[TelstraClear] What does a TBox connect to?

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DonGould

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#72697 1-Dec-2010 11:23

Currently on hold 0508 888800,1-->tech support...

Does anyone know how a Tbox works?

My last digital decoder was connected directly to the hfc and a modem via ethernet.

Are TBox's connected to hfc as well or are they connected to modem then ethernet?

ie

hfc --> modem -UTP-> tbox

or

hfc --> tbox

I need to know because I want to put a tbox 100m away from the hfc network and telstra want $30/m to run the difference between 70m and 100m = $900 which I'm not inclined to pay.

I have the option to put a modem within their 70m limit and just run my own cat5 at 22cents a meter plus obvious beer[1] money.

D

[1] as I don't drink much beer it's more likely to be a hair raising flight in his microlite :)

sbiddle

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#411568 1-Dec-2010 12:00

It uses the exact same setup as an existing STB.

Coax in to both the STB and modem.

DonGould

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#411588 1-Dec-2010 12:31

Thanks Steve, and crap... that doesn't help my case... errr.... actually I'm not quite sure... guess we won't be recommending tbox as we're not putting $900 in to cable 30m of hfc... especially has the client hardly uses it... might look at a AppleTV box with iTunes movies.

ps - great ata config web site btw, I'm about to use that this afternoon on 2101's that I got per your recommendations.

BarTender

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#411655 1-Dec-2010 16:12

DonGould: I need to know because I want to put a tbox 100m away from the hfc network and telstra want $30/m to run the difference between 70m and 100m = $900 which I'm not inclined to pay.

They must be putting in some better quality low-loss cable I suspect, since $30 a meter for Quad Shielded cable seems quite excessive to me.

Otherwise you could always put in a 30 meter HDMI cable ;)

Or just get Sky, since the offering is still better IMHO.

DonGould

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#411657 1-Dec-2010 16:30

BarTender: They must be putting in some better quality low-loss cable I suspect, since $30 a meter for Quad Shielded cable seems quite excessive to me.

Otherwise you could always put in a 30 meter HDMI cable ;)

Or just get Sky, since the offering is still better IMHO.

Client already has sky. The issue is T.nz's customer care, hence we're looking at moving him to a different provider.

30m HDMI cable seems like a good idea though I don't think he can change channel with that, so we might need to get him a really long stick. By the time I spoke to the 5th or 6th person on the phone this morning my humour for people who didn't know what DOSIC is had just about run out.... when they started to talk about HDMI cables I was past 'idiot mode' :) feel a bit sorry for the last guy who really did get an ear full from me, but he did sort out the issues after I less than politely explained I wasn't emailing a telephone company that didn't have staff that new what fibre was in their email call center (another long story).

I did find out that the issue with the 30 m is they want to put the cable under the concrete drive way. $30/m for boring isn't to bad, but a cat5 flex down the back fence makes more sense.

I was hoping that TBox might be layer 2 ethernet now, like what they're going to use on the .au nbn project. Then I could just put the cable modem in the front house that he also owns and just run our own private network to his location.... but sadly that's not going to be an option.

Never mind... I'll probably just run a bb service into his other house, run cat5 and then show him AppleTV. :)

D

sbiddle

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#411711 1-Dec-2010 19:18

DonGould:I was hoping that TBox might be layer 2 ethernet now, like what they're going to use on the .au nbn project. Then I could just put the cable modem in the front house that he also owns and just run our own private network to his location.... but sadly that's not going to be an option.

Never mind... I'll probably just run a bb service into his other house, run cat5 and then show him AppleTV. :)

D

It is an ethernet device and TCL could easily offer IPTV services over it if they wanted.

IPTV makes no sence however because RF based delivery is so much more logical. Even over fibre deployments the future is RF over fibre (RFoG) because it's a far more logical use of fibre rather than wasting IP bandwidth for IPTV services that are far less efficient.

DonGould

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#411724 1-Dec-2010 19:41

sbiddle: It is an ethernet device and TCL could easily offer IPTV services over it if they wanted.

IPTV makes no sence however because RF based delivery is so much more logical. Even over fibre deployments the future is RF over fibre (RFoG) because it's a far more logical use of fibre rather than wasting IP bandwidth for IPTV services that are far less efficient.

Not going to argue rf v's ip. Been following the NBN.au debate and read bits of the technical spec and just scratching my head.

I figured that given that tbox originated in .au, it might be using l2 here, but clearly I was wrong. Don't really care how they do it... I"m doing a favour for a guy who likes to play with helicopters :)

He was sipping tea and looking over his telecom.nz account and pondering the size of his bill... I choked when I saw it. My current plan is 'save him $15,000 over 3 years' and I might get another ride in his nice helicopter.

The exercise has got quite complex though, cause it turns out that it's taking him hours to reconcile his bill each month as well. So now I'm figuring how we set up 2talk accounts so that he gets simple bills for his home, his work and his wifes work. I was planing on getting a bb account and digital tv, but that's clearly not going to happen.

The fact that telecom.nz have billed him for 8 years for a line that's not being used bothers me a bit.

I looked at my 2talk account this afternoon and was a bit pissed that it took me over an hour to their hd to get the answer you guys supplied in 5 mins. I feel a bit stupid!

D