CAT 5, Internet, Phone, Security

[jmellc]

Had a woman call this week, all confused & asking my opinion. She'd had Time Warner come out to install phone, cable & internet. They said she had a CAT 5 box in her garage but they couldn't use it, as it wasn't live. They ran their own cable. Security people then came out & said something similar & ran their own cables. I have no idea what anyone ran & the lady sort of talked in circles. Asked if I could come out & make sense of it. Told her data/com isn't my expertise, that I do bits & pieces of it. Told her it seemed to me that it didn't matter what the different co's ran, that she had her services. But she still wanted to know about the CAT 5 box. I said it was probably fed by a phone co. cable & that it could only be made live by calling the phone co. to energize it, but that would mean paying them for monthly service that she already has. She then asked why others could not use the CAT 5 box. I said they likely didn't want to go into someone else's enclosures.

I suggested she get a rep from Time Warner & the security co. to come out & explain just who was using what, to make it clearer for her. Also told her I doubted it was a true CAT 5 service, as the house was built in 80's & CAT 5 wasn't even a thought then. Only if installed the last few years would it be CAT 5 & from house to street may still not be.

Anyone else getting questions like this?

 

[Sierrasparky]

Had a woman call this week, all confused & asking my opinion. She'd had Time Warner come out to install phone, cable & internet. They said she had a CAT 5 box in her garage but they couldn't use it, as it wasn't live. They ran their own cable. Security people then came out & said something similar & ran their own cables. I have no idea what anyone ran & the lady sort of talked in circles. Asked if I could come out & make sense of it. Told her data/com isn't my expertise, that I do bits & pieces of it. Told her it seemed to me that it didn't matter what the different co's ran, that she had her services. But she still wanted to know about the CAT 5 box. I said it was probably fed by a phone co. cable & that it could only be made live by calling the phone co. to energize it, but that would mean paying them for monthly service that she already has. She then asked why others could not use the CAT 5 box. I said they likely didn't want to go into someone else's enclosures.

I suggested she get a rep from Time Warner & the security co. to come out & explain just who was using what, to make it clearer for her. Also told her I doubted it was a true CAT 5 service, as the house was built in 80's & CAT 5 wasn't even a thought then. Only if installed the last few years would it be CAT 5 & from house to street may still not be.

Anyone else getting questions like this?

Yes an no,, I always get wierd requests its part of the biz. I don't really know what you are looking for.

 

[Cow]

Anyone else getting questions like this?

Questions specifically about "Cat 5" boxes? No.

Asking for an electrician to come check something out the customer doesn't understand? All the time.

Typical everyday service call....

 

[jaylectricity]

So she's saying that the two companies had to run new lines from the telephone pole?

When you say cat-5 box, to me I would imagine there was cat-5 run to various locations in the house and all of them were brought back to a single box so you could network from there.

So I could see how the cable company and a security company would say they couldn't use those wires because that's not typically the type of wire they deal with. Cable uses coax and and security uses a number of different cables, but I would think cat-5 would be an overkill for them.

It would be like somebody wanting you to install a plug for their gas range and asking why you couldn't just run a wire from the existing 220V receptacle their old electric stove plugged into.

 

[MAK]

Well security has to have line seizure for alarm systems. That is likely why they ran another line. Usually the cable installer drops their box in the house and back feeds an existing phone jack to feed the rest of the lines. The alarm system has to be the first device in the loop otherwise you will get communication problems.

 

[jmellc]

My thought was that BellSouth owns the wiring to the CAT 5 box, & as I mentioned before, it may not even be CAT 5. I would think anyone could network to that box, but would have to disconnect any incoming line from Bell. Some companies may not want to do that, may have policy against going into someone else's box.

I could have gotten a service call out of it but I don't think I would have really provided any service, plus it is over a 30 mile drive to her house.

 

[Jhaney]

The phone company "bellsouth" owns the wire up to the side of the house "demarc" and time warner and the security company have access to any so called wire in the house once the owner gives them access. It sounds like someone has rewired the house with a network access point and individual home runs to the various rooms, which with either company kills thier signal, acts like a lot of bridgetap and adds tons of resistance (really not that much but too much for them). So I would guess that both companies ran their own lines instead of trying to figure out what someone else had done "upgrading" the house.

 

[MAK]

The phone company "bellsouth" owns the wire up to the side of the house "demarc" and time warner and the security company have access to any so called wire in the house once the owner gives them access. It sounds like someone has rewired the house with a network access point and individual home runs to the various rooms, which with either company kills thier signal, acts like a lot of bridgetap and adds tons of resistance (really not that much but too much for them). So I would guess that both companies ran their own lines instead of trying to figure out what someone else had done "upgrading" the house.

How can home runs to the same location add too much resistance?:?