Re: NTL Broadband queries

[allan.smith@xxxxxxx]

I think there is some difference depending on which NTL region you
live in as to what they do.
I live in Leics. which is an old Diamond franchise.
The Set top box option is only for users who use the 64Kbs connectin
AFAIK and the box contains an inbuilt Cable modem. If you are taking
the 512Kbs service (which was the only option I had) then you have a
seperate Cable modem wall point and cable modem unit.
NTL will install one brown box on the outside of the house. From this
they will run a pair of cables (1 large, 1 small) which feeds the
digital TV and the telephone point (These can be in seperate
locations). They then install a second cable
which will feed to the cable modem point (In my case I got everything
put in the office which is my node 0)
The cable modem I have is made by Terayon. This has both USB and RJ45
connectors and you can use either (power cycle the modem inbetween) I
had a lot of problems with USB dropping on my home machine but OK on
the works laptop. I put an Ethernet card in my home machine and
haven't looked back.
The Set top box I was supplied with was a Pace box. The first one had
an RF IN/OUT port and supplied the Analog TV channels, in additon to
the digitial RF channel (There are also 2 scart sockets). In a recent
lightning storm the smart card
seemed to have got zapped and NTL did a standard box swap. The new
box is the same, but the engineer told me that as a money saving
excercise the new boxes only have an RF out for the digital channel.
Ie no Analogs. As I
have no aerial on the house (new) this meas I now have no teletext,
and you can't watch BBC1/2/ITV etc on other sets on the house at the
same time as watching a digital channel elsewhere. I will have to get
an aerial installed which is a bummer. The one plus point is
that the STB doesn't use IRDA so when I get my Pronto I will be able
to control it.
I have extended the cable for the STB myself using the Wickes cheapy
CT100 cable (aluminium sheilding - roughly 20 metres) with screw on F
connectors and have
no problems with it. I haven't extended the cable modem, but as
mentioned before they asked me how long a cable I wanted as they made
it up on the spot so I got one made which would reach anywhere around
the office.
Final comment has to be the customer service... once it is installed
you don't want to go there.... 30 Mins minimum wait on the phone, but
having said that they came and changed the STB the same day on a
Saturday afternoon. Hands free phone helps so you can leave it
telling you the 'agent is busy' message
Hope this helps...
Allan




--- In ukha_d@y..., john.benfield@u... wrote:
> >I was confused there, - as from what I can gether, I will be
getting a
> >SINGLE STB, - the box contains both the cable TV and the cable
modem, -
> >there is an RJ45 connector on the back of the box to connect to an
> ethernet
> >interface in the PC...
>
> That different. I've an STB downstairs and a separate modem
upstairs. Both
> cables then run to the loft where there is a T junction box. A
single cable
> then runs down the outside to the larger external box. This
external box
> also has the telephone cable running off to the old BT junction box.