know if the fiber cable plugs directly onto the modem/router or will there be an "exchange box" from fiber to copper?

The KN engineers would do basic install works, like drilling a hole etc., but they wouldn't do any more complex stuff, like opening the drywall to get internal access and running the cable inside the wall.



The fibre runs from the street through the External Termination Unit (ETU, the white box outside our doors). From there to a Network Termination Unit (NTU). The NTU is a small box that will be installed at the point where the fibre strand leaves the wall or wherever it egresses into the house. Neither the ETU nor the NTU need power. The NTU then connects to the Optical Network Terminal (ONT) via fibre cable. The ONT is another small box that "translates" the optical signal into an electrical one. The ONT needs power! Eir says the fibre cable between the NTU and ONT can have a max length of 1m, but I'm not 100% if that is an actual technical limitation or just bc Eir doesn't provide a cable >1m. From the ONT there is a normal ethernet cable (cat5e or better if you want GB speeds) to your router.



Diagram:

Thanks Manion, bdub for the detailed info.
Could be a stupid suggestion, but instead of trying to route the fiber cable to the inside of the house, why not pull a power cable (assume 12V) and have the ONT on the outdoor white boxes? Then there's a ethernet cable directly to the utility room. One issue could be humidity, which could be mitigated with a waterproof outdoor box (https://www.screwfix.ie/p/ip54-weatherproof-outdoor-box-kit/455hh). Unless the ONT box generates too much heat.

After KN engineer Installation:

He drilled a hole out into the utility box and ran the cable from the street, up into the ETU, through the wall and into the back of the NTU. The ONT (from vodafone) is a little changed and looks to be a proper router.







I did ask about going through the doorframe and he said it is strictly forbidden. I was worried about drilling a hole through the wall and out but in the end I think it at least looks very good. No exposed cables.

My next step will be the rewire the RJ11 phone port in the hall to a RJ45 port and reuse the Cat5e cable to bring the internet back to the utility room for distribution throughout the house. I'll post some photos of that as well.

Picture from the utility pox towards the house


This is where you can see the membrane mentioned previously. The darker mesh is very light steal. I'm not super happy with the finish in the utility box as he seems to have made it very handy on himself with a very large hole in the box. This issue would be mice gaining access. I'll need to do some fixing it.

Finished tidying up the:

<Vodafone Wifi Router>


<Fiber NTU and ONT>


<utility room>



<What I did>
Step 1: I pulled out the phone box in the hall. You'll notice there is actually 3 cables here, all cat5e (the e is important). One wire runs back into the alarm panel which is basically for telephone alarm systems.

I separated the cables and I fitted a new RJ45 Face plate with two ports onto either cable. Bit fiddly but grand.



Step 2: In the utility room I dismantled the VDSL telephone box, and fitted a new RJ45 Faceplate on it. I then ran a cable from that ethernet socket into a switch I already had on the wall for supplying Ethernet to each room.






And for what you all are really waiting for, the speed test. I've consistently found that I get around 860Mbps to 910Mbps. It's important to note that when my home network is under test, it appears to max out at about the 920Mbps. As such I think this is probably fair enough. The real test will be sustained traffic from multiple sources in the house.

@bdub I think you where 100% correct to tell the engineer to get on his bike. The more I think about it, bringing the cable into the sitting room just generates massive unnecessary work.

Thanks @Manion. Looks pretty neat! I will suggest the same when I get the engineer visit.

Manion wrote: »

... I now effectively have a Modem Router (ONT) to a Router to a switch to another router in my office. I also really really dislike that the grey router is a remotely managed router and that vodafone staff can gain access at any time and see traffic on my internal network. I had a technical issue once and it freaked me out when they started asking about machines I've connected for work.

That’s interesting, thanks for letting us know. I normally switch the ISPs router to a modem mode and use my own router. That grey box is useless form me then.
Is there any reason you don’t move it in the utility room?
You need to be mindful now of the devices and cables you use to be at least 1Gb. Some routers have a 100Mbps WAN/internet port, but you can just use them as a switch.

Manion wrote: »

...Though I am contemplating simply removing it and going direct from the ONT to the the switch. I'll have to think about how to setup subnets. ...

If the ONT gives you a private IP that should work. You can use the existing router as a switch and possibly a WiFi extender or Access Point by mainly disabling DHCP. I can't vouch for how well it works but if you setup both routers with the same network (name, channel, password) your devices should just connect to the closest. You might have problems while you move devices from one place to another but a simple disable/enable wifi should connect to the closest.