Have Coax'd/Cat5e'd my home - can I switch to TelstraClear?

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Deonorth

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Wannabe Geek

#37456 13-Jul-2009 20:00

Hi all,

Have recently renovated, and self installed Cat5e and Coax around the house with a central data cupboard - used the advice of a few on here to set it up.

Cupboard houses
- SkyTV
- 5 way Coax splitter
- ADSL modem (Dynalink)
- Wifi (G) Router (Linksys)
- Switch (Linksys)
- 24 way patch panel.

Wifi and Cat5e work fine, speed etc no issues. Unfortunately the Coax is average, and I suspect I need a signal booster but don't know where to go (DSE=Rip Off, JayCar is similar).

I'm thinking about moving to TelstraCelar from Telecom - they promise faster speeds for internet which is good, and no chance of rain fade on TV. Can I do this with my existing set up, or will I have wasted my time with the Coax? Or do you need more info to answer my question?

cheers heaps!

zocster

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#234888 13-Jul-2009 20:06

very nice work, depending on where you are of course, Chch or Wellington only .. for cable.

Andy Ghozali Geekzone Member	E: andy@ghozali.ru M: +64 21 395 458 A: Andy's Business Services, 231 High St, Christchurch 8011, NZ
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pacificsurfer51

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#234926 13-Jul-2009 21:17

Our house has 2 single telstraclear line cables double split into 4 rooms. Bedroom has telstra modem with router which feeds lan to 4 way wall switch to 4 rooms. Telstraclear digital in lounge. Have had 2 STB plus cable broadband connected without much problem. I gather by wanting telstrclear cable broadband and tv it would be worth a try at least.

Spyware

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#234942 13-Jul-2009 21:51

Deonorth: Hi all,

Unfortunately the Coax is average, and I suspect I need a signal booster but don't know where to go (DSE=Rip Off, JayCar is similar).

cheers heaps!

Please explain the above statement as I'm not sure what you mean. If you are distributing analog UHF out from a sky decoder around your house then you can't really expect very much. Sky decoders need to be connected to TV via component leads at least to produce even tolerable quality images, if not using mySkyHDi and HDMI leads.

Spark Max Fibre using Mikrotik CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+, CRS125-24G-1S, Unifi UAP, U6-Pro, UAP-AC-M-Pro, Apple TV 4K (2022), Apple TV 4K (2017), iPad Air 1st gen, iPad Air 4th gen, iPhone 13, SkyNZ3151 (the white box). If it doesn't move then it's data cabled.

sbiddle

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#234996 14-Jul-2009 03:37

It depends what you're wanting to use the coax for. Coax is essentially obsolete except for distributing a satellite or UHF aerial signal around the house for STB's.

First off TCL will not hook TV or a cable modem anything to a structured cabling system unless it uses quad shielded RG6. having said that it makes no difference for you since the cable modem would be installed next to to the switch anyway so new RG6 would be run to that for the install. You can then connect the modem to your router/switch.

For TV TCL will run their own RG6 feeds to each STB since your cable would not be suitable.

cyril7

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#235017 14-Jul-2009 09:00

Hi, steve, TCL use trishield not quad (unless something changed in the last few months that I did not notice).

Pete TCL will not use any duobond cables (which I assume you ran for Sky and UHF distribution) except for the RF output from a STB to another TV. They are paranoid about ingress of signals into the HFC network, a GSM phone transmitting near a cable can blot out an entire spectrum portion of a node. Of course if you use Trishield (or Quad) they may be happy to use it.

You cannot use any domestic amplifiers for any of the runs from the TCL demarc to any TCL DVB-C box or DOCSIS modem as you need to use ones that support the return channel.

In your situation TCL run their own trishield runs from the demarc to each of their STB/modems and ensure there is adequate level from the line tap on the street to meet each STB/modems requirements.

If you want to use an amp to overcome cabling losses on the RF distribution around your home then for most distribution requirements the Kingray SA162F is ideal and specifically designed for this application. It has two outputs with both loaded will provide 16dB gain at 700MHz to each port. which is enough to overcome typical splitter and cable loss and a few more dB in hand. If you have trouble sourcing one PM me.

As for putting the Sky box in the cupboard and distributing to all TVs via RF, this is not advised, you should put the box with the main TV, use component video to view it their and take the RF feed back to the splitter to other TVs, or get a Sky box for each TV. Analog video RF is the lowest quality picture, might look not too bad on a 26" CRT, but on any digital display will look rubbish. The same will apply to TCL.

I am intrigued by you reqsons for going with TCL, firstly RainFade, since Optus D1 has been put in service (with a 3-4dB increase in power) Rain Fade on 65cm domestic dishs has all but been elimintated, yes it can still happen but maybe once or twice a year and only 1-2mins at most. Infact last records I saw the rainfade from Sky was predominantly caused on the uplink in Auckland which will effect TCL as well.

Several freinds I know have TCL and used to have Sky, they report much higher outage (poll fade) and other unexplained events than they ever had with Sky even in the B1 days.

As for promised speed, have you checked the price of TCLs 25Mb/s plan, and its only available in ChCh, so aside from that you only have 10Mb/s plans, albeit with higher upstream ability, but unless you are running servers from home of little use. Assuming you are in Wellington or ChCh city somewhere you are very likely to have as fast ADSL2+ service. Only real advantage of TCL HFC broadband I can think of is latency, but unless your gaming its not of any real value.

Cheers

Cyril