Getting Wifi/internet in a v thick walled house...with a twist

Pipe & Slippers · 10 Feb 2019 at 11:33

First venture into this subforum, and I hope someone can help

I recently moved to an old 3 storey townhouse and have virgin fibre to the lounge/sitting room at the front ground floor where the router and tv box are. The guy that used to live here had wired up internet co-axial (I thought co-axial cable was what was used to connect terrestrial tv to an aerial, but this is obviously different/higher grade stuff) to 4 other rooms. He had 3 routers attached and explained this was the only way he had found to get wifi throughout

So in my ignorance, I bought 2 other Hub 3s and wired them up, as he had done, after putting a splitter in and connecting up the previous owners cabling. This is the point I find that you are only supposed to have a single router attached, and is probably why the 2 I've purchased won't work. A bit of swapping around shows the 2 I have bought are functional, just not with another router attached. The guy actually worked for virgin so I assume he knew what he was doing, so whether he'd done some fancy jiggery-pokery I don't know

I've tried out some plug in jobs that I had lying around that use your electrical system, but my guess is that the electrics are pretty old because I can't get them to work, except in the room next door...not v useful!

Is it possible to mess about with the now 'spare' router settings and get them to function - I suspect not as after seraching the virgin forms it seems I'd need 3 separate subscriptions to run 3 routers

Assuming that's not possible, is it possible to attach the router downstairs to make the existing co-axial network 'live' - I'd assume I'd need some special adapter to go from the router to the co-ax? Do they even exist. I'd need something similar at the other network terminations to reverse the adapter

It just seems a complete shame to not be able to use the wired network

Any advice, before I do something stupid and buy more useless kit? :confused:

Thanks

Caged · 10 Feb 2019 at 11:50

You'd need to use MoCA adapters but the technology never really took off in this country because having entire houses wired for cable TV wasn't really ever done, and I'm not even sure if the standards were approved.

spoffle · 10 Feb 2019 at 11:54

You can only use the modem Virgin send you specifically. They don't allow others to connect to your line.

Pipe & Slippers · 10 Feb 2019 at 12:08

Thanks for the replies - MoCA adapters seem to be the way to go, but are relatively expensive...but will save rewiring

Cheers

Avalon · 10 Feb 2019 at 13:30

The Hub3’s you have are in effect stolen - they remain Virgin’s property, non will work long term as the customer will presumably stop paying for the service and the MAC will be blocked. He ran coax (it’s just RG6) to each floor, and likely had a box or possibly router on each floor (staff as part of internal testing got everything free and often ended up with all sorts of random hardware to test functionality).

Your options (as someone who lived in a similar property for a while) are as follows:

Run a cable to each floor externally, it’s a low mess and quite easy option if you have access to a suitable ladder and drill and a friend to help. Alternatively interior but you usually end up having to follow the CH pipework for ease.

Install a mesh system.

As you discovered powerline depends on sockets being on the same circuit for best results, usually that’s per floor in this case.

MoCA is raved about by some in the US, personally I have never used it, so my reaction is to go get a feel of cable to do it properly as i still remember the horror of BNC networking with terminators and T’s. Just make sure it’s isolated from VM’s network as they stipulate that you can’t connect anything to the VM network.

Out of the 3, mesh is likely the easiest/most expensive, MoCA is the great unknown and not cheap, while cable will take a bit more effort and work.

Pipe & Slippers · 10 Feb 2019 at 13:41

Not nice discovering I'm in receipt of stolen goods!!

Apart from that, thanks for the advice. I'll have a look at mesh systems

spoffle · 10 Feb 2019 at 13:51

Pipe & Slippers said:
Not nice discovering I'm in receipt of stolen goods!!

Apart from that, thanks for the advice. I'll have a look at mesh systems

They're not stolen. The other guy's being dramatic.

bcjames · 10 Feb 2019 at 13:54

Depending on how the coax is fitted, might it be possible to use it as a pull through to get cat5/6 in place?

azazl187 · 10 Feb 2019 at 14:11

bcjames said:
Depending on how the coax is fitted, might it be possible to use it as a pull through to get CAT5/6 in place?

This seems like the best idea to me. Use his cables to pull through some CAT5/6 cables and get yourself hardwired up. There are loads of tutorials on how to do this on utube.

Avalon · 10 Feb 2019 at 15:03

spoffle said:
They're not stolen. The other guy's being dramatic.

If by dramatic you mean I produced the report that lead to the enforcement of the policy by the company in question, then yea, that’s me

Basically you can’t legally buy a Virgin Media modem or box, if you do, the person selling it has no right to do so and in effect you are buying goods that don’t belong to them, Sky moved to the same system with Sky Q.

bremen1874 · 10 Feb 2019 at 15:58

If they care about what happens to their modems they should make sure they get them back instead of telling end users to dispose of them.

neil_g · 10 Feb 2019 at 17:18

Avalon said:
If by dramatic you mean I produced the report that lead to the enforcement of the policy by the company in question, then yea, that’s me

Basically you can’t legally buy a Virgin Media modem or box, if you do, the person selling it has no right to do so and in effect you are buying goods that don’t belong to them, Sky moved to the same system with Sky Q.

How does that work? I just gave notice on my vm and to quote the cancellations guy I don't have to return my 2ac and can "do what I like with it"

Caged · 10 Feb 2019 at 18:16

They only want version 3 Hubs returned, and some TV boxes.

neil_g · 10 Feb 2019 at 18:29

Cool, I'll lob it on ebay then. Must be some demand for the 2ac after the issues with the 3?

Avalon · 10 Feb 2019 at 18:46

neil_g said:
Cool, I'll lob it on ebay then. Must be some demand for the 2ac after the issues with the 3?

Unfortunately not - it’ll never work on the network without the MAC being allocated to an active account with a suitable subscription - VM won’t do that for you or anyone else who isn’t a tech, with a tech ID and enough about them to talk round why they need it doing manually. VM should have sent you a pre-paid return pack and taken it back for recycling.

Caged · 10 Feb 2019 at 19:06

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-equipment-recycling

The Hub 2 can be sold on eBay. It's no good to anybody, but it's not your responsibility to make sure people buying things have a use for them. For all you know they are buying it to take apart as a project.

neil_g · 10 Feb 2019 at 20:10

Avalon said:
VM should have sent you a pre-paid return pack and taken it back for recycling.

Nope. Said I don't need to return it.

Pipe & Slippers · 2 Mar 2019 at 16:59

Thought I'd reply back on what I decided to to

I had a good look at the existing cabling with a view to pulling some CAT5 or 6 through, but given the quite large distances and the fact that all the (bare) floorboards have been sealed up, I decided it was a bit much effort and likely to be a bit of a mess

What I settled on was a set of these https://www.overclockers.co.uk/tend...mesh-wifi-router-system-3-pack-nw-017-td.html

Just set them up today and the coverage and speed is more than adequate

From what I gather it's not true mesh wifi, but for anyone else in the same position as me, it's a very easy and not too expensive solution

Now the only problem is what to do with the 2 Hub 3s..seems a waste to dump them!

Thanks for you help