coaxial cable

[nvening]

I am having alto of problems with arial signals around my house, even though the main socket is fine (the tv attatched displays no "fuzz" or anything).

The picture in other rooms gets better if i nudge the wire in the socket a bit, and i dont mean insert it fully and firmly i just mean move it a bit to the eg right.

I have also had the wires and sockets break and fall apart.

To me all this coaxial wiring seemed very old and out of date (the tec not my personal wire) so i had myself a little google.

It seems that coxial was invented in 1920! and has been used for TV since 1940!

With all our andvances in tv quality and now especially with HDTV does it still do the job?

It reminds me of BTs netwrok of old rusty telephone lines which limit my broadband connection. (are we not getting a new fibre optic network soon?)

So, my question is this: Is there and alternative or will there be?

Also, i was watching the gadget show and it said you can recieve freeview channels via a sattelight dish and 2meg broadband (and i guess faster its just becuase thats the only speed bt will give in most areas right?) Does this mean that we should all have satelight dishes not those bloody radio mast things we have?

This brings me to my last point, what does sky use to connect from the dish to the sky box, just the coaxial cable that is already there, actually, is the tv signal taken from the arial to the socket via coaxial cable or is some other cable used?

thanks, im off to google land to see whats happening to my fibre optic network now, i want fast broadband.

EDIT: Will this get me fast broadband: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_21CN
if not, what bdoes it mean? EDIT: From what i have now read it seems that all the old copper wiring we have will stay the same (with new housing estates getting firbre optical networks) but the equiptment in the exchanges will change so that broad band is how everything is connected to everything else, and so we will get tv via broadband (if we want) and so mabe that is the future and the answer to my original question?

[Flibb]

If you are getting signal problems it is advisable to replace the cable with a new one that has good screening. To avoid problems the cable should be a single continious length with no joins, or kinks. If you still get ptoblems an aerial wit ha mast head amplifier is advisable.

Heres a link to a faq http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page8.htm#threadedf
Coax has plenty of bandwith left

[nvening]

So do we measure all data carrying cable in terms of bandwidth? If so, what is the bandwidth of coax? Also, what is the bandwidth of of copper wire as if i can only get 1meg broadband at home now and bt wants tv and everything to be transfered using broadband then i will run out of bandwidth before i can do anything, or am i missing the point here?

EDIT: I forgot to mention on the point of me needing new cable thay a few years ago (i was not there at the time) we had some cowboy arial men (recomended by a good local electronics shop!) try to fix our already messed up arial system, we recentally had a good arial company come round to see what they could do for us and (as well and fixing they system as best they could) told us that all or cable was slotlen stuff and so that is mabe the problem.

Also, what about the satelight idea? Anyone got any linkage on the subject? If it does what it says (and i do need arial re wiring) they it may be best untill bt get off tier backsides.

[5lab]

there is no given bandwidth for most forms of transport - as technology progresses so does the amount of data - phone lines are a perfect example - first 9k modems, then 14k, 28k, 56k, 512k adsl - now 2meg and upwards.. the coax that ntl pushed into my flat carries something like 500 channels of tv and 2 megs of broadband without breaking sweat - its got a lot of life left if you use quality cable (your ariel lead needs not apply)

[nvening]

But it cant carry an infinate ammount or dat can it? Mabe i need to read up on the buissness cause this is a subject which i feel i should know about, especially if we get the arial all rewired in my house. Can someone supply some linkage as i have do idea what to search for.

[Flibb]

best bet is to search RG6, as its the proper name for modern coax. No it cant carry an infinite amount of data, but the next stage on from it is fibreoptic. RG6 can also carry more data than RJ45, so installing good quality RG6 now will be a god investment.

[nvening]

Are there different types of RG6 or is it all the same, you say i should get double insulated, is all RG6 that?

Also, can i run networking cables through with the RG6 as that is something that it would be good to have done.

[nvening]

Right,

I have done some reading and it seems that the coax i should have must be semi-airspaced dielectric, copper tape and copper braid.

So what is "double insulated"? Everywhere i see it says that this should be used out side but inside it is not necesary. Are there specific barands i should be looking for or what.

What exactly is RG6, is it a type of coax or what?

And, can i run cat5 cables (for networking) with the coaxial or will it cause problems?

With regard to the satellight question it seems if i want to do it (it seems like a good idea right?) i have two choices, get this from sky for £150 or get my own equiptment and get it installed. What will be cheaper and do i only get the freeview channels with my own eqipment or do i get all the channels that i would get from sky.

Finally, sky does not list E4 and More4 on thier website, does that mean that they are not included or do you think they have just not updated thier website because it was only lanched onto freeview recentally?

Thanks

EDIT: It seems freesat dows not do e4 or more4 cause of a contract, so satellite is not the way to go for me now (unless it is just the freeview channels you recieve with your own eqipment?). So, if in the future satellite is the best choice is it the simple cause of replacing the mast on my house with a dish and pluggin in the coaxial wire, or do i need new wire or a downlead?

[herulach]

You canget e4 and more 4 on sky yes.

As for the cable, it depends what kind of signal youre carrying, for cable/sky you need stuff rated to at least ft100, for tv most 75 ohm coax will do. Sounds like poorly crimped plugs to me, doing that is a black art, well, not really, but there is a distinct knack to it.

Running cat5 next to good coax should be no problem whatsoever.

And as far as the getting your own equipment goes, it depends if you buy it from a shop or from your mate down the pub what channels youll get

[nvening]

I think the stuff i need is Raydex CT100, but i guess that is not double screened?

Also, wtf is RG6, whats so different about it.

EDIT: I am also refurbishing a house and i will be speaking the the electrition (he will be doing all of the wiring) tonight. Ill make sure he is goign to use good cable but we were also talking about networking, for the cost of the cable and sockets it would be a good idea to run cat5(e?) wire with there coaxial to wherever there is a socket for the coaxial right?

Also both coaxial and cat5 need to be wired in the same way right? Like a spider going from the switch for networking and what for the tv wiring? Does that have its own switch type thing as well?

[herulach]

I think the stuff i need is Raydex CT100, but i guess that is not double screened?

Also, wtf is RG6, whats so different about it.

EDIT: I am also refurbishing a house and i will be speaking the the electrition (he will be doing all of the wiring) tonight. Ill make sure he is goign to use good cable but we were also talking about networking, for the cost of the cable and sockets it would be a good idea to run cat5(e?) wire with there coaxial to wherever there is a socket for the coaxial right?

Also both coaxial and cat5 need to be wired in the same way right? Like a spider going from the switch for networking and what for the tv wiring? Does that have its own switch type thing as well?

ct100 and ft100 are interchangeable, i just got into the habit of calling it that cause i used to work at maplins.

as far as i know, rg6 is quad shielded, compared to ft100s double shield, but you shouldnt notice a difference unless over very runs, it ownt hurt anything though.

As for how to wire it best, that really depends, if youre running a tv signal from an aerial, a good quality distribution amp in your loft where the main aerial is. If its for sky/cable, id question why you need to distribute it like that, as youll need a box in each room (unless you take the output from the box, to a multiway amp, and send that round the house, but that will mean everyone is on the same channel).

[Rave]

In my flat I have an aerial socket in one corner of the sitting room under my computer table. Into it is plugged a two way splitter- one goes via a cheapo flylead into my DVB TV tuner card, the other goes via a longish run of cable to my VCR, which in turn feeds it to my digibox. From the outlet of the digibox, it goes through the wall to the bedroom, where my landlord had previously had his telly; I couldn't be bothered pulling the cable off the wall so I just extended it with two more flyleads to the new digibox in the bedroom.

The computer and both digiboxes get perfect reception. The analogue reception is also fine on anything other than channel 5. So, in my experience, signal transmission through coax is pretty robust. TBH, if you're getting a poor signal, you either have poor aerial reception to begin with or one or more dodgy conectors. It's pretty easy to replace the plugs on coax leads (and the female once do get damaged easily), so perhaps you should change a few to see if that solves your problem.

[nvening]

Well basically, when the wiring was originally done it was done wrongly, in a loop instead of like a spider, so we tryed to get it fixed but we were recomended some cowboys so that didnt help really (well it did a bit) but now we have a load of stolen cable everywhere and a poor reception in out living room where we want to watch tv!

If i did get all the cabeling replaced, would that mean they would have to rip outwalls or what? Also, can the telephone network go with it as well cause half the sockets in my house are un usable too!

Basically all the wiring (apart from the electrics) does not seem to work properly! (i have a £100 year old house, which i have lived in for 11 years, and the telephone was not rewired when we moved in (the electrics were) and im not really sure what happened to the arial wiring, i think it was just done incorrectly)

EDIT: Ok, i have been fidiling about and i think i have found the culprit, some white cable attatching my tv, freeview etc, that has fixed the pc in the living room. It seems that whatever they guys did the other month did actually work because that was definatelly not the cause before.

That seesm to have settled that but this thread has taught me alot of stuff which helps me with the refurbishment of my the other house. One question still remains though, half the sockets for my phone do not work properly, they have been there for a long time. Any idea what may be wrong, bearing in mind that i know most of them seem to work fine, and i would like to get a phone socket in my study so i could have an electrition round to fix it without it being pointless.

[nvening]

Does ariel wiring have the equvelent of a switch for networking?

Because basically i am having a house refurbished at the moment and i want to have networkign cables put in with the tv ariel cables, but i will need to put the switch somewhere right?

Does cox run like a spider or is it paralell?

Well from what little information i have gleamed off the web it would seem that TV cabling uses the "serial" layout?

[herulach]

Spider like. You need a distribution amplifier. Similar kind of idea to a switch.

[nvening]

Spider like. You need a distribution amplifier. Similar kind of idea to a switch.

would seem that site was wrong lol

So would that distribution amplifier be placed where the fuse box? And that would be a good place to put switch too?

So for a the netwrok part all i would need (apart from all the cabeling) is a switch like this one: http://netgear.co.uk/pdfs/gs608.pdf and a normal router (the router does not have enough ports to use by itself, unless you get 8 post routers?) which plugs into the switch and acts as a modem/firewall/wifi ? Is that the way to do it?

Oh and do i want cat 5e or 6 cable?

Im not doign this myself but i want to have it done right!

Thanks