Whilst i'm here does the engineer need access to the main white box where the line enters the house?

Yes.

He will also possibly want to wall-mount the modem.

That was introduced with the early modems as they tended to overheat when horizontal on a surface, though mine didn't. You don't have to have it wall-mounted if you don't want that. (Edit - you can always wall-mount it yourself later if you wish. It's only two screws, and I believe there is a template in its box. Though unless you ask for the template it will disappear with the box back to his van).

The modem has to be close to the master socket. You can have that moved if that is an inconvenient place, (Edit 2 - or you can have the modem up to 30 metres away from the master socket), but you need to order the (free) Data Extension Kit/Home Wiring Solution when you order.

The router can be anything you like up to 100 metres of ethernet cable from the modem.

Note the two edits.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 02-May-13 21:21:46)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The router can be anything you like up to 100 metres of ethernet cable from the modem.

I got the impression from earlier discussions that the 100 metres is phone cabling and not ethernet cabling.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The router can be anything you like up to 100 metres of ethernet cable from the modem.

I got the impression from earlier discussions that the 100 metres is phone cabling and not ethernet cabling.

100 metres of phone cabling? Where on earth did that come from? The maximum length of the data extension cable that Openreach supply (to connect the modem to the master socket) is 30m. The maximum specified length for Ethernet cables is 100m. Two completely different things.

He's taling about the threshold of ethernet cable. I.E. you can't route over 100 metres without significant dropoff in performance unless you use a repeater.

Getting my 30s (data cabling option) and 100s (ethernet limits) mixed up.

Possibly partly because I didn't cover the option to have the modem up to 30m from the master socket. I've done a second edit to the post to add that for the OP.

So although you got mixed up, my post needed changing and wouldn't have been if you hadn't .

Master socket is 3 ft from pc
Ta all for the advice

15/5/13 is the install date......unless they change their mind

Update, they keep you informed well

The activation will complete by midnight on 16/05/2013.