Junction box for phone/cable from pole?

[TxAgs]

Hey guys,

We have embarked an a big renovation on our house and I am finally able to get into the walls to run coax, phone and Cat5 to all the usual suspects.

During the project, we have removed all external cabling on the outside of the house and there is only a temp coax cable running from the cable box (mounted on power pole) to our cable modem inside.

My big question is - What is the best method for having a terminal for either phone line or coax where it enters the house? There were about 4 different entries before we started the project. I really only want a weatherproof plate with a phone jack and a coax terminal.

Thoughts? Photos? I want to be ready for any supplier of high speed internet, which usually comes in DSL/cable around here.

Thanks for the advice!

Jason

 

[CNGsaves]

Looks like you're in TX so options likely AT&T U-Verse (ie IP based everything) or cable company. Either company owns the lines all the way up to house so hopefully you didn't remove relevant equipment if you decide to go with AT&T.

Shop for comparative quotes as likely cableCo will have fastest internet as I found out that AT&T U-Verse internet for my neighborhood would only pull 768 Kbps (ouch!! - - AT&T refused to install DSL which is well within distance but they're phasing it out) whereas COX will take as much money as I want to give them for cable speed up to 30 Mbps (settled with 3 Mbps for negotiated rate).

Older house I bought recently has same problem with spagetti of coax that cableCo hacked up all around the brick outer structure. I'm taking down ceiling tiles in basement to completely rewire the house with homeruns to rooms that I might want cable/phone/internet. These will all end up in basement unfinished area where I'll have splitter, etc. Last year re-wired BIL's house like above and got COX cable to run new coax run from pole to house. Pullled 3 wires to most locations including CAT 5e, RG6 coax and another CAT 5e where only necessary wires used for telephone.

That's what I recommend for you is "equipment area/room" area somewhere like in basement or closet where all those homeruns come together to splitter, distribution panel, etc. Pull both coax and CAT 5e or CAT 6 to all those potential rooms needing service. Convince the cableCo to install a new run from pole all the way to your distribution location in basement/closet.

I'll NEVER let a cableCo hack installer with 18" drill bit wander around outside of house again to hillbilly install runs!!

 

[Stuart in MN]

You want a demarcation box, or network interface device. They are typically provided by the telephone company or cable company, but that may depend on where you are located. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demarcation_point

 

[TxAgs]

Thanks!

Yup, I've got a nice Leveton structured wiring box in our closet now. Just trying to come up with a solution so the cable and phone companies have a clean tie in and they don't undo all of our hard work.

 

[kmk7110]

Just run 2 dedicated cat5 lines and 2 coax lines to the outside of the home and coil them up and out of the way to get ready for a new demarc from the cable and phone co unless you already have a demarc. new construction does this all the time with only one of each line but depending on service provided by uverse or others you may need a secondary line to feed into the panel. I see many of the levitron boxes some done well other are a pain. label everything for each room. biggest thing if your drywalling everything up/ dont want extra holes drilled outside run 2 coax 2cat5e lines to the levitron panel. If you have any more questions just ask and ill be happy to answer them.

 

[TxAgs]

Thanks again. I have spot where I can run some pigtails to. Unfortunately, these are close to the power coming in as well. I always try to keep the data and power as far apart as possible.

 

[Coolerman]

When we built our home I designed everything to run underground from the basement (where the network, phone, and satellite video distribution panels are) to my garage. In the garage is a junction box with a conduit that goes through the outside wall. I ran the phone, satellite, and network into that junction box and mounted plugs on the lid for garage use, then ran the cables outside. The phone, satellite TV, and satellite internet installers mounted their demark boxes on the garage wall and connected to the cables I had already ran. The two dish antennas are mounted behind the garage out of sight. The Direct TV satellite installer was most appreciative of the easy install! I had already wired the entire house for satellite. All he had to do was install the dish antenna, DVR boxes, connect to the existing cables, and configure it! Same with the satellite internet. Mount the boxes and connect the cables.

I have NO cables visible anywhere on the outside of the home. People always ask, "Man, don't you have internet or phone?"

 

[theoldwizard1]

My son was were you were at a couple of years ago !

He had 2 phone wires (?) and 2 different cable wires going to his house. Inside we ripped everything out (good idea) and he had nothing for a couple of years. Now that things are going back together, he had one of his buddies who works for the cable company pull new coax while the basement walls are open. All lines are "home run" to the utility room which is where the cable will come in.

Around here all cable companies use a plastic box on the outside for a junction box.


Personally, I think CAT5e or CAT6 are dieing for home wiring. 802.11n and 802.11ac make wiring in your house kind of a waste.

 

[madosta]

I ran smurf tube out to a plastic spa box and pull whatever the provider needs.

Personally, I think CAT5e or CAT6 are dieing for home wiring. 802.11n and 802.11ac make wiring in your house kind of a waste.

Gigabit fiber to my house! Wireless cannot carry the bandwidth, so I would disagree. Wired is awesome, secure, faster, less susceptible to interference, etc. etc.

 

[CNGsaves]

Another idea . . . if there are rooms that can't be reached using the "under" basement method, then go after those from the "top" or attic. For those install a conduit between the unfinished termination room up through the wall to the attic that wires could be pulled down easily to distribution room.

If you possibly want Dish TV on roof (or OTA antenna), then run conduit from attic down to distribution room (inside a wall) so those cables can be easily run from attic down to distribution room.

Also if you have one main "computer" room / office, then you might also consider an end-to-end conduit all the way to distribution room. This would really future-proof the cabling as later you could use the Cat 5e/6 as pull-wire to pull through fiber someday!!

 

[mike_81]

i installed this when we finished our basement.

it routes speaker wiring to the 5.1 system in the basement, cat5e throughout the house, and catv throughout the house.

getting a pull string in was easy. take a cheap roll of string, tie a piece of kleenex to it and loosely stuff it in one end of the conduit. hook the shop vac up to the other end and letter rip! worked quickly, tested up to 35' of pipe!